Willowbrook & Disability Rights

1972. Geraldo Rivera's original report into conditions at the Willowbrook State School. This Peabody Award winning expose gripped the nation's attention and helped lead to the closure of "warehouses for the mentally disabled". Human beings living in their own filth, abuse including physical abuse, and conditions many thought didn't exist in America...the doctor had warned it was bad, it was horrible.

Senator Robert Kennedy had visited the facility in 1965, described conditions, and offered a series of recommendations for improving the situation. Social workers and parents of residents had demonstrated before, local newspapers had run stories, and at least one other reporter had tried to gain access inside. Geraldo Rivera's national expose helped galvanize political attention and helped lead to closure not only of this facility, but others nation-wide.

A class action lawsuit was filed against the state of New York by the parents of 5,000 residents in 1972, 'New York ARC v Rockefeller'.

In 1975 a consent judement was passed compelling New York to improve community placement for the now-designated 'Willowbrook class'.

In 1980 a federal law was passed, 'Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980'.

The last children left the facility in 1987, and some of the grounds are today part of the College of Staten Island.

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1982. Geraldo Rivera is introduced on 20/20 ABC news by Hugh Downs, for a follow-up report to his original expose 'Willowbrook: The Last Great disgrace'. We see clips of the original report and learn what has happened since the national fervor of its release. Some improvements have been made.

Shortly into the clip Geraldo talks to and introduces Bernard Carabello, a former resident of the Willowbrook State School. Suffering from cerebral palsy, Bernard was misdiagnosed at the age of 3 and committed to the institution for 18 years.

This segment continues with Geraldo and Bernard again visiting the Willowbrook State School, a day earlier than expected. They discover new beds being hurriedly shipped in before the cameras arrived and other attempts to mask realities.

Later Geraldo visits the Bronx Developmental Center, and speaks to a parent who lost her child at the supposedly modern facility. While cleaner and smaller than the big old institutions of 10 years ago, is it really better?

Throughout this clip we hear from directors of these institutions, parents, and doctors related to the care. The Willowbrook State School was closed in 1987.

Geraldo Rivera's original expose is here:
https://youtu.be/5F7CrMAwCw4

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In 1978 Geraldo Rivera takes up the fight for One To One charity, an organization dedicated to improving conditions for the developmentally disabled. The boxing match was not long after a major concert held for the same purpose.

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2005. This segment begins with images still as graphic today as they were 25 years ago.

"It's important because we don't want history to repeat itself."

We hear from Bernard Carabello, who suffers from cerebral palsy but was misdiagnosed and spent time at the Willowbrook State School as a child. The segment continues on to discuss Hepatitus research which went on at the institute for the intellectually disabled, Willowbrook State School.

Geraldo Rivera's original Willowbrook expose was released in 1972.

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