A U.S. Department of Justice investigation concludes the Constitutional rights of intellectually disabled residents at a state-run facility in southwest Iowa were likely violated when they were used in human experiments.
The report also concluded residents were subjected to physical harm due to a lack of adequate health care.
In a written statement issued late Tuesday, an assistant U.S. Attorney General said residents at the Glenwood Resource Center were treated like “human guinea pigs” and subjected to “bizarre and deviant” sex experiments. The Justice Department report also suggests top agency officials were “deliberately indifferent” to the physical care of residents as well as the inappropriate use of physical restraints.
Governor Kim Reynolds has already fired the center’s superintendent and dismissed the head of the state agency that oversees the facility. Reynolds, in a written statement, used the word “unacceptable” to describe the conditions outlined in this new report and Reynolds said she’s committed to addressing “whatever challenges remain at the facility.” Reynolds said current Department of Human Services director Kelly Garcia, who started work in November of last year, has already made changes at Glenwood.
The Department of Justice has provided state officials with its list of changes that should be made at the facility