New Yorkers must be wondering this week about Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s selection of Gladys Carrion to head the Administration for Children’s Services.
“She’s devoted her whole life to our children,” de Blasio said in announcing his choice. Well, she’s certainly been popular among some youths serving time at New York’s prisons.
Three years ago, you see, the state Office of Children and Family Services, which Carrion headed, organized a “social” for violent residents of the Goshen Secure Center. As The Post was first to report, OCFS workers chauffeured four females, including a 15-year-old and a suspected prostitute, to the event for a wild party — security cameras caught numerous sex acts — with an equal number of inmates, including three murderers.
Though intended as a “reward” for good behavior, it turned out all of the specially selected party-goers (one of whom had sent the prostitute $100) had lengthy disciplinary records, including violent assaults.
That’s not all: Goshen’s assistant director was caught on camera kissing the apparent hooker. (He claimed the girl was upset when the party ended so he wanted to make her feel better.)
A state Correction Commission report ripped into OCFS: After all, the Goshen facility alone had reported multiple assaults on both prisoners and staff in the first six months of 2010.
So what happened? Nothing.
Despite calls for Carrion’s ouster, and even as he proposed legislation to overhaul the juvenile prison system, then-Gov. David Paterson refused to dismiss her, saying she’d done “an excellent job.” (The inmates doubtless agreed.) The report also took a well-deserved swipe at Carrion’s “questionable” preference for social programs over discipline.
“As a city, as a society [we] miss opportunities to protect children,” said the mayor-elect as he appointed Carrion.
We hope what happened at Goshen isn’t the kind of protection she has in mind.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment