Illinois: Williams Consent Decree (2011)

“On September 29, 2010, the State of Illinois entered into a Consent Decree, settling the Williams v Quinn class action lawsuit, first filed in 2005…Though the State denied liability and any violation of [ADA] related federal laws, the Parties to the suit were always fundamentally in agreement that, when clinically appropriate, consistent with the parameters now set forth in the Williams Consent Decree, all persons with Serious Mental Illness currently residing in Institutes of Mental Disease (IMD) in Illinois have the right to choose to live in community-based settings, and that the State has an obligation to expand the current community-based service system to support the needs of those individuals…In the Implementation Plan… the State proposes not only to expand the current system of care, but to create a number of recovery-oriented system enhancements in both services and housing, designed to assure that each person choosing to move from an IMD has the best opportunity for a successful transition to community living.”