The following is from an editorial in The New York Times:
Two-and-a-half years ago, The New York Times reported horrifying abuse of people with developmental disabilities or mental illnesses by state employees, who were rarely punished for it. Gov. Andrew Cuomo promised action. But too little appears to have changed.
On Friday, Danny Hakim, The Times' reporter who wrote the earlier article, revisited some of these abuses: An employee who bit a patient's ear. Another who threatened to "gut" a co-worker. Another who left a patient naked and bleeding on the floor. Not one was fired.
Cuomo needs urgently to return to this issue, to use his political skills to get everyone in a room — state officials, patients' advocates, the public workers' unions — and figure out how to make lives safer for the thousands of people who cannot take care of themselves.
There is much the governor could do. He could require surveillance cameras in these facilities, just as prisons have them. He could make sure that the police get more involved. And he could finally get the unions to agree on a list of mandatory punishments.
The Justice Center for the Protection of People With Special Needs, a new state agency, is providing what Cuomo hopes will be another layer of review that, in turn, could lead to better monitoring and enforcement.
The bottom line is that workers who mistreat the disabled should not be allowed to stay in those jobs. The Times investigation in 2011 found that even after supervisors recommended firing abusive employees, only about 23 percent of those charged were dismissed, largely because of the convoluted negotiations with unions and their friendly arbitrators.
The rate is just about the same today. And therein lies the state's disgrace.