Cuomo administration doubling down on bad juvenile justice decision

ALBANY, NY (05/28/2013)(readMedia)-- Just weeks after scathing reports about the abysmal failure of the Close to Home juvenile "reform" program diverting youthful offenders from state juvenile justice facilities to inadequate New York City based programs, the Cuomo administration is doubling down on bad policy and moving to close two more centers.

The administration is moving to close the Lansing and Middletown non-secure facilities.

Earlier this month Queens Family Court Judge John Hunt called the governor's initiative to move juvenile offenders from state run facilities into New York City programs that are obviously unequipped to handle them "a threat to public safety" after court documents exposed repeated failures with the program, including a lack of security so bad that youthful offenders were able to walk away at will. At one point, 50 youths in the program (about one in four) were missing at the same time.

"It is outrageous that the Cuomo administration can disregard public safety - including the well being of the youths – and make a bad situation worse," CSEA President Danny Donohue said. "It makes no sense whatsoever to put dangerous individuals back into the very neighborhoods where they got in trouble in the first place without any evidence that they will be properly supervised."

As the governor's initiative was being fast tracked last year, CSEA sounded repeated warnings about the potential dangers of the program.

Youths from outside of New York City are reportedly being diverted back to their home counties for placement at local taxpayer expense.

The administration's plans for the short-term future of the Red Hook and Brentwood non-secure facilities are unclear.

The Office of Children and Family Services has been systematically undermining operations at juvenile justice facilities and moving toward total shutdown after reneging on a commitment to transform the model for resident treatment.

At the same time as he was diverting offenders from upstate juvenile detention facilities, Gov. Andrew Cuomo also closed down all of the New York City-based OCFS facilities, undermining any claim that the program was really about moving juveniles closer to their homes. Despite Cuomo administration claims that they would seek to avoid layoffs, a significant number of employees were laid off or transferred to positions at a drastic cut in pay following the closure of the NYC based OCFS facilities. CSEA has filed a contract grievance over those circumstances.

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