Welcome to Connecticut Legal Rights Project

Monday - Friday from 10:00AM - 12:00PM or 1:00PM - 3:00 PM

June 7, 2021- Do you want to use your paralegal skills to protect the legal rights of some of Connecticut's most marginalized residents? Do you want to fight discrimination in housing, education, and employment opportunities for people with mental health conditions? If so, we hope you will consider joining our team at Connecticut Legal Rights Project... [ more ]

March 29, 2021- Predictably, it's already been suggested that the recent mass shooting in Colorado was more an issue of mental health than anything else.... Kathy Flaherty of the Connecticut Legal Rights Project says that kind of thinking tends to be both a mistake and harmful to people with psychiatric disabilities. She spoke about this on Connecticut Public Radio's All Things Considered. [ more ]

The case of Wilkes v. Lamont was filed in response to COVID-19 deaths and unsafe conditions in two of Connecticut's state psychiatric hospitals, Connecticut Valley Hospital and Whiting Forensic Hospital. In the spring COVID-19 surge, five patients died and scores of patients and staff were infected... [ more ]

If this legislative agenda looks familiar, that's because it is. This represents CLRP's legislative agenda for 2020 – a session that was cut short by COVID-19... [ more ]

Thanks to a partnership grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the State of Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) and CLRP presented a webinar on Zoom on June 30, 2020. This is a recording of the webinar... [ more ]

The Psychiatric Security Review Board was established during the 1980's, after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, with the purpose of "protect[ing] the safety of Connecticut citizens by ordering treatment, confinement or conditional release of persons acquitted of a crime by reason of mental disease or defect." Unfortunately... [ more ]

June 10, 2020 – The Connecticut Legal Rights Project, Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and Center for Public Representation this week filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in a class action case challenging Connecticut's failure to take adequate steps to protect residents of two state psychiatric hospitals from contracting and dying from COVID-19. Both hospitals, Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVH) and Whiting Forensic Hospital (WFH), have had outbreaks of the virus. Five patients at CVH have died from COVID-19. At CVH and WFH, Defendants have confirmed 73 cases of COVID-19 among patients and 64 cases among staff, since testing began... [ more ]

June 8, 2020- The Connecticut Legal Rights Project condemns the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police officers, and the killings of Breonna Taylor and David McAtee by Louisville police. It is not enough... [ more ]

CLRP has filed an amended complaint in the federal court case addressing the spread of Covid-19 in Connecticut Valley Hospital and Whiting... [ more ]

April 30, 2020- Middletown, CT- "Business as usual" is not what the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services should be doing right now if they want to do more to save the lives of the people in their care. This pandemic has required all of us to re-examine our processes and the way we do our work. We have done that at Connecticut Legal Rights Project. It is time for DMHAS to do the same, even if it takes an order from a federal court to make that happen. This week marked the first COVID-19 related death of someone in a state-operated inpatient psychiatric facility. We need more than the Department's "thoughts and prayers."... [ more ]

April 18, 2020- Middletown, CT - In light of the significant danger imposed by COVID-19 on on patients at inpatient psychiatric units at state operated psychiatric facilities, Connecticut Legal Rights Project sent a letter to Governor Ned Lamont and Attorney General William Tong to request the Governor issue an Executive Order that would immediately immediately stop all new admissions to all state-operated psychiatric facilities, require that every facility review the present mental status of each patient, require that each facility make every effort to discharge every patient who does not absolutely need inpatient hospital level of care, and require that each facility make every effort to discharge every patient for whom the risks of inpatient psychiatric care in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic outweigh the benefits of that level of care when such discharge does not pose an unreasonable risk to the public. [ more ]

March 16, 2020- Important Message re: Covid-19 from CLRP Executive Director, Kathy Flaherty, Esq.- CLRP's top priority during this public health emergency is the protection of the health and safety of our staff, and the clients we serve. We are still working to protect our clients' legal rights, but we have, by necessity, changed the way we are doing it... [ more ]

January 28, 2020 - by Erica Drzewiecki, Newington Town Crier -NEWINGTON- Health care and education are important to residents, legislators gathered from a recent meeting.

State Reps. Gary Turco, Kerry Wood and Rick Lopes heard about these and other issues pressing people during a Pre-Session Forum at the Lucy Robbins Welles Library. Close to two dozen residents aired their grievances ahead of the short 2020 session, beginning Feb. 5.

"We can't be experts on everything out there," Turco said. "We ask all of you for advice on things you're experts on. Educate us and collaborate with us so we can make the best possible decisions."

Kathleen Flaherty, executive director of the non-profit Connecticut Legal Rights Project, offered her perspective as an advocate for low-income and mentally ill individuals.... [ more ]

January 2, 2020 -  CLRP Vice Chairman, Dwight Merriam submitted an Op-Ed that was published in the Connecticut Post. Housing Affordability: Two New Year's resolutions for state  - The lack of affordable housing in many Connecticut communities is more than a zoning or diversity issue, it is a human rights issue. A decent place to live in any of our 169 towns should not be a privilege of the wealthy — it should be a basic right of all residents of our state... [ more ]

November 22, 2019 CLRP Executive Director, Kathy Flaherty received the Constance Baker Motley Award for Excellence in Business or Law from the Commission of Human Rights and Opportunities at their annual Leaders and Legends Award Ceremony on November 21, 2019 at the Bond Hotel in Hartford. Kathy was acknowleged for her unwaivering commitment to advocate for and represent  low-income persons with mental health conditions. [ more ]

October 25, 2019- CLRP joined over 20 national organizations including disability rights, education and civil rights groups to bring concerns to light regarding the Restoring, Enhancing, Strengthening, and Promoting Our Nation's Safety Efforts (RESPONSE) Act, legislation introduced by Senator Cornyn... [ more ]