Oddo v. Queens Village Committee for Mental Health for Jamaica Community Adolescent Program, Inc.

A residential drug treatment facility, as an alternative to incarceration, may discharge its residents at any time for rule violations. Residents there are not prisoners, and may simply leave the facility at will — although if they leave without permission they may lose the privilege of receiving an alternative to incarceration. It is through this lens that the circumstances of this appeal must be understood. From these two essential facts, it follows as a rule of law and a statement of common sense that these facilities cannot properly be saddled with a duty to protect the general public…