Governor Paul LePage's Ideas & Suggestions Forum - Privatize Child Protection

Governor Paul LePage's Ideas & Suggestions Forum - Privatize Child Protection

Privatize Child Protection

Maine is one of very few states who have not done this yet. Every year, DHHS investigates hundreds of cases of child abuse or neglect. A few are deemed as legitimate - abuse is happening and the legal system (police and courts) finds substantial evidence that abuse or neglect is happening. However, hundreds of complaints are made that do not go forward (in the legal system) because the legal system deems them "false reports" made by disgruntled members of the community. It's very easy to make a complaint - just call, especially if you feel abuse or neglect is taking place but please don't subject a person to this trauma just because your mad at him/her. How this process happens is like this; a call or complaint is made to DHHS Child Protection. It can be anonymous or if the caller is a mandated reporter, they have to leave their names. 90% of the calls are from anonymous callers so they don't have to leave their names. DHHS hires attorneys for every complaint and spends hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to prosecute - even the false reports,even if the police and courts say there is no case. DHHS then spends a lot of energy and money attempting to condemn hundreds of cases (that don't make it to court) making life miserable for those that are innocent. Give this to the Sheriffs Department. Let them investigate the cases and present their evidence to the courts. DHHS Child Protective does good work with the cases that are legitimate but put more resources towards those cases which are not legitimate just to prove their worth. If the Sheriffs Department (the legal system) has the ability to investigate every case that is reported, then the I bet the State of Maine would save hundreds of thousands, if not millions in frivolous cases. Let us do what over 40 other States have done and privatize this unit and let DHHS foster system run the foster system and give the investigative responsibilities to the legal system where they (police) are trained investigators and are already paid. It's time to let DHHS run the Humans Services and let the legal system conduct investigations. Also, let's save us - the taxpayers, a lot of money so that we can put it towards education. Please research what has been done in other states in this area and start asking your legislators how much money DHHS Child Protective wastes us every year. You would be surprised! Indeed, I was.

John Mitchell