Cass closed"
Facily’s future uncertain

RENSSELAERVILLE — Cass Residential Center’s future remains uncertain as it sits empty.

In the wake of seven escapes and a rape, a petition signed by nearly 500 area residents called for the state-run juvenile detention center to close. Since the most recent escape, in November, many town residents have asserted that Cass residents have become increasingly violent.

State Assemblyman John McEneny said this week that the residents are not more violent, that Cass pumps $2 million annually into the local economy, and that he doesn’t know if the facility will be closed temporarily, for the long-term, or permanently.
"As a legislator, I’m concerned," said McEneny. The new governor, Eliot Spitzer, he said, "wants to cut down on prisons." McEneny wonders if the state is also considering youth detention facilities, and "examining them from a policy and cost point of view."
"I’m wondering if the state is thinking about phasing it out totally," McEneny said of Cass. "Right now, I have more questions than answers," he said.

He also said that Cass representatives are expected to attend the town board’s meeting tonight (Thursday).
"They wanted to be put on the agenda, so we did that," Supervisor Jost Nickelsberg told The Enterprise last night.

The state’s Office of Children and Family Service deputy commissioner, Ed Ausborn, and Cass’s director, Tim Kelso, will attend, he said.
"The town and all the citizens are going to have a period of time to ask questions," he said. "It’s going to be pretty passionate," Nickelsberg said, adding, "These guys have infinite arrogance."
"It’s a big issue for the town," said Nickelsberg.

McEneny, Senator Neil Breslin, and Albany County Legislator Alexander (Sandy) Gordon met with Cass officials at the end of January at the juvenile detention center, looking for ways to bring the community and the facility together.
"They seemed very receptive," McEneny said of Cass officials’ reaction to the community’s concerns.

Cass officials were invited to Rensselaerville’s January Town Board meeting, and none showed.
Asked what was discussed at the January Cass meeting, McEneny said, "We talked about security. We talked about the peripheral fence." Cass, he said, had already spent "many thousands of dollars" on additional peripheral lighting, surveillance cameras, and locks.
"I think it was a mistake not to have sent a representative," McEneny said, adding that, had a representative been sent by Cass officials, misconceptions could have been cleared up about whether or not the facility’s residents had become increasingly violent offenders.
"It’s an easy answer, and the answer is no," said McEneny.

In mid-January, OCFS spokesman, Brian Marchetti, told The Enterprise that the center, which holds up to 25 males, had nine or 10 residents.

During the meeting with Cass officials, McEneny said, there were five residents. He took a tour of the facility and spoke with several of the youths in the cafeteria.
"None of them had a record of violence," he said, adding that he spoke with one resident who had just successfully completed his General Equivalency Diploma and was about to return to his hometown.

Fence considered
Cass Residential is currently without a fence. According to a Jan. 5 letter addressed to Kathleen Hallenbeck, Rensselaerville’s town clerk, from Ausborn, ""We are recommending a perimeter security fence. Currently, the fence is in design."
"A fence is under consideration," Marchetti confirmed this week, adding that there is no final decision, and OCFS is taking the concerns of the community into consideration.

McEneny said that, following the meeting with Cass officials, he attended Governor Eliot Spitzer’s presentation on Jan. 31 in Albany, where the new governor rolled out his $120.6 billion budget proposal in which he said he would be cutting down on the number of correctional facilities.
"After that, we heard that the residents of Cass were removed," said McEneny.
"Some of the benefits of Cass are that they receive about $300,000 in federal money," he said, adding that the money is only awarded to the facility if it holds 25 residents or fewer and doesn’t erect a peripheral fence.
"If the fence is erected they will lose the annual federal aid," he said. "The day it goes up over 25 residents, or a fence is put up, they will no longer be eligible for that money," he said.

Cass mission

At this time, there is no plan to change the security level, Marchetti told The Enterprise Monday. While Cass is empty, Marchetti said, OCFS is designating the kind of youth it will hold and modifying its program design.

According to the Cass Residential Center’s program description, Cass provides group and individual counseling on a regularly-scheduled basis. Cass’s goal is to help its residents target their risk areas and develop the strength and skills to identify and avoid their risk areas in the future.

The facility includes a dormitory, a dining hall and kitchen, and an administrative and education complex. The center has an education coordinator, two full-time teachers, and a part-time aide. Cass also offers two vocational programs affiliated with Cornell University Cooperative Education, one in food preparation and the other in horticulture, and it offers recreational activities from flag football to board games.

Each resident, the description says, is required to keep a 60-day Release-Ready Journal.

Marchetti said last month that the facility’s residents stay a minimum of four weeks. The release of a resident, he said, depends on his treatment needs.

The facility hires 33 employees, some of them part-time, McEneny said, adding that the area has few jobs. Two-thirds of the camp’s employees live within eight miles, he said.
"At this time," Marchetti said, "there are no plans for staff changes."