Child protective services in the Calista Springer case: Inexcusable? Yes. Inexplicable? Sadly, no

Viewpoint: Child protective services in the Calista Springer case: Inexcusable? Yes. Inexplicable? Sadly, no
By Viewpoint
March 19, 2010, 1:26PM

This photo of Calista Springer was taken in June of 2005 and provided by her grandmother, Suzanne Langdon. Calista's parents, Anthony and Marsha Springer, were found guilty in February of child abuse and torture in connection to Calista's death in 2008. (Photo Courtesy of Suzanne Langdon)
By Richard Wexler

On Feb. 27, Kalamazoo Gazette columnist Julie Mack described the inaction of child protective services in the case of Calista Springer as “inexplicable.”

That inaction was appalling, tragic, and inexcusable. But inexplicable? No.

Here’s the explanation: CPS failed to act aggressively in the case of Calista Springer precisely because it acts too aggressively in so many other cases.

St. Joseph County takes away children at the second highest rate in Michigan — a rate more than double the state average and nearly four times the rate in Wayne County. So either St. Joseph County is a cesspool of depravity, with four times the rate of child abuse as Detroit, or CPS has a take-the-child-and-run mentality that destroys hundreds of innocent families.

At the same time, this take-the-child-and-run approach so overloads caseworkers that they don’t have time to investigate any case properly. So when a case of real depravity is right under their noses, they may overlook it.

It is inexcusable, but perfectly comprehensible, that in an agency desperate to keep up with a deluge of false reports and trivial cases, a CPS worker might say, in effect, “gee, we really wish you wouldn’t chain your daughter to a bed, but we’re not actually going to stop you.”

St. Joseph County CPS perfectly illustrates the fact that child welfare systems often are arbitrary, capricious and cruel. They leave some children in dangerous homes, even as they take more children from homes that are safe or could be made safe with the right kinds of help. The consequences are profound:

When a child is needlessly thrown into foster care, he loses not only mom and dad but often brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers, friends and classmates. For a young enough child it can be an experience akin to a kidnapping. Other children feel they must have done something terribly wrong and now they are being punished. One recent study of foster care “alumni” found they had twice the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder as Gulf War veterans and only 20 percent could be said to be “doing well.”

Other studies, involving 15,000 typical cases, are even more devastating. Those studies found that even maltreated children left in their own homes with little or no help typically fared better than comparably-maltreated children placed in foster care.

All that harm can occur even when the foster home is a good one. The majority are. But the rate of abuse in foster care is far higher than generally realized and far higher than in the general population. That same alumni study found that one-third of foster children said they’d been abused by a foster parent or another adult in a foster home. Switching to orphanages won’t help — the record of institutions is even worse.

But the worst consequence is the one I mentioned at the outset: overloading the system so more children in real danger are missed.

It doesn’t have to happen. Our organization has issued two comprehensive reports on Michigan child welfare, with scores of recommendations for transforming the system — without spending more money, since alternatives to foster care also cost less. The reports are available on the state and local reports page of our Web site.

Real change requires standing conventional wisdom on its head. It requires decisions based on fact, not on what satisfies gut instinct and our desire to vent our rage in response to tragedy. But that seems like a small price to pay for increasing the odds that the next Calista Springer will be saved.

Richard Wexler is executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.

http://blog.mlive.com/readreact/2010/03/viewpoint_child_protective_ser.html