Cuomo Reaches Deal with Legislative Leaders on Abuse Bill

See this Danny Hakim New York Times article, which begins:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders reached a deal Sunday night to create a new state agency to police abuse and neglect of more than one million New Yorkers with developmental disabilities, mental illnesses and other conditions that put them at risk, state officials said Sunday. 

The governor also agreed to take some steps to bolster outside oversight of the state’s care, yielding to concerns raised by Assembly Democrats and some advocates for people with disabilities that state regulators have long failed to adequately respond to cases of abuse on their own. Lawmakers also agreed to expand the state’s public disclosure law, requiring thousands of nonprofit groups that provide services to disabled and mentally ill people to make records of abuse and neglect public. 

“This new law will help us protect the civil rights of the more than one million New Yorkers with disabilities and special needs who for too long have not had the protections and justice they deserve,” the governor said in a statement. He said the new agency “will give New York State the strongest standards and practices in the nation for protecting those who are often the most vulnerable to abuse and mistreatment.”