Woodbridge Developmental Center

The Christie administration would have to stop relocating people with developmental disabilities who now live in state institutions and suspend transfers of others from out-of-state facilities back to New Jersey until their safety and well-being are evaluated, under a bill that passed the state Assembly Monday. The state Assembly has approved a bil... l aimed at halting the movement of developmental disabled residents from state developmental centers until the state Department of Human Services conducts an investigation into the deaths of two former developmental center residents who were moved into group homes. Their anonymity in life and the lack of information to emerge after their deaths highlight the vulnerability of the hundreds of people with disabilities who have no family members to look after them and live as wards of the state. A bill approved Thursday by the Assembly Committee on Human Services would place a moratorium on transferring residents until there is an investigation into the deaths of two former residents of the Totowa facility who were moved to a group home. After two people died after being moved from a state-run disability center, advocates for the disabled say that closing the disability centers could result in more deaths. The result is something less than ideal when the real-life equation does not contain numbers and statistics, but vulnerable human beings Two men with severe mental and physical disabilities died from choking on food months after they were transferred from the North Jersey Developmental Center in Totowa to privately run homes as part of a massive restructuring of care for the disabled. Printed on Easter Sunday: SCRIPTURE STATES that the meek shall inherit the Earth. For some families in North Jersey, the meek are not so lucky. With the state-run residential centers for the disabled slated to close in northern New Jersey, hundreds of families are searching for new homes for their loved ones. Frances and Thomas Kauffman cant understand why there seems to be a rush to ...Read More