Monitoring Care for the Disabled As reported by Danny Hakim and Russ Buettner in The Times over the last year, there have been numerous cases of abuse and at least 1,200 deaths attributed to unnatural or unknown causes in publicly financed homes for the disabled in the last decade. Many cases have barely been investigated, with incompetent workers often being moved to a different facility, without being prosecuted. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has finally come up with a comprehensive plan to monitor thousands of New York's private and public facilities. The legislative package he released this week would create a new agency to oversee homes for about a million people who are disabled or mentally ill. It is a sensible, straightforward proposal that legislators and unions should support. The new agency would take over the monitoring of homes handled by six state agencies. It would employ a special prosecutor and inspector general to focus on investigating allegations of abuse. There were more than 10,000 such allegations last year alone. Mr. Cuomo wants a new law to expand and increase criminal penalties for endangering the lives of the disabled. He proposes a crucial expansion of the state's Freedom of Information Law that would require private facilities licensed by the state to make public information about abuse or neglect of their clients. State facilities are already required to release such information. Mr. Cuomo also wants a hot line to report abuse and a better code of ethical conduct for workers. Union officials are expected to fight this plan to protect job security for workers, and local prosecutors could challenge the state's intrusion on their jurisdictions. But these groups and lawmakers should work with the governor to focus on a crucial priority: the welfare of these most vulnerable patients.