How lohud exposed psychiatric center scandals
Mental health failures, assaults and abuse complaints at Central New York Psychiatric Center exposed by records obtained by The Journal News/lohud
How lohud exposed psychiatric center scandals Mental health failures, assaults and abuse complaints at Central New York Psychiatric Center exposed by records obtained by The Journal News/lohud Check out this story on lohud.com: https://www.lohud.com/story/news/investigations/2018/02/07/central-new-york-psychiatric-center-sex-offenders/1078311001/
David Robinson, drobinson@lohud.com Published 6:00 a.m. ET Feb. 7, 2018 | Updated 7:00 a.m. ET Feb. 12, 2018
Mirna (center) and Raul Laguerre (right), with their son Zachary, 18, in their home in Newburgh. The photo she's holding was taken when Raul Jr. was 14 and Zachary was 6.(Photo: Seth Harrison/The Journal News)Buy Photo
State records long obscured from public scrutiny recently revealed criminal behavior and violence at Central New York Psychiatric Center.
The story of obtaining the documents, however, underscored why New York's treatment of mentally ill sex offenders and inmates has been shrouded by privacy laws and governmental secrecy.
Many of the documents took months to obtain through public-record requests. Some media inquiries, such as one for complaints filed inside the lockup that led to investigations, remain outstanding nearly a year later.
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Questions about mistreated patients and violence at the psychiatric center in Marcy span at least six years.
National Alliance on Mental Illness – New York State's Matthew Shapiro reacted with a mix of concern and disappointment to dangers exposed by a database of 210 criminal incidents and other documents detailed in The Journal News/lohud investigation of the psychiatric center in Marcy.
"I wasn't aware of these complaints, but I'm not totally surprised to hear them," said Shapiro, the group's public affairs expert.
Further, Shapiro spoke to how the lack of transparency and oversight heightened risks for workers and patients in an already challenging setting.
"There are a lot of very good public-funded psychiatric centers for people who work hard and it is a very demanding population, but of course they need to be held accountable," he said.
The Office of Mental Health, which oversees the center in Marcy and 23 other psychiatric sites housing mentally ill patients and inmates, asserted it reacted swiftly to reports of violence and mistreatment.
The state agency led by Commissioner Dr. Ann Marie Sullivan declined an interview request to discuss the public records.
The internal psychiatric center documents and state police records raise questions about New York's civil commitment law, which keeps hundreds of sex offenders locked up beyond criminal sentences.
Many record requests were denied and only released after appeal under the state's Freedom of Information Law. Others remain in the process of review for release at a future date. Some of the requests originated in March 2017.
Examples of the secrecy clouding review of psychiatric operations included the Office of Mental Health budgets.
The state agency initially denied requests for budget documents related to civil commitment law, citing the fact its system didn't track it. Then after The Journal News/lohud reported a series of stories raising questions about racial bias and spending of taxpayer dollars in 2017, the agency released reams of budget documents.
In contrast to its initial denial reasoning, the budgets in fact spotlighted civil commitment spending after the law took effect in 2007.
But then references of the civil commitment program spending disappeared in 2010. The entire program seemed to be incorporated into vague and broad fiscal language explaining how billions of dollars gets spent by the Office of Mental Health.
The state agency described disclosing civil commitment budget specifics as unnecessary once the program had been implemented, despite a steady increase in its cost to taxpayers. The agency asserted the program now spends about $65 million per year to confine more than 370 sex offenders, or about $175,000 each.
The release of budget documents, however, led to newly reported details about tens of millions of additional tax dollars spent on capital projects related to civil commitment facilities.
Raul Laguerre, 27, enters the Orange County Courthouse on June 15, 2016, in custody of officers from the New York State Office of Mental Health. (Photo: Ricky Flores/The Journal News)
The Laguerre case started our probe
The Journal News/lohud probe started after authorities found an illicit bottle of prescription pain pills beside the lifeless body of a Yonkers teacher in 2015.
The drug overdose death led police to charge psychiatrist Alfred Ramirez with illegally selling prescriptions for nearly 10,900 painkillers. Ramirez died while awaiting a federal trial on the charges, but the case led to the complex story of Raul Laguerre Jr.
Laguerre, 29, of Newburgh, has been locked up since he was a teenager for sexually assaulting a neighbor in Orange County.
During a criminal trial in 2004, lawyers and another doctor accused Ramirez of improperly prescribing a "pharmacological cocktail" to Laguerre that led to the sexual assault. A jury didn't believe the theory and convicted him.
Laguerre served his entire 10-year criminal sentence before being locked up under New York's civil commitment law. His legal challenge culminated with a judge denying outright freedom last year, and Laguerre remains confined at Central New York Psychiatric Center.
Judge Catherine Bartlett acknowledged legal debate over the civil commitment law in her comments in court to Laguerre, who has been locked up since committing the vicious sexual assault at 15.
"I can't imagine the Legislature envisioned a 15-year-old being locked up his entire life," Bartlett said, referring to the civil commitment law.
The judge is expected to decide if Laguerre will be released to a strict probation program in March.
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