INSTITUTIONALIZED PERSONS

CIVIL RIGHTS OF INSTITUTIONALIZED PERSONS ACT (CRIPA)

Authorizes the Attorney General to investigate conditions of confinement at state and local government institutions such as publicly operated nursing homes, institutions for people with psychiatric or developmental disabilities, prisons, jails, pretrial detention centers and juvenile correctional facilities. Allows the Attorney General to uncover and correct widespread deficiencies that seriously jeopardize the health and safety of residents of institutions; it does not authorize the investigation of isolated incidents. The Attorney General may initiate civil law suits where there is reasonable cause to believe that:

• conditions are “egregious or flagrant”
• they are subjecting residents to “grievous harm,” and
• they are part of a “pattern or practice” of resistance to residents’ full enjoyment of constitutional or federal rights.