Concerned
Cass workers speak out about their future


RENSSELAERVILLE — Cass workers are speaking out this week — in union ads and the media — telling what they call "the rest of the story" on a youth detention center.

After widespread public outcry, Cass Residential’s mission was changed to a training facility for new state employees just over a month ago, and long-time Cass workers don’t like it.
"We’re living with uncertainty every day. We just don’t have a clue," said Britta Lovegrove, a nurse in the facility’s medical unit.

The Cass workers said they are circulating petitions within the facility and in the community for the center to continue to house youths.
"We’re a good place. We’re good people. We’re getting bad publicity," said Ron Pullmain, a child-care worker who "worked directly with the residents."

Lovegrove, Pullmain, John Conklin, and Christine Mickelsen, state employees who have each worked at Cass for more than 20 years, agreed to an interview this week, saying they don’t represent the views of the Office of Children and Family Services, which runs the facility, or of Cass Residential.

Following the recent mission change, the Rensselaerville Town Board voted unanimously last month on a motion calling for the facility to close. A petition calling for the closure was circulated by a kitchen worker who was raped and abducted at knifepoint by a Cass youth. (See related story.) Her petition was presented to the town board in January. Escapes from the camp, the most recent in November, have put local residents on edge.
While the facility has been emptied of youths, workers said they are doing required annual training. They are also painting, and "touching up" at Cass and other facilities, Pullmain said.

Cass, Lovegrove said, is now safer than it has ever been.
"As a woman, I don’t fear for my safety," she said. "Policies have changed that prevent anybody from being alone with any of the kids now."
Lovegrove said she began working at the facility because it was close to her home and her children were young. "It was a 20-hour nursing position, and I’m working with kids. I love kids. My gift is to work with kids and that’s what I like to do," she said.
"There’s only one person that wants to leave," Pullmain said, "and that’s only because he would like to relocate closer to his family." The facility had employed 33 workers.
"Some people may come there because it’s a job, but, after they’ve been there, it’s more than a job," Pullmain said.
"It’s a good source of employment for the community"," said Christine Mickelsen, a teacher. "It would be a shame for the community to lose that employment resource," she said.
"Well over half" of Cass’s employees, Pullmain said, live near the facility.
"There’s a lot of people up there. There’s 32 staff that are impacted by whatever decisions"are being made," Lovegrove said.
"We’re as heartbroken as can be," said Conklin of the kitchen worker was raped at Cass. He added, "It’s a whole lot different since that time."

Conklin, Lovegrove, and Mickelsen are union members, affiliated with the Public Employees Federation. Pullmain is with the Civil Service Employees Association.
PEF placed an advertisement this week in The Greenville Press and The Altamont Enterprise, saying Cass employees "feel safe in their communities, and they want to continue helping at-risk youths in the secure environment of Camp Cass."

Darcy Wells, spokeswoman for PEF, said this week that the union doesn’t have funding set aside for advertising.
"We don’t have a dollar amount," she said. A full-page ad costs $812 in The Enterprise.
Wells said Cass workers felt frustrated. The union then began putting an advertisement together last week. "They felt it was time to get their side of the story out," she said.

Media

In November, a 15-year old youth escaped from Cass and broke into the nearby home of Robert Johnston.
Pullmain said that, the night of the incident, two employees were taking garbage outside with a youth. The 15-year old fled, and the officer who pursued him "fell into a ditch because it was dark out." At recent Rensselaerville Town Board meetings, residents have questioned whether Cass workers were physically fit enough to chase after escaping youth.
"We are not required to do any physical training," Pullmain said.
The staff, Conklin said, is required to have restraint training. Lovegrove said restraining youths has "pretty much diminished."

Pullmain said four youths have escaped the facility in two years — one in December of 2004, another when two residents escaped at the same time, and the most recent escape in November.
"It’s tough to read [the newspapers] and see what’s printed in there, and"knowing some of that stuff isn’t true," Pullmain said. "It really bothers me," he said, "and we haven’t been able to say anything to the contrary."
Asked if they’ve been told not to talk to the press, Pullmain said, "All we’ve been told recently is we have the right, as citizens, to talk to the media if we choose to, just to let them know that we don’t represent the views of OCFS. We’re representing ourselves."
"This is not OCFS talking to you. This is not Camp Cass talking to you. This is four people that work at Camp Cass"We feel we’ve done a good job, and we want to continue doing our job," he said.

Inside Cass

Pullmain said there are 14 child-care positions like his at Cass; workers rotate through three shifts, he said.
"I just wish people could come in there and see, actually, what is done with these kids and how they behave," Pullmain said. "We’ve had a couple of bad apples in our basket, and it’s hurt us."

Pullmain said each staff member carries a radio; if anyone within the facility is in trouble or needs assistance, he said, they push a button on their radio, which sounds an alarm throughout the facility.
"You can’t miss it. That’s how loud it is"It’s like a foghorn," he said. "Once anyone presses the button, we respond immediately to the area"."

Pullmain said many workers who were at the facility the night the kitchen worker was raped are still employed at Cass.

The activities of Cass youths are carefully regulated, said Conklin.
"From the time they get up at seven o’clock in the morning to the time they go to bed at night, every single hour is programmed for them," he said.
"It’s meaningful structure," Mickelsen said.
"You give them other opportunities, and they see other opportunities," Lovegrove said. "Where these kids come from," she said, "you can see why they are the way they are. And we just try to give them the hope that they can move on and get out of it."
"I went to college to become a teacher, and that’s what I’ve done most of my life".," said Conklin.
"There are programs designed for them to work through their issues, their anger," said Mickelsen.

The youths spend time in recreation twice each day — one hour-and-a-half period during the day and another in the evening, said Pullmain. While at the facility, he said, residents show improvement in their hygiene and nutrition.
"They take pride in taking care of themselves," he said. Meals are prepared and scheduled by a dietitian, he said.
The youths, he said, are "not what they’re portrayed to be."

Following an escape from the facility in November, many area residents have recalled that, in the past, the community was in harmony with the facility’s youths.

The decision for not having the youths go out in the community, Pullmain said, was made before the 2004 rape.
When going off-grounds, he said, the staff must have "specific permission." Guidelines and procedures, he said, must be followed.
"Any trip off-grounds," Lovegrove said, "has to go through various levels of permission."

Pullmain said several residents have earned their General Equivalency Diplomas in the last year. The youths, he said, follow the same mandates as students in public schools. Residents, Pullmain said, receive individual counseling.
When residents arrive at the facility, Mickelsen said, the youths have low skill levels and are apathetic about schooling. Mickelsen said she teaches classes with between eight and 13 residents, which she said is "ideal."
"There’s a lot of learning that takes place. There’s significant growth in their levels," she said.
The workers said they have access to a youth’s prior records. But, they said, the crimes are not "something they focus on."
"If there’s a concern about our safety, we’ll know"Some of it’s shared, but it’s not something we focus on," Lovegrove said.
"We are privy to what’s in their files, but it can’t go public," Mickelsen said. "There’s paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, about these kids," she said.
"If a kid is deemed inappropriate," Pullmain said, "he doesn’t come to Cass. He goes to a more appropriate facility. We have different things"We have mental health facilities, secure facilities"There’s facilities set up specifically for all these types of kids," he said.

Cass had been a non-secure facility, intended for non-violent offenders.
"We watch out for them all the time," Conklin said of Cass residents. "At a moment’s notice, any of them could show something that is or isn’t in their records," he said. "They have to have eyeball supervision 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s a little bit different when they’re sleeping, but we’re always watching them," he said.
"If I see anything that’s out of the ordinary, it’s documented and sent to the appropriate administrator, and it’s looked into," Pullmain said. "If I see two kids talking over in the corner that usually don’t talk to one another, I walk over there and find out what’s going on," he said.
Conklin, a gym teacher, said that, when teaching basketball, he instructs residents on "the rules of the game, and the skills of the game." If residents become too physical or violent, he said, they are removed from the activity. If they continue to behave violently after returning to the game, he said, they are removed from the gym.
"We’re trying to teach them to play together," he said. "It’s not just one person and one ball. It’s five people and one ball"."
Conklin said he is "privileged to know" inmates’ prior records. "But most of the time, we treat them as they are. We meet them where they are, and we work with them there," he said.

Town involvement
"Camp Cass" has been on the Rensselaerville Town Board’s agenda for the last three months. Area residents have spoken at length about the facility and speculated about its management, the youth it has held, and the goings-on at Cass. Of the four Cass workers The Enterprise interviewed, only Mickelsen has attended meetings.

Conklin said he has worked the nights of some of the meetings.
"It’s come back from the community that sometimes they’ve been"very vocal, and we’ve all been concerned about that fact," Pullmain said, adding that he is unsure whether he is invited since he doesn’t live in the town.
"I think that’s going to change," Pullmain said. "The next town board meeting — hopefully we’ll have some Cass staff," he said.
The facility, Pullmain said, goes by the American Correction Association guidelines, which he has to oversee. One of the guidelines, he said, is "community suggestions."
"We’d love suggestions from the community. We’d love to have the advisory board sit there and talk to us. We’d love the involvement from the community," he said.