Alabama's last state-run residential centers for the disabled, closes

MONTGOMERY, Al.

W.D. Partlow Developmental Center in Tuscaloosa

The last resident left the W.D. Partlow Developmental Center in Tuscaloosa on Wednesday, closing the facility for good, the Alabama Department of Mental Health announced.

Plans to close the facility, which housed had been in operation since 1923 and housed about 150 people, were announced in March. The state has been moving mentally disabled people out of institutions and into community-based centers like group homes for several years, as have other states around the country. Partlow was the last of Alabama's state-run residential centers for the disabled.

The department originally hoped to have the closure completed by September, but that was delayed first to the end of November -- when about 36 people still lived there -- and then again. One resident's family went to court to keep the center open, but a judge dismissed the lawsuit.

Partlow employees protested the closure, as did some officials in Tuscaloosa who said it could overburden local health services. But advocates for the disabled cheered the move.

"This is a great day for people with intellectual disabilities because it makes the statement loud and clear that we are people with ability and we want to be integrated into society rather than segregated into an institution," Jeff Ridgeway, president of People First of Alabama, said in a statement.