ONONDAGA CO. -- Onondaga County's top prosecutor joined several district attorneys from across the state, urging lawmakers to make funding for child abuse prevention programs a top priority.
D.A. Bill Fitzpatrick and six other district attorneys made the case in an editorial op-ed in the New York Daily News.
Of all the type of crimes they prosecute, the DAs say child abuse is the "most heartbreaking type of case" they handle. They say 77,000 children were abused or neglected in New York State in 2010, including at least 114 who died. "Nationally, nearly 80 percent of children who died as a result of abuse or neglect in 2010 were three years old or younger and almost half were infants less than one year old," D.A. Fitzpatrick and the other prosecutors wrote.
They say they strongly support Mayor Michael Bloomberg's request for $5 million from the state for the Nurse Family Partnership Program. The program provides a maternal health and early childhood development service that pairs first-time pregnant mothers and young families with a registered nurse on a voluntary basis. The attorneys say the program saves taxpayers money over the course of a child's life with fewer hospitalizations and by avoiding costly incarceration years later.
"We have a moral obligation to protect children from child abuse. It's also in the best interests of public safety and fiscal prudence, and we urge the Legislature to make resources for the prevention effort a top priority," the district attorneys wrote.
Read the entire op-ed here.
Information from the Associated Press used in this article.
