Frontline workers detail the stark reality of the real "new" New York

ALBANY, NY (02/11/2014)(readMedia)-- Sexual predators moved into community group homes, individuals with serious mental illness dumped from treatment centers into county jails, inadequate resources to deal with escalating poverty are just some of the consequences of recent bad budget choices in the real "New" New York. That was the testimony four frontline, CSEA-represented public service workers delivered to state lawmakers holding hearings in Albany on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed state budget.

The experienced workers, who have nearly 120 years of service to New Yorkers, detailed horror stories from their daily routines and urged legislators to understand the impact of bad policy and make better choices about how New York uses its resources.

"We keep hearing the slogan "People First," but the administration does not live up to that promise where I work," said Kathy Button, a longtime employee of the New York State Office of People with Developmental Disabilities. "Bad choices undermine the quality of care in a race to cut costs without regard to what they mean for people and communities."

Button pointed to the recent closure of the Monroe Developmental Center as a wrong-headed choice. The closure has led to the transfer of sexual predators from secure settings into community-based group homes, where they are also mixed in with the general population of individuals in care. The situation raises serious public safety questions along with concerns about the administration's management of the agency

"We are also in a vicious circle of short staffing, mandated overtime and occupational injury that leaves workers and individuals at risk," she said.

"People with serious mental illness can't even get the help they need in psychiatric centers because of the lack of resources and there's even less help available in the community," said Abraham Benjamin, who works as a treatment aide at the Bronx Psychiatric Center. "We have people on the inside who could benefit from programs but they are just not being offered. It seems like the objective is to just discharge people to keep costs down."

Once discharged and on the streets without follow-up help and care, too many individuals with mental illness get arrested for nuisance crimes and end up in jail at local taxpayer expense because there is nowhere else for them to go.

"I have many individuals with mental health problems in my caseload," said Ron Briggs, an experienced probation officer in Fulton County. "These folks get into trouble because the help they need is just not available. They don't belong in jail and it's wasting taxpayers' money when that's where they end up."

People not getting the help they need as New York's income inequality gets worse is the everyday reality that Glen Tuifel experiences as a worker at the Nassau County Department of Social Services. "Our caseloads are growing with desperate people in real pain and the lack of state support is making a bad situation worse," Tuifel said.

"It is just not acceptable that we are seeing growing poverty in our metropolitan areas and in some communities half the children are going to bed hungry every night."

Tuifel and the other CSEA members urged lawmakers to look beyond the state's sound bites and slogans to understand what is really happening to people, necessary services, and New York's communities as a result of bad choices, pointing out that New York should not be in a race to the bottom.

"We need a budget that puts state revenues to better use in our communities," they said.

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