Lawsuits as deinstitutionalization catalysts

Legal exposures and class‑action litigation (for example the Willowbrook suit and its 1975 consent judgment) repeatedly forced states to dismantle or reform large institutions and accelerate placement into community settings. That legal pressure both remedied inhumane conditions and created policy and budget gaps that states struggled to fill with community care. — Recognizing litigation as a primary causal lever reframes debates about responsibility for the social consequences (homelessness, incarceration, service gaps) of deinstitutionalization and points to courts as actors in long‑run welfare design.