Last month, Governor David A. Paterson acknowledged the tragic flaws in our state’s juvenile justice system when he settled a lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice over unconstitutional conditions at four state facilities for young offenders.
The case against the state documented routine abuse of young people, leaving them with concussions, broken teeth and broken bones for trivial infractions like talking in line or swiping extra dessert at meal time. The governor’s own task force and the commissioner of the Office of Children and Family Services, Gladys Carrion, have found that these same troubling conditions exist system-wide. Indeed, the Legal Aid Society has filed a system-wide lawsuit, raising the potential of years of institutional litigation and court oversight.
