Freeing Teresa: A true story about an environmental activist, Franke James, who tried to stop her powerful siblings from putting her younger sister into a nursing home. She failed. And then had to rescue her.


Franke James objected when she heard her siblings' plan to put her sister, Teresa Heartchild, into a nursing home. "What about Teresa's human rights?" But she was told that Teresa, who was born with Down syndrome, had been declared incapable and had lost her right to decide. Then the siblings, acting as the "guardians, " had Teresa admitted to an institution. But Franke did not give up on her sister. Using her skills as an activist, she put a team together to help Teresa get discharged. That's when all hell broke loose. And so, the two sisters had to stand together-against their siblings, the medical system, and the police-to defend Teresa's right to be free.


Teresa is just one of thousands. The old institutions have closed, but today there's a conveyor belt putting people with disabilities into institutions like nursing homes. This deeply personal sister story shines a light on a pressing civil rights issue for people with disabilities-the right to decide where you live.