NY. Still unsafe at OCFS. State police arrest seven at OCFS’s Brookwood juvi center

OCFS has been unsafe for some many years, it has forgotten how to protect its staff and the youth it cares for. OCFS has had these issues since 1985. One would think that with an almost 30 year learning curve, they would know what works and what doesn’t.

Problems and violence abound at NYS/OCFS-run Brookwood Secure juvenile center.

Employees at the state’s Brookwood Secure Center say conditions have grown so dangerous that they are afraid to come to work.

They cite incidents at the Claverack youth prison, including one in which an aide suffered a broken eye socket when he was assaulted by several of the teenage felons, and another in which youngsters tried to use a vacuum cleaner as a weapon to attack another resident.

State Police just arrested seven of the residents for attacking and beating another youth at the center.

“People are literally going there every day not knowing if they are going to go home with broken bones,”

State officials say they are aware of the difficulties at Brookwood and are developing a plan to make it safer and more effective. So amid the chaos, state officials apparently thought it was a good idea to hand out more than a dozen Xbox game units to the teens confined there. Thus rewarding criminal behavior. According to Governor Cuomo’s office – handing out rewards of ice cream, field trips into the community for sandwiches for the uptick in violence exemplifies the disconnect between reality and the policies implemented by OCFS administrators and Governor Cuomo.

According to Fran Reiter, a Cuomo aide, OCFS is “staffing up; [and] starting some new training in January.” This statement has workers wondering if the new training will include modules on the correct way to duck, or which flavor ice cream should be given to the youth so that they do not start a riot. Maybe the training will focus on how to identify the most violent youth so that OCFS can release them into the community.

Brookwood, which by the state’s own admission houses some of the state’s most violent and dangerous juvenile offenders, has been under a microscope for a while.

“I don’t recall having anything close to this much of a problem the last time I was district attorney with respect to assaultive behavior,” Columbia County District Attorney Paul Cjazka said. He served as district attorney two decades ago, then became a judge and is now back as prosecutor.

Like other youth centers, the approach toward treating the youngsters at Brookwood has gone from punitive to therapeutic.

That’s been a hallmark of OCFS Commissioner Gladys Carrion, who has clashed with CSEA on the issue before.

OCFS employees are supposed to acknowledge and deal with the often-troubled pasts of the teens, including abuse and neglect, mental illness, drug addiction or early trauma. That, officials say, explains some of the perks such as Xbox games or field trips that are given out as rewards for good behavior.

But workers wonder if things have gone too far.

YDAs complain of a “hands-off” policy which prevents them from touching the youths under all but the most dire scenarios has made them targets. Garrison said about 40 of the 187 YDAs there are out on workers’ compensation at any given time due to assaults as well as stress.

And from their standpoint, the rewards like Xboxes seem to be handed out without any real plan.

Noting the restraint guidelines are under review, Reiter acknowledges running Brookwood can require walking a fine line between safety and rehabilitation.

“You need a balance,” she said.

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