Just over a year in the past, New York Inspector General Lucy Lang took over an workplace that had languished in the legislative equal of a backwater. Since then, the workplace, whose major perform is that of a state company watchdog, has reached out to each the media and the public to be able to rebrand itself as “consumer pleasant.”
Lang spoke with Capital Tonight about a few of the workplace’s investigations in addition to this new guiding philosophy.
“(We want) to be a watchdog that people know about, that people feel is accessible, and that people utilize for ensuring that there’s integrity in state government,” Lang said.
Prior to Lang’s tenure, the workplace was run by Letizia Tagliafierro, a former prime aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a number of capacities who was implicated in the sexual harassment scandal that ended Cuomo’s career in politics.
According to Lang, over 5,000 complaints are filed with the IG’s workplace yearly — a lot of them come via through the company’s hotline quantity: 1-800-DO-RIGHT.
“We have a very rigorous process by which our subject matter experts review every complaint that comes in,” Lang defined.
The largest tranche of complaints has handled the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS). Indeed, considered one of Lang’s first main reviews was launched final month and checked out self-discipline inside the DOCCS system. It was titled, “Racial Disparities in the Administration of Discipline in New York State Prisons.”
The report discovered that prisoners of colour usually tend to be disciplined than white prisoners.
“As a result of our findings…we have recommended that the Department of Corrections implement annual and mandatory anti-bias training for all staff,” Lang stated.
Lang defined that a technique her workplace is recommending modifications to state prisons is by eliminating discretion.
“We found, perhaps not surprisingly, that the kinds of infractions in which there was the greatest likelihood of disparate treatment, were ones where the individual administrator was able to make a discretionary choice,” Lang stated.
The inspector normal additionally really useful persevering with the set up of cameras all through the state jail system, in addition to urging DOCCs to seize extra knowledge related to this difficulty.
When requested by Capital Tonight if the governor’s workplace had agreed to funding the buy and set up of the cameras, Lang said the following:
“I was asked to be an independent inspector general. As a result, I have built an office that has operated very much independently, and so we have not sought approval for our recommendations but given the whole administration’s commitment to racial justice issues, I am hopeful that all of our recommendations will be adopted.”
In addition to the duties talked about earlier, Lang additionally serves as the employees compensation fraud inspector normal and welfare fraud inspector normal.