Inadequate Oversight by the Administration for Children's Services
Department of Investigation · report
DOI investigated the supervision of youth adjudicated as delinquent at non-secure placement homes in the Administration for Children's Services Close to Home program, after three youths escaped a Boys Town New York home in Brooklyn on June 1, 2015 and assaulted a woman in Manhattan. DOI found that Boys Town overnight staff repeatedly failed to conduct required bed checks and falsified log books, and that ACS systemically failed to properly oversee Close to Home providers. DOI made recommendations to improve monitoring, contracts, and evaluation of the program, which ACS agreed to implement.
- Released
- 2016-04-13
- Kind
- Investigation
Key findings
- Of almost 600 required overnight bed checks reviewed on video, Boys Town staff conducted the checks less than one third of the time; even after the June 1, 2015 escape, compliance increased to only 50 percent. p. 6
- Boys Town overnight employees falsified log books with entries indicating they had checked on the youth when video showed they had not, at times lying on floors or remaining in unoccupied bedrooms. p. 6
- Boys Town managers failed to provide adequate oversight of overnight staff, including not reviewing available video footage, and did not address safety issues such as a malfunctioning window alarm that contributed to the escape. p. 7
- ACS lacked internal protocols within the three Division of Youth and Family Justice units that monitor the Close to Home program and sufficient policies on site inspections, safety, and security at the NSP facilities. p. 7
- ACS contracts with Close to Home providers gave generic guidelines without specific enforcement mechanisms, and ACS lacked evaluation and scoring tools to properly assess NSP providers until after the Boys Town incident. p. 7
- ACS was aware of youth going AWOL from NSP homes long before June 1, 2015, and had placed Boys Town on Corrective Action and Heightened Monitoring status in 2014, yet still gave Boys Town an overall fair rating on its Vendex report and reported being prepared to renew the contract. p. 7
What DOI recommended
- ACS should develop and implement its own policies and procedures, including clear assignment of responsibility within DYFJ units, a universal logbook policy, and unannounced day and overnight quarterly site visits using a standardized safety and security checklist. p. 25
- ACS staff should receive additional training on how each NSP's security system operates so they can check whether it is functioning properly. p. 25
- ACS DYFJ staff and NSP providers should conduct random video review, including live streaming, and random audits of logbooks compared against incident reports and video footage. p. 25
- ACS should create a universal tracking system for each incident that records steps taken, actions by ACS staff and NSP workers, and final resolution. p. 25
- ACS should enhance its contracts with NSPs to require safety and security protocols, systematic checks of security and video system functionality, monitoring of live video feeds, and enforcement mechanisms with clear consequences. p. 26
- ACS should create a proper evaluation tool to monitor performance of all NSPs, conducted bi-annually, with results made publicly available. p. 26
- ACS should examine whether similar guidelines need to be implemented for Limited Secure Placement contracts, policies, and procedures. p. 26
Entities in this report
- Administration for Children's Services Subject
- Boys Town New York Subject
- Division of Youth and Family Justice
- New York Police Department
- Kings County District Attorney
- The Children's Village
- The New York Foundling
- St. Vincent's Services
- St. Christopher-Ottilie