Terrible

A Disabled Boy’s Death, and a System in Disarray

Jonathan Carey did not die for lack of money.

New York State and the federal government provided $1.4 million annually per person to care for Jonathan and the other residents of the Oswald D. Heck Developmental Center, a warren of low-rise concrete and brick buildings near Albany.

Yet on a February afternoon in 2007, Jonathan, a skinny, autistic 13-year-old, was asphyxiated, slowly crushed to death in the back seat of a van by a state employee who had worked nearly 200 hours without a day off over 15 days. The employee, a ninth-grade dropout with a criminal conviction for selling marijuana, had been on duty during at least one previous episode of alleged abuse involving Jonathan.

Unfortunately it was not one bad employee, one instance of abuse. The Times story shows the pervasive culture of abuse in the state institution. It makes me sick to think of these people being treated this way. I know that people with developmental disabilities can be a challenge, especially if they get upset easily or act out, but they don't deserve to be treated like animals, and I hope these institutions will either be reformed or closed before someone else dies.