Workers at now shuttered DYS facility charged with beating residents with orange sandals

Eight workers at the former Casa Isla DYS facility on Long Island face charges they used orange sandals to beat the naked buttocks of the teenaged residents - and that they forced some of the residents to join in the beatings.

Two of the workers, Jalise Andrade and Hermano Joseph were released on personal recognizance at their arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court on charges of charges of assault and battery and witness intimidation this morning. Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Gloriann Moroney said six other workers await arraignment.

Moroney charged the workers used the orange, DYS-issue sandals as part of a discipline program they called "Orange Chicken." Residents who misbehaved or missed curfew would have their pants pulled down and a sandal applied with force to their behinds, she said. She charged that all residents were subjected to "Orange Chicken" the night before they left the facility - or if they returned to it for another stay. She said that in addition to this "ritualized violence," the workers also engaged in other violent acts against residents, which she did not specify.

Residents were told not to tell anybody about the beatings - and warned that the workers knew workers at other DYS facilities, so the residents had better watch what they say.

Attorneys for both men said their clients denied the charges.

Casa Isla, operated by the Volunteers of America, was shut by the state last August - three months before the Long Island Bridge was closed - due to allegations of worker abuse of residents.

Innocent, etc.