May 23, 2012
Governor Andrew Cuomo visited Syracuse University May 16 to present proposed legislation intended to protect New Yorkers with disabilities. University Professor Peter Blanck, chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, introduced Cuomo to an audience inside SU’s Schine Student Center. Cuomo spoke about his first-in-the-nation Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs (www.Justice4SpecialNeeds.com). “We will not allow people in the care of New York to be abused. Period,” Cuomo said at the event.
According to Cuomo, the initiative would establish the strongest standards and practices in the nation for protecting people with special needs and disabilities. The Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs would investigate, collect, and prosecute abuse allegations at facilities using state money to provide homes, care or classes for people with disabilities and the elderly.