Research

Scope and Content Note

The litigation support files consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes, audit reports and related records concerning the class action litigation involving residents of the former Willowbrook State School on Staten Island, New York. The records document the litigation over conditions at the facility, the agency response to the litigation and its aftermath, oversight between 1975 and 1993 of agency actions affecting class members by a court-appointed Office of Special Master and Professional Advisory Board, and post-1993 monitoring by the agency of class members after their transfers to other facilities or community-based residences. Many of the records, especially those from the period when litigation was taking place, appear to have been collected from multiple sources within the agency (Commissioner's Office, Counsel's Office, etc.) in an attempt to create a central set of Willowbrook-related files.

The earliest identified records date from the early 1960s and show agency awareness of overcrowding and conditions at Willowbrook a decade before the class action litigation commenced. Other records include extensive documentation of the agency's involvement in the litigation of the early 1970s leading to the Consent Decree of 1975, including correspondence with outside counsel (a New York City law firm) representing the agency in the Willowbrook litigation. For the ensuing years, records document the agency's relationship with the court-appointed Office of Special Master and Professional Advisory Board in addressing issues, especially placement, affecting class members and verification of compliance with court-ordered requirements.