A new way to keep families whole

A new way to keep families whole
Bill would curb foster care of kids whose moms are incarcerated

By BRYAN FITZGERALD, Special to the Times Union
First published in print: Wednesday, February 24, 2010

ALBANY -- Advocates for the rights of incarcerated women took what they hope was a giant step forward Tuesday to keep the families of jailed mothers intact after release.



Joined by supportive members of the Legislature and a handful of formerly jailed mothers, representatives from the state Office of Children and Family Services and the Women in Prison Project held a news conference in front of the Senate Chamber to push for support of the Adoption and Safe Families Act Expanded Discretion Bill.
The bill would grant foster agencies more leeway when forcing children of incarcerated mothers into permanent foster care.

The law currently terminates the parental rights of a parent whose child has been in foster care for 15 of the previous 22 months. The average sentence of an incarcerated woman in the state is 36 months -- meaning the majority of inmates lose their parental rights.

The new bill would give foster agencies expanded discretion in filing termination papers when a parent is incarcerated or participating in a residential drug treatment program.

"This is a complicated problem with a simple solution," said Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, D-Queens, the chair of the chamber's Committee of Correction. "Giving these families the chance to stay together is the right thing to do."

The bill has passed with unanimous support in the Assembly for the past two years, but has failed to hit the Senate floor.

The bill has 24 Senate co-sponsors, including Sens. Velmanette Montgomery, Tom Duane, Jeff Klein, Liz Krueger, Carl Kruger, Ruth Hassell-Thompson, Eric Schneiderman as well as Majority Leader Pedro Espada and Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson.

"This is one big step in this challenge to bring back something that is so essential," Espada said.

There are roughly 100,000 children in New York state with an incarcerated parent, 10,000 of which have a mother in prison or jail.

An estimated 7 percent to 14 percent of children in foster care in the state have a parent who is incarcerated.

Advocates of the bill argue that placing a child in foster care hurts not only the child, but the mother as well, making her less apt to maintain a productive life in society.

The news conference included testimony from several mothers who lost custody of their children to foster care after being incarcerated, including Charmaine Smith of Brooklyn.

"I'm here not just for my own child, but for all the children out there," Smith said. "We need a law that affects the decisions we'll make tomorrow, not the ones we made in the past."

The current ASFA laws have been in place for 11 years. Advocates note approval of the new legislation would also save the state on costly parental termination proceedings.


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