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Terry Losicco, the Lincoln Hall resident who brutally murdered Eleanor Prouty and severely injured her husband Norman in their Somers home in 1980, was denied parole on March 25. Losicco was 16 when he and fellow Lincoln Hall resident David Hollis broke into the home expecting to find a large sum of money. With Lincoln Hall once again the spotlight, the Somers Town Board is considering the creation of a task force that would look into the facility’s security and how it could affect the town’s safety.
“It got discussion circulating in regard to Lincoln Hall,” said Somers Town Supervisor Mary Beth Murphy at the board’s recent work session. Murphy added that she and Councilman Rick Morrissey recently met with Somers resident Scott Saks, who lives in the same home where the murder took place. “(Saks) suggested setting up a task force of citizens to help address the issue of what is going on there. I thought that was a good suggestion.”
The board could enact a resolution forming the citizen task force during its regular meeting at 8 p.m. Thursday. Roughly 60 percent of those at Lincoln Hall are “undocumented youth” and about 40 percent of the population is made up of juvenile delinquents, Murphy said during the work session.
“I think what’s been suggested is that the task force would help in facilitating answers to our questions, which we all do agree are good questions,” Murphy said. “We have some answers to our questions but certainly not all.”
The task force would operate independently from the town board, would have no legal standing but would be sanctioned by the board, council members said during the meeting. The task force’s mission would be to answer a variety of questions put forth by the board and form an action plan for the town to follow.
Morrissey said representatives with Lincoln Hall had been helpful and that previous meetings were productive.
“They have heard our concerns,” Morrissey said. “The community concern is all around safety. That means resident safety, teachers safety, the administration over there and the kids there.”
Eleanor Prouty’s grandson Brooks Prouty, who helped organize an online petition to keep Losicco in jail, said previously his new focus would be in finding out more about Lincoln Hall.
“The thing I’m really focused on more and more is the element of risk that the town of Somers is exposed to by the existence of Lincoln Hall and its security practices that are very, very lax,” Prouty said recently, adding that he learned of records that showed state police responded to more than 300 calls to Lincoln Hall in just over a year. “My understanding is that is a shockingly high number.”
Representatives from Lincoln Hall were not immediately available for comment on Monday.
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