PEF
fights privatization of youth services
By SHERRY HALBROOK
PEF and its members at the state Office of Children and
Family Services (OCFS) are working hard to derail state
plans to reduce the capacity of state facilities that
help troubled youths get their lives back on track.
The state has sold its Harlem Valley Secure Center in
Dutchess County and plans to move the residents to other
facilities, including its Oatka Residential Center near
Rochester and Brookwood Secure Center in Albany County by
March 31.
Closing Harlem Valley is part of a state plan to reduce
capacity by 250 beds throughout the system this year.
PEF leaders see it as the first step toward fully
privatizing all youth facilities, a practice that has
failed in other states, such as Florida, New Mexico,
Nevada and Louisiana.
Among the problems that have surfaced in these privatized
youth programs are physical and sexual abuse of children,
escapes, use of tear gas and pepper spray, and failure to
provide mental health care and education.
Members fighting
back
Approximately 120 OCFS employees, including 40 PEF
members, are slated for layoff by February.
At a November meeting with more than 100 PEF members at
the OCFS central office in Rensselaer, PEF President
Roger Benson urged them to complete development of their
PEF divisions’ member mobilizer networks, and
promised PEF's support in the effort to prevent layoffs.
The members have begun to write and call their state
legislators about the need to continue providing the
state services to troubled and violent children and
adolescents in New York state need.
PEF is also running newspaper ads (It's a crime to privatize state
youth facilities.)
to educate policymakers and the public about the issue
State moves to
privatize
The state claims it will save money by shunting 1,121
“non-violent offenders” this year into a new
program, called the Evidence-based Community Initiative
(EbCI), that would leave them in their communities under
the supervision of private agencies, instead of sending
them to state-run, highly structured and supervised
secure facilities. But because of strict requirements
limiting eligibility to youths who have not committed
violent crimes, OCFS has only been able to place 14
youths in the EbCI program so far.
“I am surprised that the EbCI initiative is being
accepted given the serious service needs of the
population in question,” said OCFS Executive Board
member Ron Greene.
“The kids coming into the juvenile justice system
today tend to have a lot more problems and are much more
challenging to deal with (than those who entered the
system 25 years ago). It’s outrageous and dangerous
to try to put these kids with the private agencies,”
Greene said.
PEF Division 326 Council Leader Barbara Iacovone, a
teacher at Harlem Valley, said the youths at that
facility often try to assault staff members.
Both Greene and Iacovone worry the state is jumping the
gun by drastically reducing its capacity to house and
serve youthful offenders now. Greene said national census
data show that the population of youth likely to commit
crimes will return to record levels in coming years.
Greater
hardships for all
Iacovone added that the state appears to have given up on
plans to build a new secure facility in Dutchess County.
“Our teachers at Harlem Valley will probably
exercise their bumping rights at Highland and/or
Brookwood, which are an hour drive from Harlem
Valley,” Iacovone said.
“We know the people we will have to bump are very
concerned about their job security. Other members at
Harlem Valley, such as counselors, maintenance and
medical staff, may have to drop to lower positions or be
laid-off,” she said.
“And placing the kids so far from home will be an
additional hardship on them and their families, who are
already traveling up to three hours to visit them here
for a couple of hours. Restricting family involvement
will do nothing to help with rehabilitation.”
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