Justice Dept. to investigate CVTC

By Cynthia Pegram

Published: September 5, 2008

The U.S. Department of Justice has notified the Central Virginia Training Center that the facility will be investigated for possible violations of residents’ civil rights.

Denise Micheletti, CVTC director, said Thursday that she was contacted more than a week ago about the investigation, but a date has not yet been set for an on-site visit.

Department of Justice investigations are not routine, but are triggered by an incident or allegation.

The federal office is charged with investigating state facilities to determine if there exists a “pattern or practice of violations of residents’ federal rights.” The authority comes under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act.

The state was notified through an Aug. 21 letter to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, according to a copy of the letter released by the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services.

Meghan McGuire, spokesperson for the Richmond-based department said that the state office would fully cooperate with the investigation.

CVTC, located in Madison Heights, has about 470 residents and is the largest of the state’s five residential programs for people with intellectual disabilities. About 1,400 people work at the 24-hour facility.

The Department of Justice letter signed by Grace Chung Becker, acting U.S. assistant attorney general, said in conducting the investigation, “we are obligated to determine whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution or laws of the United States in the conditions at CVTC.”

The letter said the department would focus on three areas — protection of residents from harm, habilitation and treatment programming.

No information was released about what triggered the investigation.

“That’s all we know,” said Micheletti, who has been in contact with the Virginia Attorney General’s Office — which represents CVTC in legal matters — as well as the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services.

The Becker letter said that if no violations are found, “we will notify you that we are closing the investigation.

“If, on the other hand, we conclude there are such violations, we will provide detailed, written findings and identify the minimum measures we believe are necessary to remedy them.”

Micheletti said that she was surprised by the investigation because CVTC staff has worked hard to improve services.

“We’ve made a lot of headway,” she said, citing the addition of a neurology clinic on site, adding a specialist in wound care, a drop in the number of serious events involving residents, decreased use of restrictions and increased leadership development for the staff.

When Department of Justice investigators begin their work, she said, they take in a lot of information, “they don’t take a just a one-shot picture — they ask for information ahead of time, trends, statistics, and come for about a week.”

Micheletti is concerned about the investigation but is also pleased with CVTC’s progress in developing best practices and then going beyond them, Micheletti said.

“This is a large facility. It is a human business. In a human business, on any given day, something can happen.”

To Micheletti’s knowledge, CVTC has never been investigated by the Department of Justice, although she said Northern Virginia Training Center (Fairfax) did come under scrutiny several years ago.

CVTC has run afoul of Medicaid, which is a primary funding source, and the Virginia Office of Protection and Advocacy, an independent agency, has battled with CVTC.

VOPA filed suit in December 2007 against the training center to gain access to information about the death of a resident and injuries to another. In May 2007, Medicaid put the training center on notice that unless changes were made that it would lose Medicaid certification and therefore lose that reimbursement. In both cases, the problems had a successful resolution.