It was proposed to the state Legislature in 1836 by Dorothea Dix, a pioneering reformer in the treatment of mental illness, and accepted its first patient in 1861.
[3] The same law that authorized the creation of the state school allowed the superintendent to forcibly sterilize the "inmates".
William Partlow, as both the proponent of the law and the founding superintendent, used that power to sterilize every inmate upon their release from the state school.
Partlow continued to try to pass legislation through 1945, when the tide was turning against eugenics due to its association with Nazi Germany.
[6] Huge budget cuts and overcrowding at state hospitals led to Wyatt v. Stickney, which was filed in October 1970.
They included Ricky Wyatt, a 15 year old "juvenile delinquent" who had been placed there by the courts without a mental health diagnosis.
At the time, Alabama was ranked last in the country for state funding for people with mental illness or developmental disabilities.
Jack Drake, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, has discussed the conditions at Partlow:"I remember one of the things I did before the hearing was to review the accidental deaths of people who died at Partlow for a two-year-period and the extreme examples were residents who would get up in the middle of the night—go to one ward, maybe leave the door open and go into another ward, get into an unlocked medicine cabinet and eat the contents of 40 bottles and die.
"[10] Mr. Drake investigated a gruesome incident in which a boy with developmental disabilities had a garden hose inserted in his rectum, filling it with water and rupturing his spleen and killing him.
Known as the "Wyatt Standards", they are founded on four criteria for evaluation of care: The case of Wyatt v. Stickney came to a conclusion after 33 years, through the tenure of nine Alabama governors and fourteen state mental health commissioners, the longest mental health case in national history.
The case was finally dismissed on December 5, 2003, with the finding by Judge Myron H. Thompson that Alabama was in compliance with the agreement.
[11] Wyatt v. Stickney resulted in increased awareness of the horrific conditions at Partlow State School and other developmental centers were built in the 1970s to reduce overcrowding.
Wyatt also resulted in the first state funding for community services, such as group homes for people with disabilities in Alabama.
Ellen Gillespie, the executive director of ADAP said: "In the one remaining institution, the W. D. Partlow Developmental Center in Tuscaloosa, costs have soared beyond a tolerable level.
Partlow has repeatedly failed to meet basic health and safety standards monitored by external funding agencies.
It is not too late for individuals to have good lives with meaningful work, privacy, friends, and involvement with their communities and churches.There are no shortcuts.