Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Releases Preliminary Findings on the Death of Myls Dobson, Orders a Review of Current ACS Services Cases that Include Court-Ordered Supervision

January 17, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio: I'm joined today by our Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, and I'll note that at the end of my remarks Lilliam will give a brief summary in Spanish, and by the Commissioner for the Administration for Children's Services Gladys Carrión. And I want to thank both the deputy mayor and the commissioner for their very speedy action over the last week responding to the tragedy of the loss of Myls Dobson. This is a very painful case. A lot of people in this room have seen the media reports. We lost a child in such a horrible manner. And as a parent and every parent in this family – excuse me, in this city feels as I do that it's very, very painful to know that this child went through such agony, and that a child was lost that we believe there were more than one opportunity to save. And we want to going forward learn from this tragedy and make changes as a result. This report that I ordered is a preliminary review. I asked the deputy mayor and the commissioner to bring a preliminary analysis forward by close of business today. They've done that.

It's a very thorough analysis but there is more that – that will be added – more detail that will be added before the report is made public. The report included a review of ACS case records and of family court proceedings. There will be more work to be done on this investigation but what we have found so far certainly shows us areas for improvement that we need to act on. And understanding what happened and what didn't happen and why is fundamentally important. The agency's duties and our duties are to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again. And that is a priority of this City Hall and obviously a priority of these two leaders.

And we know that there are many vulnerable children in this city and it's our job to do everything we can to find them and protect them. As I said, the deputy mayor and the commissioner in this report have made a number of recommendations. Some of these can be put into effect administratively and we will move immediately to do that. There are other actions that may require legislation. We do support in principle the idea of any action that will provide for a clearer and fuller communication between the police and ACS.

Some state lawmakers have recently proposed potential legislation. We're certainly going to explore that legislation to determine if that is the best way to move forward or if there's other actions we can take to improve communication between the two agencies. The goal of these reforms is to improve child protective practices in this city. And as I said the other day, our goal is literally to save every child. We need to be very clear about that to everyone involved in this city who works with children. We are here to reach every child, to save every child.

We have to be clear to the people of this city that that is our obligation and we're going to ask the people of this city to help us by focusing more and more on giving us the information that we need to know if a child is in danger. I'm directing the Administration for Children's Services to implement the recommendations that have been put together. These include – I'll go through them point by point. And again, Lilliam will give a summary in Spanish. Then we're going to take questions. I just want to emphasize the questions at this point will only be on this topic.

First recommendation going forward, we will require an "End of Supervision." End of Supervision family court appearance in all abuse and neglect cases. What that means is all relevant parties would be expected to appear and there would be a review at the time by the family court judge of the overall case in a decision on what's best for the child. Second point, ACS will conduct a review of all current cases that include court-ordered ACS supervision.

Third, ACS will also conduct a review of the structure and operations of the Family Support Unit. This is one of the wings of ACS. We want to look at the structure and operations of that unit to strengthen its child protective practices and protocols.

Four, we will also be seeking in one area in particular we know we need to seek state legislation expanding ACS's access to "e-justice" records. Currently the agency can obtain state information about convictions but the law needs to be changed so that ACS is also able to gain information about active arrests that have not yet resulted in a conviction.

Number five, we will seek legislation to strengthen ACS's authority to supervise non-respondent parents. That means a parent who is not named in an ACS case but is also a parent of a child who ACS is supervising. So, we what want ACS to have additional authority to supervise non-respondent parents because we think in several of these cases obviously that's another area of real concern.

Six, we'll establish new inter-agency collaborations with key criminal justice agencies, specifically the State Department of Parole and New York City Department of Probation. The goal is to notify parole and probation officers even when someone under their oversight is given supervision of a child by the family court. So, we want greater coordination between all these agencies when a child is placed under the supervision of an individual who is either on parole or probation.

Next, we will seek mandated preventative services in these type of cases. This means, where we see a situation that a family may still be experiencing difficulties, we're going to move to apply additional preventative services. This is something I've worked on for many years. This is a type of crisis intervention effort provided by community based organizations – helps to stabilize a family and protect children. So, where we see specific instances where we think the absence of these services is not allowing the support the family needs, we're going to move to strengthen our efforts to get those services to families.

Next, we will enhance the City Department of Corrections intake process, so that corrections officers routinely make inquiries about arrangements for children when a primary caregiver is arrested. We want that to become a protocol with the Department of Corrections – asking anyone that they are supervising whether they have a child and whether that child has care provided in the event of an arrest.

Next, we're going to form an inter-agency children's cabinet. So, this will be made up only of city government agencies but we think it's crucially necessary to create the kind of coordination between city agencies that still is not as strong as it needs to be. So, this children's cabinet will include ACS, Department of Health, HHC – the Health and Hospitals Corporation, the Department of Education, and the NYPD. The goal will be to constantly work to improve our collaborative efforts to keep children safe.

Finally, we're going to in the coming weeks launch a public, private campaign, a general awareness campaign to help New Yorkers know how important it is to report any potential instance of child abuse and neglect. It's absolutely crucial that anytime a New Yorker believes that a child may be in danger that it's reported promptly. And we're going to get that information out and help New Yorkers to know what they can do. That is what we need crucially to be able to get the help in time to a child who might be in danger.

So, the message today is that child safety is everyone's responsibility. We're going to get that across in the coming weeks. Every single New Yorker, all 8.4 million of us are in this together when it comes to protecting children. We have seen in many cases including cases that I was involved with the aftermath of – most notably Nixzmary Brown, that we constantly have to help people to know how important their voices are in this process, how that one phone call can save a life. But we certainly know it's the city government's responsibility and every city agency's responsibility to look out for our children and intervene in any way we can to protect our children. And that is why we believe that this reform package is the right thing to do and that's why we're putting it into effect right away. With that, let me call up our deputy mayor.

[Deputy Mayor Barrios-Paoli speaks in Spanish]

Mayor: Again, I’ve delineated the key recommendations that we're going to act on, there will be more detail added in the coming days and then the report will be released publicly. With that, we welcome your questions.

Yes, Melissa. 

Question: It seems like there was another, sort of, pressure point in this case. Back in June, when the father was charged with a crime in New Jersey while the child was still under court-ordered supervision, and the agency didn't seem to be aware of that, leading to the case being closed, whereas that might also be a warning sign – a parent is going to face criminal charges and that parent is the sole caretaker. Is there anything in these recommendations that would address a situation like that? We need to know before closing a case that a sole caretaker is facing criminal prosecution.

Mayor: I'm going to speak broadly and then turn it over to the commissioner. I think there are several items in here that get to deepening the supervision and the flow of communication to try and avoid missing information like that. But let me bring up the commissioner.

ACS Commissioner Gladys Carrión: That speaks directly to one of the recommendations to get – to really enhance our access to e-justice. So, that we have notice and knowledge of active cases, arrest cases. Right now, ACS only has access to that system to see convictions. So, we want to be able to see those active arrests. 

Question: So, if his father was charged in another state, would we have access to that?

Commissioner Carrión: Yes, we do, under the e-justice system.

Question: [inaudible]

Commissioner Carrión: That's right. And the other recommendation, as our deputy mayor reminds me, is having back – going back to court for a hearing before termination gives us another opportunity to explore those additional factors that might have arose during the course of the case. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, it appears that, based on my reading here, you have no serious doubts about the way the case workers handled this, because it says here, at no time, it says the beginning of [inaudible] report that he was being abused and neglected? Is that accurate?

Mayor: Okay, I’m going to let the commissioner speak to that – I would just say that we think that the issues we have to address, the areas we have to address, are not about individual capacity. We think there are systemic things that we want to see improved, and that's why we've laid out substantial changes in our approach. But let me have the commissioner–

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: I’m going to have the commissioner speak to that.

Commissioner Carrión: That's correct. I mean, during the course of our involvement in this case, many, many visits were made and each of those visits, the child was found to be safe, to be healthy, and our work has verified that. So, there was never any question as to this child's safety, nor were we advised, or any other reports filed, to indicate that the child was being neglected or abused.

Question: Can you talk about the public awareness campaign, what we might expect to see?

Mayor: Well, we have to work together with both city agencies and again, I think we're going to have some private partners we bring in on that, to help us, but I think it is about making it very vivid to the people of this city, that that single phone call can save a life. And you know, we have done a great job in this city, and I commend the previous administration for getting the word out in terms of any threat to our safety as a city, you know, "If you see something, say something" I think that idea is actually well-ingrained in the people of this city, as it should be. But when it comes to our children, I think there is still some hesitation. Sometimes I think well-meaning New Yorkers hesitate, perhaps talk themselves out of making the call. We want to encourage people to give the benefit of the doubt to actually making that call – picking up the phone. If you think a child might be in danger, much better it be reported and then let the professionals make sense of it, let the professionals look into it, rather than hold back information that actually might help us save a life. So, I think we're going to try and make it very clear how crucial the public involvement is. And let's face it, this could be in some cases, that lead, that clue, might be the thing that allows professionals to get there in time. We've had cases that ACS had no prior involvement in. And we lost a child with no warning whatsoever in terms of the public sector. But a single phone call might have changed that in time, that's what we have to encourage. 

Question: It says here that ACS social workers visited Myls on nine separate occasions while his father was in prison for months. And they never saw the father. So you're saying they did their job? I don't understand.

Commissioner Carrión: That certainly is a question of our practice, and that's something that we will be looking at very closely. But every time that we went to that home to visit, the child was with a caregiver, with a babysitter, and was well-cared-for. There were no questions. Every time we went to visit, our workers went, we were told that the father was working, and was working very long hours, 16 hours a day, and that's why he wasn't available. Should we have done something differently? Yes, we should have. 

Question: How many cases a quarter typically are there, because you're going to review all of those? And also, how many more preventative services cases do you expect to open and is that – can you just talk about the cost associated with that?

Commissioner Carrión: So, citywide, there are approximately 3,200 cases. And in Brooklyn alone, there are about 1,200 cases. I really can't speculate as to how many preventative cases we would we be opening as a result of this. We certainly have the capacity and we will – we certainly have the commitment to get the resources we need if we need additional capacity to provide preventative services. 

Question: Currently there are no provisions–

Mayor: Louder please.

Question: Currently there are no provisions inside of the patrolman's handbook about what to do if a child [inaudible] if they find that there is a child involved with the arrestee, but there's nothing to mandate them to do anything to make sure the child is safe. There have been advocates who have been trying to push for a change in that, to make a protocol that's uniform across the department, have you talked to any of those folks? Is that something you're looking at possibly changing?

Mayor: I'll just say before the commissioner comes up that we want to have this Children's Cabinet become a part of our approach because we want to strengthen the connection between ACS and the NYPD. I think there's a variety of areas where we can do a better job if there's constant communication and coordination efforts. So we want to try and do that.

[inaudible]

Commissioner Carrión: Well, specifically talking to protocol, we certainly do want to strengthen that protocol. Absolutely.

Mayor: Courtney.

Question: Given – under these reforms would it be less likely for primary caregivers if they are on probation to get custody of their child, one. And then a second part to that question, you say that these reforms – that changes that need to occur, but is the city responsible, or to blame for Myls Dobson's death.

Mayor: Again, we're trying to look at the systemic dynamics, and find a way forward. The investigation is continuing. Again, I'll let Gladys come up – the commissioner come up and speak to it further. But our purpose today is to say that the preliminary report has come in, as requested, on time, there are very clear recommendations. We're going to pursue these recommendations.

Commissioner Carrión: So, we have to be clear that there was a judicial process; there was a thorough review here in this case, that a judge, certainly reviewing all of the facts in this case, made a determination to provide custody to the father – to remind everyone that the father did not kill this child. So, I think we need to remember that, and hopefully what this tells us about parents or individuals that are involved in the justice system that might be on parole or probation – just tells us that we need to be very thorough in a background check and their ability to care for the child. But it should not be considered a prohibition to custody of children. There isn't really a direct correlation between being on parole and being a good parent. But it does say that we have to do our due diligence. 

Unknown: Last question please.

Question: Just wondering if we know, maybe I missed it, but do we know the amount of time that elapsed between the last successful visit – or the visit when the child appeared to be in good health and the moment of the child's death?

Commissioner Carrión: It was in May, in the middle of May is my – no?  August? And supervision ended in September. No? Go ahead. Tell me.

Unknown: The last visit was actually in July, and supervision ended in August. 

Commissioner Carrión: August okay. So the last visit was July, and supervision ended in August. There was no indication that visit that there was any problem at all with the child.

Question: Is there a requirement – this is just a procedural question – do you know if there's a requirement during court-ordered supervision that the parent actually be seen, that there be contact with the parent?

Commissioner Carrión: There is no requirement. Is it good practice? Yes. 

Mayor: And I'll just conclude by saying – thank you. Again, we – the three of us have spent a lot of time on these issues, all in different ways, over the course of our careers. We can't look at a situation like this and say, that business as usual is acceptable. So, to that last question, you know, we have to look at every opportunity to improve practice. This is very tough work, I want to emphasize, the work that our child protective workers do is incredibly difficult. We're dealing with all sorts of human challenges, and to try to protect children and discern the truth is a very complicated endeavor. So, I always appreciate those who choose to do the work of protecting children. It is often thankless and always very, very difficult. But the issue here is how to improve our practice, how to improve our laws, how to improve our supervision, how to improve the coordination between agencies. We know there's a lot more to do. And I think my colleagues throughout their careers have exemplified this – we will, every single time, try to learn and do better, and if we really have the attitude and the belief that our job is to save every child we are going to consistently work to improve our practice, to improve our communication with the people, to get every agency on the same page because that's how we save children's lives.

Thank you everyone.