Is there is anything that can be done about Scott Kelly, the 53 year-old man who is arrested on a regular basis? Scott is a severe alcoholic who is the scourge of police and stores with his constant thefts, begging and public urinations. His last arrests were for shoplifting beer and stealing an American flag from the park in Lyons to wrap himself up to sleep under a canal bridge.
Scott ended up in the Town of Lyons after living in the Wolcott Village area for a couple of years. Of course, the Village of Wolcott was only too pleased to have him relocated to Lyons.
Now, both the Sheriff’s Office and State Troopers have to deal with Scott, almost on a daily basis. He can be seen panhandling all over downtown Lyons and has been unceremoniously banned from just about every store and building.
Scott has been the subject of many Times of Wayne County Head Scratchers arrests over the past year and a half, mainly because of his antics in his efforts to survive. Embarrassment by arrests has done nothing to quell his daily misadventures.
In fairness, Scott is not the only chronic alcohol/drug users to be labeled a nuisance over the years, he is just the latest and most visible. Kelly is often found sleeping in doorways, benches, or lately under canal bridges in Lyons.
Times Editor, Ron Holdraker has discussed Scott and similar individuals with Sheriff Barry Virts in the past, usually they end is the same, they fade away, or die.
“Every time Scott Kelley has been arrested, no matter the arresting agency, I have contacted Wayne Behavioral Health Director Jim Haitz to have his Outreach Open Access Crisis Team intervene,” said Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts
Wayne County Mental Health Director Jim Haitz could not talk specifically about Kelly. He stated that Wayne County has a homeless/addicted problem. “We offer these individuals everything under the sun. Unfortunately our hands are tied. We cannot force someone with an addiction into a program. We have tried, tried and tried our very best to get (him/them) sober, clean and checked medically. There is no statue under the law. (He) has the right to refuse everything that I have offered”.
Haitz said that unfortunately Wayne County lacks a homeless shelter, found in bigger counties, that could provide these individuals with peer, or professional help. Instead, Social Services may end up sending homeless addicts to local motels, rooms, or apartments that are only stop-over points in their lives.
A recent letter from an Auburn Correctional inmate Craig Mobayed to the Times, suggested that Kelly “is in the news as much as Donald Trump” and that perhaps a substantial amount of jail time would allow his brain to dry out a little and teach him about AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and recovery from alcoholism. “Lock him up! It just might do him (Kelly) some good,” wrote Mobayed.
“I hate to criminalize these people,” said Haitz. He added that simply sentencing these individuals to jail, even for an extended period of time, does not work. “An addict, without treatment, will simply pick up where they left off, relapse”.
Whether it is Social Services, Adult Protective Services, or Mental Health, or the Wayne County Judicial Services, the law currently lacks the teeth to deal with the homeless addict.
