Archive: Around Town

"The fearful and dangerous facility suggested by the worst of the allegations made in February is not the reality that we found in the Gossett Center, reported New York State Inspector General Dineen Riviezzo at a press conference Monday.  "Overwhelming the residents told us that they felt safe and that they were being treated fairly.  Looking at over 40 alleged instances of physical and sexual abuses by the staff, in no instance did we find evidence to support criminal charges, nor is there evidence of systemic abuse."


A 86 page report was compiled by the Inspector General's Office and the Tompkins County District Attorney, who jointly conducted the exhaustive investigation.  Investigators found that the Gossett Staff has done a largely remarkable job despite serious problems including lack of funding, training, and independent oversight.  "It's a minor miracle that there haven't been more serious repercussions from the under-training and under-staffing of Gossett," said State Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, who precipitated the investigation.  "In the end I can only offer great praise to the overwhelming majority of the staff at Gossett for doing as well as they've done under difficult circumstances."

The investigation was initiated after former workers, residents, and advocacy groups brought allegations of physical and child abuse to Lifton's office in February.  Lifton immediately called on Riviezzo's office to investigate.  Fearing ongoing abuse, Riviezzo and Wilkinson's offices acted quickly to interview all 133 13-17-year-olds then in residence, as well as the staff.

The Louis Gossett Jr. Center (above) houses 13 to 17 year old delinquent boys in South Lansing.  It is one of ten such facilities in New York State, operated by the NYS Office of Children and Family Services.  A smaller, similar facility for girls (below) is located next door on Auburn Road.

Riviezzo said the investigation involved more than 20 investigators, auditors, and lawyers from her office working more than 11,000 hours to review thousands of documents and conduct over 400 interviews since March.  "This investigation was clearly the most exhaustive study that my office has ever done," she said.  All 133 current residents were interviewed in addition to past residents and current and past Gossett staff members.

"It is an integral part of our criminal justice system, an integral part of any investigation, that citizens who have concerns have a sense that their words will be acted on," said Wilkinson.  "In 16 years of being associated with various types of prosecution and public service law, I have never seen an investigation conducted as rigorously, as thoroughly, as meticulously, and as tirelessly as this investigation was."

While no prosecutable abuses were discovered in the investigation, Riviezzo acknowledged that there are problems at Gossett.  But she differentiated between problems caused by staff and those caused by the system.  In the former case she said that the management at Gossett had properly handled staff who got out of line by reprimanding, or, in some cases, firing them.  "But let me make it absolutely clear that there are serious problems that exist at both Gossett and with the OCFS system," she said.  Riviezzo noted her office has initiated another investigation at Gossett and in another youth detention facility at Tryon as a result of an ACLU report.

Men in Black: Investigators from the Inspector General's staff attended the press conference Monday.  (left to right) Deputy Inspector General Michael Boxer, Principal Investigator Bill Herbert, Investigative Audit Supervisor Erik Geizer, Deputy Inspector General for Audit George Cullin, Deputy Counsel Darren Miller (who led the investigation)

She identified the three most serious problems as a lack of independent oversight, inadequate mental health services, and zero training to help residents avoid being drawn into youth gangs when they return home.  Overall she credited the current Gossett staff for reducing the number of 'restraints' used, and putting in place a system that controls violent episodes more effectively with a show of force, rather than actual force.  She sited serious problems in the state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS).

The report documents that a state mandated Ombudsman Office and another mandated OCFS watchdog program are virtually nonexistent due to attrition, neglect, and lack of funding.  While the local staff have begged for more training and staffing, especially professional staffing, they have been forced to deal with an enormous percentage of teens with mental health disorders.  "The vast majority of Gossett residents suffer from at least one mental health disorder," Riviezzo explained.  "More than half of them have multiple disorders and almost a third of the residents are on psychiatric drugs.  The investigation found that residents with more mental health problems were restrained most often."

She went on to note that the only staffing are one full time psychologist, one full time social worker, and one part time social worker.  A consulting psychiatrist is allotted only six hours per month to treat the approximately 45 residents who are prescribed psychiatric drugs.  "That translates to eleven minutes per resident per month of treatment," Riviezzo said.  "Gosset staff has informed us that they are ill equipped to handle the growing number of residents with mental health issues.

Everyone seemed to agree that the investigation would improve conditions.  "It's a great thing for Gossett, because now the staff should be thankful to  be able to get proper training," said Robert Veney a former employee who worked at Gossett for ten years.  But he said Gossett is still unsafe.  "The day I left it was unsafe and understaffed.  The last day I worked there a fight broke out."  He also said that while there is no child abuse at the level that is procecutable, that problems still exist at Gossett.  "There was child abuse.  It's absurd to believe that there's no child abuse going on in a state facility like that.  It's unreasonable."

"The good news is that in many regards the employees at Gossett have done a remarkable job with a very challenging population, while being grossly under-resourced by the State of New York," Lifton said.  "The bad news is that OCFS and the Governor turned a deaf ear to repeated requests for more funding for training and more staff."

Lifton called for an overhaul of the youth detention facilities across the state, including an immediate need to address the lack of oversight.  She called for a joint hearing of both the Assembly mental health and social services committees to follow up on the report.  All three women expressed confidence that the investigation will result in improvements.  "We hope that this investigation will lead to significant improvements in both Gossett and the OCFS," Riviezzo  said.  "We're confident and optimistic that it will."

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