A victim of mental and physical abuse at an adult group home in Newton took to the national political stage Thursday to urge rejection by Congress of legislation that diminishes federal funding for advocacy and recovery programs relied upon by the mentally ill.
Nancy Jensen, who now works as a peer counselor in Wichita, spoke to members of a U.S. House subcommittee from the perspective of someone who escaped in 2004 from Kaufman House operators who subjected men and women for years to bizarre sexual abuse, unchecked seclusion and what federal prosecutors characterized as involuntary servitude.
"You've heard of the old TV show 'Little House on the Prairie,' right?" she said in her testimony. "Well, the conditions in the Kaufman House were so terrible that it could be called the 'Little House of Horrors on the Prairie.' "
Jensen said she couldn't support removal of funding to the program -- Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness, or PAIMI -- because the ability to hold abusers, such as Arlan and Linda Kaufman, accountable and protect rights of people with mental illness would be significantly compromised.
In 2005, the Kaufmans were convicted in federal court on at least 30 charges of Medicare fraud, forced labor, mail fraud and involuntary servitude. Arlan Kaufman was sentenced to 30 years in prison, while Nancy Kaufman was ordered to serve seven years.
Jensen, who wrote a book "The Girl Who Cried Wolf," said narrowing the opportunity to expose and respond to misconduct perpetrated against those with mental illness would make it more likely individuals such as the Kaufmans could get away with abusing people.
She said trauma experienced by herself and others at the Kaufman House shouldn't be lost in the policy debate in Washington.
"I know how terrible the Kaufman House was," she said. "They called it therapy. It was cruel. The Kaufmans forced their so- called patients to be nude, to do housework and tend the farm in the nude. The Kaufmans forced residents to do bizarre sex acts while videotaping it. They billed Medicare for these so-called 'therapy services.'
"I was degraded and told that I will never wed, never have a child, never join a church and that I would never get a job. Well, as a proudly married mother with both faith in God and a job, I proved the Kaufmans wrong."
Jensen said PAIMI granted protection and advocacy groups in Kansas and other states monitoring power to enter unlicensed facilities, such as the Kaufman House, even when the state's ability to legally intervene was limited.
The federal act -- signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 -- also provides funding for legal services for victims and treatment for people working on recovery, she said.
"Third, and perhaps most importantly, with the PAIMI program, the individual with a mental illness -- the victim is the client. The client is in charge," Jensen said.
Staff members at the Disability Rights Center of Kansas, the officially designated protection and advocacy agency in the state, intervened on behalf of Kaufman House residents in 2004.
They worked with local, state and federal law enforcement investigators to remove individuals from Kaufman facilities and to prosecute the couple.
Jensen said revelations tied to the Kaufman House case contributed to amendments in Kansas law to require residential facilities to be licensed, alter guardianship statutes to expose conflicts of interest, and launch an abuse and neglect unit.