BILL ANALYSIS
ACR 123
Page 1
Date of Hearing: March 25, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON RULES
Nancy Skinner, Chair
ACR 123 (Chesbro) - As Amended: March 18, 2010
SUBJECT : California Memorial Project Remembrance Day.
SUMMARY : Proclaims the third Monday of each September as
California Memorial Project Remembrance Day. Specifically, this
resolution makes the following legislative findings:
1)Since 1852 when the first California state institution opened,
the state has provided services to persons with disabilities
in state institutions, including state hospitals and
developmental centers; and from the mid-1880s to the 1960s,
more than 45,000 individuals passed away while residents of a
state institution, and information about these patients is
incomplete.
2)For the most part, the remains of the individuals who died at
state institutions were placed in unmarked or numbered graves
in mass sites, where numbered markers long ago disappeared and
many records identifying where bodies were buried have been
misplaced or destroyed.
3)SB 1448 (Chapter 440 of the Statutes of 2002) and SB 258
(Chapter 391 of the Statutes of 2006), authored by Senator
Wesley Chesbro, established the partnership between the
California Memorial Project and the state to identify the
location of gravesites at existing state institutions,
identify the names of the patients whose remains were donated
for medical research and the entity to which the remains were
donated, work with the State Department of Mental Health and
other state agencies to research the records of deaths and
burials at cemeteries located on state institution grounds,
and develop a plan for the restoration of cemeteries and
gravesites of institutionalized persons.
4)Beginning in 2003 the California Memorial Project has held a
Remembrance Day to remember and honor individuals who lived
and died in state institutions on the third Monday of each
September, the anniversary of the signing of the legislation
that established the California Memorial Project partnership
with the state.
ACR 123
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FISCAL EFFECT : None.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Disability Rights California
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Anna McCabe / RLS. / (916) 319-2800