Trying To Turn A Prison Into A Community Support Facility - What's Wrong With That Picture?

On December 30, 2011 in the late afternoon, an article appeared in the NY Times announcing that an investigation had been released by the Inspector General's office on abuse and neglect at the state run Valley Ridge Center for Intensive Treatment in Norwich, NY. The report and investigation were done in conjunction with the NYS Commission on Quality of Care and as a followup to a request by the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities.

When I first saw the article and when I opened the report I thought, finally we're going to see a professional investigative report rather then innuendo and inferences. I began to read and quickly realized that there was a new and perhaps a bigger problem. I want to be clear, the report is professionally done and tries to get at root causes and issues. The report is also hard to read because the allegations are brutal, the language is rough and most readers will know in their hearts that very bad things happened at Valley Ridge. The report is here (click here) so you can go to it and read it on your own. Prepare yourself.

I'll let people better then me be the judge relative to the report and it's conclusions, but here is the bigger concern that jumped out at me almost immediately and I think it's the basis for a lot of issues in NY's system of support for people with developmental and a number of other disabilities. Valley Ridge is a correctional facility disguised as a community support residential facility - plain and simple. Valley Ridge is a correctional facility run by the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities not the Department of Corrections - plain and simple. A lot of people will attempt to deny this and argue that it's not really the case. But it is. Somehow New York State has concluded that people with developmental disabilities, who may and I emphasis may have committed serious and dangerous crimes, are better served by the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities then in the correctional system. Maybe they are correct, maybe not. New York State, the courts and state agencies have concluded that it's ok to incarcerate these people with no real sentencing guidelines either. They will remain until what - they get better, someone will take them in another setting, they batter and bruise or get battered and bruised themselves? All in the name of "it's better then the alternative". I really hope there's someone thinking about if that's true or not. I tend to think not.

I've had some experiences with jails and prisons. They are brutal and difficult places where thousands of men and women are locked up. There are many who will argue that they're meant to be that way - hard places and hard time - and frankly it really doesn't matter if you're a violent or non-violent offender or someone with a developmental disability who broke the law. But the bottom line is, no matter what anyone tells you, they are institutions that are based on control and protection of society as well as the protection of corrections staff. That's the focus everyday. How much abuse and neglect do you think takes place in a prison facility? Who really cares?

So we have Valley Ridge and other facilities like it. The state builds units that look like homes with congregate settings. We surround these facilities with 10-14' high fences with razor barbed wire on top. We have security lock downs and bed counts at shift changes. We hire staff and then try to model them and these facilities after a model of community supports in residential homes. It just doesn't work. It doesn't and we shouldn't be surprised. Perhaps we should be shocked or angry but we shouldn't be surprised.

And worse yet, I don't have the answer. I don't know if anyone else does either. But we have to call it as we see it and at least begin thinking about what the answer may be. The biggest reason we have to figure this out is because as things stand now, the people in these facilities will end up continuing to hurt or be hurt. There have to be serious discussions and planning about behavioral supports. Supports that are based on meaningful change vs power struggles. Power struggles lead to confrontations and potentially to violent behavior by both parties.

This report is extremely important if it helps us get at these basic concepts and issues.