Projects :: California Memorial Project

News Alert - August 26, 2002

The California Memorial Project
LAST HIST. ACT. DATE: 08/26/2002:
Enrolled. To Governor at 4 p.m.

SB 1448 (Chesbro, Arcata) Is ON Governors Desk!

PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 21, 2002 - PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 19, 2002

S.B. 1448 is on the Governors Desk and he has until Sept 30, in which to sign it.

Write letters to the him and ask friends and other supporters to write also!

The Honorable Gray Davis
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax (916) 445-4633

Support: S.B. 1448!

The intent of S.B. 1448 is to support persons with disabilities in their efforts to restore dignity to persons whose remains are buried in gravesites on state institution and developmental center lands, and other places, through conducting inventories, developing restoration plans for gravesites and cemeteries, and creating protocols for the future internment of patients.

THE FACTS:

At Napa State Institution, approximately 4,368 people were buried from 1876-1923. At Sonoma Developmental Center, there are 1,418 people buried in an unmarked field. At Stockton Developmental Center there are 2,284 cremated remains of people who died at Modesto State Institution and Stockton Developmental Center. They are buried in two mass plots, one containing 982 people's remains and one containing 1,302 people's remains at Park View Cemetery in Manteca. These are only some of the statistics.

This legislation emerged from a Hearing held by the Senate Select Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities on November 19, 2001 at NAPA State Hospital and after a year of organizing, research and education people by people with developmental and mental disabilities.

THE GOALS:

1. To restore the cemeteries at state institutions and developmental centers and other places where patients of these institutions have been interred;
2. To record the stories of patients from inside state institutions and developmental centers;
3. To document and memorialize the ex-patient/consumer/survivor movement.

THE VALUES:

People with developmental and mental disabilities share a common history at institutions; similar issues; principles; and beliefs. This is an opportunity to reclaim our history at institutions and to work together.

People who have lived or are living in state institutions will have a critical role in guiding this project through their participation and with their voices and experiences.

By giving respect to people with developmental and mental disabilities who have died, we are honoring all of us. Through this Project we are valuing all people with developmental and mental disabilities. We are challenging a system of discrimination that we faced and still face and want to make the wrongs right.

Examining and exposing the way people were/are treated in life and death in institutions will help insure mistreatment does not happen again.

It is time to honor the experiences of those who have lived, died, or who are living and may die in institutions today. This Project has been inspired by their experiences and works to give back the basic values of life.

Realizing the experiences of people who lived and died or who currently live and may die in institutions could be our experience if we had lived then, if circumstances were different, or if circumstances change.

This Project is a collaboration of The California Network of Mental Health Clients, Capitol People First, and the Peer and Self-Advocacy Units of PAI, Inc.

For more information you can contact The California Network of Mental Health Clients at 1-800-626-7447 www.cnmhc.com, cnmhc@msn.com or Karen at wildspirit@spiritsearch.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION - THE BILL ITSELF:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/sen/sb_14011450/sb_1448_bill_20020821_enrolled.html