ALBANY — The state’s youth detention agency was ripped as incompetent in a blistering report yesterday for allowing three murderers and a robber to attend a sex-soaked “social dance” at a facility in Orange County with less security than one would find “at a high-school prom.”
The scathing report from the watchdog state Commission of Correction called for disciplinary action against the Goshen Secure Center’s top administrators and took a major swipe at state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) Commissioner Gladys Carrion, who authorized the “social” as part of a new inmate-friendly policy.
Carrion, who has been defended by Gov. Paterson, revealed in response to the report that she had initiated disciplinary actions aimed at firing five OCFS employees as a result of the incident.
The Post broke the story of the Goshen “social” in May with a detailed report on improper sexual encounters, some caught on video, that occurred between several inmates and a suspected prostitute and an underage girl, both of whom were brought to the locked detention facility at state expense.
The new report accuses the OCFS of allowing the December event to go forward “without any appreciable security precautions or safeguards” and concludes, “There was far less planning, organization and precaution than one would expect at a conventional high-school prom.”
The report takes Carrion to task for her public contention that mixed-sex social gatherings are necessary to promote the psychological development of the young criminals under her agency’s care.
“Even assuming . . . that there is an identifiable institutional or public benefit to holding such events in secure facilities of confinement, the Goshen ‘Winter Social Dance’ was so mismanaged and mishandled from the start that the health and safety of the residents and guests, and the security of the facility, was severely compromised,” the report reads.
“In essence, the senior management of OCFS and the line staff took what was a questionable practice and then poorly implemented it.”
The report blasts staff and supervisors at Goshen during the social because “they failed to stop residents and guests from engaging in sexual activity.
“Although the line staff was placed in a difficult situation, any reasonable person would have recognized that the activity taking place during the ‘winter social dance’ was unacceptable in any setting . . . and should have stepped in and stopped the event as a matter of common sense,” the report concludes.
The Post report quoted longtime Goshen youth worker Anthony Collado, who said he had been shocked by the social.
Two of the inmates involved were “convicted killers sentenced to life” while two others were convicted in connection with gang activity, he said.
Last chance
Report on inmate party at the Goshen Secure Center for teens:
* Calls for disciplinary action against center administrators
* Says supervision of the party, attended by killers, was “far less” than “at a conventional high-school prom”
* Blasts facility boss’ claim that the party wasnecessary for inmates’ mental health
* Blames state Office of Children and Family Services for providing no guidance
Source: State Commission of Correction