Room 8 is reporting that the State policy of coercing private providers to purchase substandard products and services is creating an unsafe and dangerous condition at OCFS owned and licensed facilities.
OCFS (and OMH who is also mentioned in Lancman’s report) have been coercing private (licensed) providers to purchase substandard services (including safety services) at inflated prices under threat of false indication charges levied against employees, false audits, unlawful withholding of monies and threats of licensing sanctions. As a result assaults against staff are up 42% (taxpayers to foot the worker’s compensation bill) and 1/3 of youth placed at private residential settings will need to be transferred into a correctional setting (at $210,000 per youth/year) because OCFS is not giving staff at its residential facilities the tools necessary to create or maintain a safe environment.
Press Release: Office of Assemblyman Lancman
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 8, 2010
Assemblyman Lancman Faults Governor
Paterson’s Juvenile Justice Reform Legislation For Not Addressing
Workplace Safety Concerns
Calls for: Applying the Workplace Violence Prevention Act to Community Residence Faculties
Assemblyman
Rory Lancman (D-Queens), Chair of the Assembly Subcommittee on Workplace Safety, faulted Governor Paterson’s juvenile justice system reform legislation, introduced in the senate as S.8091, because it does not address the workplace violence concerns highlighted in Assemblyman Lancman’s recent report on the subject, “Employee Safety in the NYS Juvenile Justice System,”
which found a 42% increase in assaults on staff in the juvenile justice facilities operated by the state Office of Children andFamily Services.
In particular, the legislation requires a significant increase in the placement of juveniles in low-security community residences run by non-profit agencies without any provisions to ensure the safety of workers in such settings. This is a recipe for disaster. Indeed, in June 2009 a community residence worker, Renee Greco, was murdered by a youth placed by OCFS in a private residential center in Lockport, New York. In January 2009 a police officer, Anthony DiPonzio, was shot in the head by a youth who went AWOL from a private residential community placement in Rochester, New York.
Additionally, it is estimated that up to one-third of youth placed in privately run residential placement programs by OCFS are later sent to an OCFS run residential facility [at $210,000 per youth/year] because they are too dangerous for the community facility to handle.
. . . .
Jane Carey, Chief of Staff
Office of Assemblyman Rory Lancman
159-16 Union Turnpike, Suite 210
Hillcrest, New York 11366
718-820-0241 (District); 518-455-5172 (Albany); 718-820-0414 (Fax)301-775-9956 (Cell);
Tags: Catherine Young, debra peete, donna moon, gladys carrion, marilyn bauer, Munna Rubaii, ocfs, OCFS Training Unit, rick quinn, sean allen, terry smith