The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an editorial entitled, Still Not Enough that wisely concludes that Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s actions have been inadequate, in response to assault, neglect, and patient deaths at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex:
The demotion of John Chianelli, the man in charge of Milwaukee County’s Mental Health Complex, doesn’t solve the credibility problem at the facility.
Chianelli should have been fired – along with anyone else associated with the lax supervision of Omowale Atkins, a patient with a history of violence who allegedly attacked patients and staff alike. A psychiatrist involved with a series of patient controversies was suspended without pay Thursday.
Chianelli will become deputy director of the Disabilities Services Division; he had been paid about $118,000 a year to head the county’s Behavioral Health Division, which oversees the complex. Chianelli was in charge when Atkins committed most of his alleged crimes.
Firing Chianelli would have sent a clear message that the ineptitude so well-documented in the recent articles by Journal Sentinel reporters Meg Kissinger and Steve Schultze will not be tolerated….
County Executive Scott Walker’s first responsibility is to ensure that patients are protected and properly cared for. Anyone who allowed patients to be remain in unsafe conditions should be terminated….
But what’s needed even more is new management and a top-to-bottom shakeup that includes firing anyone found culpable of putting patients at risk. Walker and the board need to right these wrongs – now.
Indeed.
Imagine being a patient at the Disabilities Services Division, and realizing that Walker thinks you deserve better than a failed leader like Chianelli. People treat their animals better than some patients – neglected, starved, abused – were treated at the Mental Health Division under Chianelli’s leadership.
Keeping Chianelli – who allowed his professional license to lapse — on the payroll is wrong, as he deserves dismissal, and his retention sends the wrong message to others.
And yet, there is a cold political value to keeping him employed at public expense. Chianelli may reward those politicians who retain him by remaining silent about their own knowledge of his misdeeds, and their own acquiescence in the actions and inactions that have led to suffering and bad policy.
This issue will only go away when those responsible have been disciplined or removed entirely, and those who come after assure more humane treatment.
I’ve posted about Chianelli’s policy, and the tragedy that is conduct at the MHC, before. See, A Milwaukee County Bureaucrat’s Immoral Utilitarianism, Update: A Milwaukee County Bureaucrat’s Immoral Utilitarianism, Update 2, Update 3, Update 4, Update 5, Update 6, Update 7, Update 8, Update 9, Update 10, Update 11, Update 12, Update 13, Update 14, Update 15, Update 16, Update 17, Update 18, and Update 19.