Should We Treat Seniors & Disabled as Criminals?

Tell Gov. Schwarzenegger to Cancel the $5 Million Purchase of Hi-Tech Cameras for Supposed IHSS Fraud
Governor Schwarzenegger wants to effectively eliminate the budget for In-home Supportive Services, yet he's fine with spending $5 million on military-style cameras to cut down on supposed fraud in the IHSS program that may not even exist.

The Schwarzenegger administration recently made plans to purchase upwards of $5 million in hi-tech devices to photograph and fingerprint the 465,000 seniors and disabled citizens served by the IHSS program. But the legislature never approved the photographing of IHSS recipients, and Schwarzenegger's office has not presented evidence of the supposedly rampant fraud in the IHSS system that these devices are meant to curtail.

The Schwarzenegger administration claims that these will save money in the long run by cutting down on fraud, but as a recent Sacramento Bee editorial pointed out, the administration hasn't proved the existence of such fraud; and these devices would be ineffective in cutting down on the scattered instances of fraud that may exist.

"Before the state commits to buying this expensive equipment and building yet another expensive police bureaucracy that treats all IHSS recipients and their caregivers as potential criminals, it needs to perform a far more thorough assessment of the potential for fraud within IHSS and the best way to address it ... Although the administration needs to look out for taxpayers, it shouldn't waste money on anti-fraud efforts that make little sense." - Sacramento Bee, editorial (3/20)

The planned purchase of these devices comes at a time when the governor is threatening to cut funding for 87% of the 465,000 elderly and disabled citizens who depend on IHSS services for basic lifeline services.
Take action: Email Governor Schwarzenegger to cancel the planned purchase of these devices!

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well, this is timely because we just got back from spending the day in Oakland at a governmental office spending over one hundred dollars getting Linda and Mikee fingerprinted so they can continue to be my attendants! And they gave us a new Kafka big brother rule book outlining what is and isn't covered in insane detail. Basically crips are now prisoners in their homes. The attendants can only take their clients to the doctor's [but not wait with them!], but not to shopping, social events, vacation, etc. if the crip goes into the hospital, he can not have his attendant help him. Oh, this is interesting... An attendant can't help the female client with tampons, only with napkins, even if the client uses tampons!

In Freedom,
Frank Moore