NYS Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs

  

Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor
Jeff Wise, Executive Director

OPWDD and the Implementation of the - New York State Justice Center on June 30th, 2013-


June 30, 2013 is the date when the implementation of the new New York State Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs began. The June 30th date marked the culmination of a process spearheaded by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature of legislation creating the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs (Justice Center) last year in May 2012. Following a series of articles in the New York Times, exposing abusive behavior from some direct care staff from state agencies serving individuals with disabilities that went unpunished; the 2012 Protection of People with Special Needs Act(PPSNA) legislation represents the Governor’s initiative directed at transforming how the state protects over one million New Yorkers with disabilities in state-operated, certified, or licensed facilities and programs. This new law, the 2012 Protection of People with Special needs Act, (PPSNA), establishes a set of uniform standards to be implemented by the Justice Center for the protection of people receiving services from facilities and programs that are certified and/or operated by a number of state agencies, (including OPWDD and other state agencies like Department of Health(DOH), Department of Education(DOE) and Office of Mental Health(OMH). These agencies are all required to develop and enforce regulations in accordance with the applicable statutes.

OPWDD provides services directly and through a network of approximately 700 non-profit service providing agencies, with about 20 per cent provided by OPWDD state-run services and 80 per cent of services provided by a network of 700 private non-profits serving individuals in programs sponsored by OPWDD. Our agency, Sinergia Inc. forms part of this non-profit network of agencies and for many years has participated in incident management regulations through our Incident Review Committee in conformance to OPWDDs previous incident management guidelines. However, the new incident managent procedures established by the newly created Justice Center are not only autonomous from OPWDD and its network of non-profit agencies but will have real legal authority to investigate all significant incidents involving people with special needs. It’s Special Prosecutor/Inspector General has the authority to prosecute allegations that rise to the level of criminal offenses;

What are the responsibilities of the NYS Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs? The Justice Center created in legislation known as the “Protection of People with Special Needs Act” establishes the strongest standards and practices in the nation for protecting people with special needs. It serves both as a law enforcement agency and as an advocate for people with special needs. The Justice Center’s responsibilities include:

· Advocating on behalf of people with special needs and overseeing the quality of care they receive; · Operating a 24/7 Hotline which receives reports of allegations of abuse, neglect and significant incidents. Reports are made by service providers and others who are “mandated reporters” as well as by any individual who witnesses or suspects the abuse or neglect of a person with special needs;

· Ensuring that all allegations of abuse and neglect are fully investigated while maintaining a comprehensive statewide database that tracks cases until they are resolved and allows the Justice Center to monitor trends and develop abuse prevention initiatives.


· Previously to the implementation of the Justice Center, there were incident management review procedures for OPWDD and its network of nonprofit agencies to investigate and manage abusive situations experienced by individuals served by an agency, whether they were state or non profit agency operated. However, the Justice Center not only will function autonomously from OPWDD, DOH, DOE , OMH or other agencies functioning under its statuses, but the Justice Center has legal authority to investigate all significant incidents involving people with special needs. Its Special Prosecutor/Inspector General has the authority to prosecute allegations that rise to the level of criminal offenses

· Beginning on June 30, 2013, the Justice Center will maintain a “Staff Exclusion List” of individuals found responsible for the serious abuse or neglect of a person with special needs. Anyone entered into this statewide register is prohibited from ever working again with people with special needs in New York State.

It should be mentioned that OPWDD has been working with the Justice Center to develop regulations and procedures necessary to implement provisions of the 2012 Protection of People with Special Needs Act (PPSNA mentioned above. While this work is still underway, OPWDD has been updating their nonprofit network of agencies like our agency, Sinergia, Inc., with information delivered in the form of informational presentations, webinars as well as video presentations in the different regions this summer. Based on the latter updates and information received this summer; our agency has embarked in the process to update our incident management procedures , staff trainings and employee hiring procedures to deliver information and training to be in compliance with the PPSNA and new OPWDD regulations that were implemented on June 30, 2013.


For more detailed information on the Justice Center you can access it’s website at:

http://www.justicecenter.ny.gov