NY. Juvenile officers claim OCFS Juvenile facilities are unsafe for staff and youth. OCFS officers also claim that Commissioner Gladys Carrion retaliated after employees spoke out about the dangerous conditions

Former OCFS employees are all firmly united in their claims that the root cause of the surge in violence can be traced back to the moment Gladys Carrion assumed the reigns of the OCFS. Many cited a marked increase in gang violence at state facilities as testament to the failure of the administration’s policies.

Carrion did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Upon Carrion’s installation as the Director of the OCFS several years ago, restrictions were placed on the staff at juvenile facilities throughout the state that precluded the use of physical restraint in most instances. Failure to strictly adhere to the new policies resulted in discipline procedures that included loss of vacation time, forced leave, and, in some cases, termination.

“These are kids who committed serious felonies, and they just stripped us of everything,” said Tony Unger, a former employee of the Tryon Girl’s Center. “This all started with Carrion rewarding the kids for bad behavior. They misbehave and still get their phone calls.

“It was never like that in the past,” Unger continued. “Kids had respect for the YDA’s. Now, they just stripped everything.”

“The administration would never take accountability for staff being injured when they were just doing their job,” he said. “I think it’s Carrion’s plan to just get rid of all juvenile detention centers and go to community-based programs, which is not good for the kids. These kids need help.”

“It used to be that staff being assaulted happened once in a blue moon,” he said. “Now, it happens constantly and the kids don’t get disciplined.”

Kay Lehr worked at the Tryon Boys correction facility for 29 years prior to its closing last January. According to Lehr, the violence escalated when Carrion assumed control.

Lehr speculated that Tryon was closed as a result of a personal vendetta carried by Carrion in retaliation to the outspoken Tryon employees demanding justice and safe working conditions. Including the death of Charles Loftly, a Tryon worker who was hit in the head with a two-by-four and later died.

“We really put the heat on Gladys Carrion and after that, it was all downhill from there, said Lehr. “We had a big old bullseye on our head, and she was gonna get us one way or the other.”

Lehr was also disturbed by what he claims were endless efforts by Carrion’s administration to get offenders released to group homes, disregarding the warnings of Tryon staff that the subject exhibited extremely violent tendencies.

“The pressure on these aftercare workers to release these people back into the community … kids were assaulting people and two days later Carrion’s hatchetmen, the ombudsmen, were calling up and asking if arrangements were being made to get the kids released yet,” said Lehr.

For example, one female inmate sent home within days of being released from high security, where she was sent for stabbing a nurse with a pen. Another was of an offender for whom state police were repeatedly called for violent outbursts, but was still released just a month later.

In one case, those warnings may have went unheeded.

Renee Greco was a 24-year-old counselor who was beaten to death at a campus for New Directions at Wyndham Lawn School in Lockport. According to Unger, one of the teens accused in the attack was once a Tryon resident. He was released despite objections from Tryon staff that he remained violent.

“The woman [Carrion] just doesn’t have a clue,” says Lehr. “She came from a social service-oriented agency. These are not kids who stole a candy bar from the corner store. These are not kids whose parents didn’t take care of them or they had no place to go. These are kids who’ve committed violent crimes. She wants to treat these kids like, you know, their mothers just didn’t take good care of them, but that’s not the case with these kids.”

State Sen. Hugh Farleyz, R-Niskayuna said he also believed Tryon was specifically targeted for closure by Carrion and believes Cuomo’s visit was staged.

“She brought the governor up to Tryon and made sure that any of the clients that were there were moved to another part of the facility so that the governor would see nobody there. That’s a fact,” said Farley.

The former Tryon employees are not the first to publicly blame Carrion for the recent failures in the juvenile just system. Last year, at least 11 Republican lawmakers and leaders from the state’s two biggest unions called for Carrion’s resignation citing the blatant failure of her “sanctuary” model of juvenile justice and accusing Carrion of creating environments that coddle dangerous and violent offenders.

Farley was among those legislatures advocating for Carrion’s dismissal and believes Tryon was targeted by Carrion because its employees exercised their freedom of speech and openly criticized and questioned Carrion’s competency.

“She attacked Tryon specifically saying that the children shouldn’t be restrained… and we had counselors being attacked,” said Farley. “There were a lot of problems there, mostly with the unruliness of the clients and the local newspapers were not overly kind to Gladys Carrion. She resented that.”

This entry was posted in Group Home Violence, GROUP HOMES, NEW YORK, OCFS, Residential Child Treatment Center, STATES and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to NY. Juvenile officers claim OCFS Juvenile facilities are unsafe for staff and youth. OCFS officers also claim that Commissioner Gladys Carrion retaliated after employees spoke out about the dangerous conditions

  1. KL says:

    Govenor Cuomo: ARE YOU LISTENING!! How many other staff must be killed, maimed and/or injured. Did the videos released showing the violence against staff mean nothing? It is time to put politics aside and admit that Carrion is out of her element trying to run OCFS. She needs to stick to Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the United Way,let someone with experience dealing with violence and gang behavior run OCFS. These kids are being denied the very thing they have never had in their life and desperately need: Structure and accountability. OCFS has been a disaster ever since it was changed from DFY and put under the auspices of a Social Services agency. Stop hiding the truth and twisting the facts and put someone in charge who can handle the job.

Comments are closed.