Working to protect our most vulnerable
Last month’s revelation that the state had plans to place a registered sex offender in a Saratoga County group home alongside four individuals living with developmental disabilities was met with shock and outrage. The possibility had members of the community, myself included, thinking how could we allow some of our most vulnerable members of society to be housed in a potentially harmful situation?
The Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, the state agency that arranges for these individuals’ housing, maintains that only a small percentage of the state’s registered sex offenders are placed in group homes for the disabled. Still, this does not provide solace to family members whose loved ones are cared for in these facilities. Parents and guardians will do all that they can to prevent disrupting the safe environment that has been created to support and care for their children and loved ones with special needs. This most recent revelation in Saratoga County had families not only worried about their loved ones inability to express any unwanted changes, but also fearing that they would be put into a very dangerous situation. Instinctively the solution appears obvious, do not place convicted sex offenders in a residential setting with individuals with developmental disabilities. Unfortunately, the issue is so much more complicated. Since these registered sex offenders have legitimately diagnosed developmental disabilities, OPWDD is still responsible to provide the same support and services as they do to all other New Yorkers with such disabilities.
As a family court attorney and current member of the Assembly’s Mental Health Committee, defending the well-being of our region’s special needs community has always been one of my top priorities. As a mother of an adult child on the Autism Spectrum, I am also very familiar with the importance of maintaining these individuals’ daily routine and the potential consequences this situation could have for the developmentally disabled people living in these homes.
With that in mind, I was proud to join Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner and four of our legislative colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to the OPWDD urging them to pursue an immediate solution to this unfortunate problem, including the designation of certain group homes as housing for only registered sex offenders and measures to ensure the staff at these facilities are properly trained and integrated with local law enforcement. I have also signed onto legislation introduced by Assemblywoman Woerner (A.11357) that will ensure these offenders are not placed in homes with disabled individuals moving forward.
Also, I believe that we need to enforce a level of notification to communities, families and guardians of the residents, staff and others that will be affected. The notifications should be done well in advance so that families have an opportunity to comment on and to review the safety and security plans that are required by OPWDD and Department of Correction and Community Supervision. If a dangerous individual is being placed with members of our most vulnerable population, their families must be empowered to have a voice.
If you have any thoughts on how we can solve this problem, please do not hesitate to contact my office. I’m confident that we can come together as a community and protect the best interests of our residents living with disabilities.
Assemblywoman Walsh represents the 112th Assembly District, which consists of parts of Saratoga and Schenectady counties.