Ayotte Leaves Child Advocate Office Without Leadership as Abuse Allegations at SYSC Continue
Ayotte Leaves Child Advocate Office Without Leadership as Abuse Allegations at SYSC Continue
Kelly Ayotte has offered no plan to replace Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez and has given “no clear timeline for filling the vacancy,” even with continuing reports of alleged abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center (SYSC).
The vacancy, which could “leave the office in a really, really bad place,” according to Sanchez, comes on the heels of new reporting that children at SYSC have been “confined in their rooms for so long” that they’ve been forced to “urinate on the floor” and there has been “dried blood on walls where children had harmed themselves.” Without an official independent watchdog, kids in state custody will be left without a dedicated state advocate.
Just last week, Kelly Ayotte’s AG released a report detailing the alleged abuse inside the SYSC. Sanchez highlighted how the report fails to meet the “independent” standards that the child advocate “focuses on” as it does not take into account the “wellbeing of children in state care.”
Even as allegations of abuse came to light at SYSC, Ayotte ignored repeated warning signs from the independent watchdog about the dangers of slashing staff capacity by nearly half. Her budget cuts have also led to a dangerous shortage of youth counselors at the facility.
“Kelly Ayotte must explain why she has no concrete plan to replace the state’s Child Advocate while serious allegations of abuse continue at the state’s youth detention center,” said NHDP Chair Ray Buckley. “Keeping children in state care safe shouldn’t be optional, but with Kelly’s budget cuts, the very office responsible for protecting vulnerable kids has been left without the resources it needs to do its job.”
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