Mt Pleasant Officials Want JCCA Campus Closed Over Dangerous Children

MOUNT PLEASANT, NY — Infuriated by the rising number of incidents at a residential treatment center for emotionally troubled children in town, Mount Pleasant officials are calling on New York State to close the facility.

The New York City-based child welfare and mental health service provider serves New York’s most vulnerable children. The JCCA’s Westchester Campus was founded in 1912 as the Pleasantville Cottage School, a residential treatment program at 1075 Broadway with the first cottage-style center in the country. Family courts or mental health agencies typically place children at the JCCA. Programs at its Westchester Campus are regulated by the State Office of Mental Health and the Office of Children and Family Services.

In recent years, the state has been placing youths suffering from serious psychological and emotional conditions in a facility that is not designed or staffed to handle them, town officials said.

As proof, they pointed out that during the first six months of 2023, the Mount Pleasant Police Department responded to 459 calls at the JCCA campus in Pleasantville for incidents ranging from assaults, violent altercations, missing persons and vandalism. Based on the first six months, they predicted this year’s call volume will exceed 1,000, a record.

To date in 2023, the Mount Pleasant Police Department and/or the Pleasantville Volunteer
Ambulance Corps have responded to the campus for reports of:

• 248 missing persons
• 24 assaults
• 23 vandalism incidents
• 13 violent altercations/fights
• 11 suicide or self-harm threats
• countless emotionally disturbed children

In 2022, the Mount Pleasant Police/emergency services responded to more than 760 calls at the JCCA campus.

"It is clear that the JCCA does not have the necessary and qualified staff to cope with residents who have severe behavioral and psychological issues," said Town Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi in a news release. "The fact that the Town received 248 missing persons calls in 180 days is just one indication that the JCCA staff is incapable of ensuring the safety and whereabouts of JCCA residents."

Conditions at the campus have become so bad — including reports of weapons — that the JCCA staff fear for their own safety, town officials said. The staff’s security concerns prompted the State Administrators’ Association to formally complain to the JCCA about ongoing conditions.

“Over the past year, life threatening behaviors committed by a few students against other vulnerable students and staff alike have jeopardized the health, safety and welfare of everyone on campus. For example, in the past few weeks, security found a taser and knives in one of the campus cottages. Multiple students have been found in possession of weapons,” wrote Arthur P. Scheuermann, the School Administrators Association of New York State’s attorney in an April 28 letter to the JCCA leadership.

Mayhem on the campus spills into the community, town officials said, arguing that Pleasantville police have repeatedly responded to reports about JCCA residents accused of robbery, burglary and other crimes in the village.

Town officials alleged that at times, unstable JCCA residents have frightened the campus’ neighbors. Last year a psychologically disturbed resident entered a Mount Pleasant neighbor’s backyard, stole a chicken from a chicken coop and then killed it by biting off its head while walking down the middle of a residential block. In another incident, a shirtless male resident blocked a neighbor’s vehicle on the street and threatened to kill himself.

"This center is a tremendous drain on Mount Pleasant’s police and ambulance services and these emergency service calls routinely consume hours of our officers’ days," said Mount Pleasant Police Chief Paul J. Oliva.

Mount Pleasant officials said that outreach efforts to the JCCA have been fruitless, with conditions steadily worsening.

But JCCA officials said they have been struggling to get state and city officials to listen and deal with the problem.

"For over a year, JCCA has been raising the alarm at every level of government about the growing level of needs among young people with complex psychiatric and behavioral diagnoses that cannot be addressed in our campus setting," said Ronald E. Richter, Chief Executive Officer of JCCA.

Meanwhile, saying they have "exhausted every avenue," town officials are demanding the state close the facility.

"Everyone is endangered — children, staff and neighbors — by the State’s and JCCA’s failure to address the inadequacies at this campus. The State of New York Office of Children and Family Services has been turning a blind eye to this disturbing situation for too long," Fulgenzi said.

Richter's full statement:

At JCCA, we feel a deep sense of responsibility for every child who comes through our doors, yet we are hampered by an inadequate system of care for a small number of young people on our campus whose needs far exceed the level of support our programs are designed and licensed to deliver. These young people are with us because there is simply nowhere else for them to go. This is not sustainable.

These children are in crisis—and so is the mental health system that is intended to help them. For over a year, JCCA has been raising the alarm at every level of government about the growing level of needs among young people with complex psychiatric and behavioral diagnoses that cannot be addressed in our campus setting. JCCA has been advocating for an intensive services model that would bolster safety for our campus community, as well as for the surrounding community, and we will continue to fight for these children to get the support they deserve.

We need more long-term solutions for children with the most acute needs, and our partners at the City and State level must support our efforts to address these challenges.

About JCCA:

One of New York’s oldest child and family services organizations, JCCA provides the highest quality child welfare and mental health services to more than 17,000 children and their families every year.

JCCA’s transformative programs include foster and residential care, educational assistance and remediation, behavioral health and wellness services, case management, and child maltreatment prevention. Since 1822, JCCA has worked with New York’s neediest and most vulnerable children and families to ensure that their safety, permanency, and well-being leads to a life of stability and promise.