Three employees at the private De Fang House of Correction received prison sentences ranging from seven to nearly nine years after being found guilty of contributing to the death of an autistic man surnamed Lee (李) in July 2021.
De Fang in Miaoli County’s Zaociao Township (造橋) is a mental institution operated by a private foundation offering live-in residency for long-term care and skill training for adult patients older than 18 who have mental and physical disabilities, in collaboration with the Miaoli County Social Welfare Department.
The suspects were convicted of “illegally confining the victim, causing death.”
Photo: Taipei Times
Lee had severe autism, and had difficulty speaking and expressing his emotions, De Fang records showed.
An investigation found that De Fang’s head of residency care Lin Yu-chen (林祐丞) and administrative assistant Lai Kuan-heng (賴冠亨), having failed to calm Lee down, started to use more force, including slapping and punching him.
The pair later restrained Lee with plastic straps and ropes and confined him in a room due to his highly agitated state, saying it was to stop Lee hurting himself and others.
Lee loosened the ropes and escaped the room, whereupon the pair punished him by slapping him on the legs and buttocks with tools, resulting in bruising, the court said.
The pair tied Lee up again, despite his putting up resistance and screaming. He was later found dead, with the coroner’s report indicating that he died due to heat exhaustion and rhabdomyolysis, a breaking down of skeletal muscle tissues, the court said.
Lin received a prison sentence of eight years and 10 months, while Lai received seven years and 10 months. A female nurse surnamed Chou (周) was handed a jail term of seven years and two months, as the judges said she watched the incident and the restraining, but failed to intervene. The court found that she would have known Lee was in danger.
Lee’s mother said she had to work and could not look after her son, so she paid for full-time care at De Fang starting in April 2013.
One month after the incident, local government and health authorities shut down the institute and fined it NT$300,000 for failing a follow-up inspection.
De Fang had its operating permit suspended. The private foundation applied to restart operations, but the request was denied.
The Parents’ Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability issued a statement saying that the Miaoli County Government and health authorities were responsible for the death due to negligence and their failure to conduct regular inspections, and that they had permitted unsuitable operators to run De Fang and other mental institutions for many years.
Association secretary-general Lin Hui-fang (林惠芳) said that De Fang had received low marks in past inspections, but was still allowed to operate.
“It is due to market demand. The government has for too long failed to address the needs of families looking after people with mental and physical disabilities, and politicians have also failed to provide programs for these underprivileged sectors of society,” Lin said. “There are well-run institutes that have certified professionals, but they cost a lot of money and they are full up. You cannot get in, the waiting list is more than 100 people, which is at least five or 10 years.”
“Most of these institutes lack trained professionals, so as at De Fang you have one employee looking after more than 10 patients. Also different mental and physical disabilities have their specific needs,” Lin said. “They all have problems hiring qualified and trained staff, due to the long hours, low pay, labor-intensive duties and unsanitary conditions, while getting no respect from society for the tough work they are doing, and having to deal with problematic patients and unfair complaints from their parents.”
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