Advocates demand cameras in homes for developmentally disabled adults to reduce abuse

Article By Dana DiFilipo originally published on December 22nd , 2022 on https://newjerseymonitor.com/

When 33-year-old Nick Aquilino, who is severely autistic and completely nonverbal, suffered a broken finger in July 2021, he couldn’t say what happened — and no one at the state-run home for developmentally disabled adults in Cape May County where he lives had answers either.

“It was a bit of an unusual injury,” said his mother, Cynthia Allen. “The orthopedist explained it as the type of injury basketball players get when they go for a ball high up and their finger bends all the way back to their hand.”

Two weeks later, the same joint on Aquilino’s other hand got mysteriously injured, and an X-ray revealed another healed fracture his mother never knew about.