The state’s method of managing its population of men and women with disabilities has changed dramatically in the past 10 years, according to Joe Mathews, administrator of the Disabilities Services Division of the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

And the Montana Advocacy Program has been instrumental in that transition.

MAP sued the state in 1996, asserting that residents at MDC in Boulder and the now-defunct Eastmont Human Services Center in Glendive, should be placed into homelike situations such as group homes and assisted living.

The premise behind that lawsuit was affirmed in 1999 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people with disabilities should be placed in the community whenever appropriate.

The supreme court ruling ultimately resulted in the closure of Eastmont in Glendive and a more vigorous effort on the part of the state to move people from institutions into the community in as many cases as possible.

Then, a decision by the 2003 Legislature that allowed courts to make criminal commitments to MDC, hastened the facility’s evolution.

According to Mathews, adults committed to the facility through civil procedures represent the vast majority of MDC’s 78 residents, but a small number of clients have arrived in Boulder as a result of criminal proceedings. Those commitments are based on the fact that the men and women are too dangerous to remain in the community.

In 2002, MDC established a secure unit for aggressive residents who prove to be a danger to themselves and others — a far cry from its original function as an institution for the state’s developmentally disabled children.

All of the clients committed to the facility as a result of criminal action are housed in that unit, along with other clients at the facility whose behavior meets the criteria for placement there.

“We’re trying to balance security and good quality services,” Mathews said, adding that it’s not an easy task given the difficult, and increasingly diverse, population the facility serves.