Isabella Brooke Knightly and Austin Gamez-Knightly
In Memory of my Loving Husband, William F. Knightly Jr. Murdered by ILLEGAL Palliative Care at a Nashua, NH Hospital
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Gabriel Myers-Foster child who hung himself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6DA1ik4wpE&feature=related
Fixing CPS Corruption and Foster Care
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoUtZCKLOp8&feature=player_embedded#!
Texas leader hopes to change foster care system
Texas leader hopes to change foster care system » Latest News » Corsicana Daily Sun, Corsicana, Texas
Posted by Admin | Posted in General | Posted on 25-07-2010-05-2008
With the State of Texas watching over her, Bryant often thinks in response, "Why shouldn't I have made it through?"
But Bryant, a small-business owner, mother of three and civic volunteer, understands why people say that. She understands because the system failed to protect her. And she's heartbroken over the way she believes it failed her brother. She doesn't want it to fail anymore.
As Gov. Rick Perry's recently appointed chairwoman of the Department of Family and Protective Services Council, Bryant hopes to use her experiences to help shape a system that she says struggles with many of the same problems as it did decades ago.
"We're still looking at the same process that breaks children, stopping children from dreaming to be the best they can be," Bryant said. "I never stopped dreaming."
Texas officials think she's the first former foster child to lead the council, which advises the state agency on issues ranging from protecting children and elderly or disabled adults to rules for day cares.
"Her personal journey will really help us to be more in tune, to be more aware, to be more understanding and to just make sure we're always putting in the forefront what we'd want for our own children and families," said Joyce James, deputy commissioner of the department.
Bryant says that through the advisory council, she'll work to address the over-representation in the foster system of African American children, who also stay in the system longer than other children. And Bryant says she wants to see a foster care system in which children make it because of the experience, not in spite of it, as she did.
"When 'foster' is added in front of a child's name, certain things happen that would not happen if it was your own child," Bryant said. "It's not a title a child asks for."
Bryant, 52, is a fifth-generation Austinite. She entered the foster system at age 6 with her three siblings after their mother was arrested for killing a man.
Bryant, her brother and two sisters, still in blood-spattered clothing, were taken from home. Their mother was placed in a state psychiatric hospital, where she received electric shock treatment and was never herself again, according to Bryant. She didn't get her kids back. Bryant never knew her father.
Meanwhile, the children were separated and placed in foster homes.
For Bryant, that was the start of living in some 20 homes, mostly in the Austin and Corsicana areas, by the time she left the system at 18. Her school and church changed every time she moved. She's been Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and a member of the Church of Christ.
"We never completed a thing," she said.
Worse, she said, the system failed to keep her safe. She was sexually abused by foster parents and by other children in various foster homes, she said, until she learned that wasn't supposed to be happening. And though she figured out that she could be moved to another home if she reported the abuse, she never received counseling, she said. She said she is not aware of police ever having been contacted.
Her brother, Charles Rector, disappeared at 14 and resurfaced years later in jail, she said. As an adult, he was convicted of the 1981 kidnap, rape, shooting and drowning death of Carolyn Kay "Katy" Davis, 22, whose naked, bruised body was found in Lady Bird Lake.
Bryant reconnected with her brother and was a witness to his 1999 execution. After the lethal drugs began flowing, the American-Statesman reported at the time, Rector, 44, said softly: "I love you, sister."
Bryant links Rector's fate to his time in the foster system.
Bryant and those who knew her as a teenager say that she was able to endure her time in the system because she was fiercely determined to succeed. Influenced by her biological great-grandmother's focus on prayer, her Christian faith sustained her, she said.
"I just believed there had to be something else," she said.
Along the way, she found people who cared.
Judith Martin was a caseworker to Bryant when, as a teenager, she was pregnant and determined to keep her baby.
"Gigi was definitely a memorable kid on my caseload, oh my, yes," Martin said. "She was clear about who she was and where she wanted to go. She wouldn't just let people make choices for her. And shining through all that was her spirit."
Modean Wilkins, Bryant's last foster mother, said: "I saw her wanting more in life than the average 16-year-old."
Wilkins remembers Bryant taking great care with her allowance and babysitting money. If she got $20, she'd keep $10 and put $10 in the bank, Wilkins said. When she graduated from high school, she had saved enough to buy a Volkswagen.
Today, Gigi Bryant is president of GMSA Management Services Inc., a business development consulting firm. She is on the board of the Austin Community College Foundation and the advisory council of the Assistance League of Austin, and is a member of the Douglas Club, a volunteer organization.
She earned a bachelor's degree from St. Edward's University after a decade of taking classes while working and raising her daughter, now 35, and older son, now 30. She also has an 18-year-old son. She holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas.
After years of what she says were abusive relationships, Bryant is now married to her "best friend," Sam Bryant, who is the father of two children of his own. Together, the Bryants have four grandchildren.
Gigi Bryant's daughter, Shantel Wilkins (no relation to Modean Wilkins), said her mother kept her and brother Marcus Wilkins "on the straight and narrow," encouraging academic achievement to the point that summers were spent reading and handing in book reports to their mom. "We weren't watching TV and hanging out," said Shantel Wilkins, whose brother Marcus played football for the University of Texas and the NFL.
Bryant had been on the Department of Family and Protective Services Council for four years when the governor tapped her in March as chairwoman. She said she made sure Perry's aides knew about her experiences in the foster system, telling them that "if they wanted me to hide that, I'm not the right person."
James, the department deputy commissioner, said Bryant has long volunteered to share her experiences with child welfare workers.
Bryant has "always encouraged us to listen to the young people," James said. "Part of her experience was we did not listen to her when she outcried about what was happening to her. It was like no one heard her."
Scott McCown, a former state district judge who is executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, said the advisory council holds less sway now than it did years ago, when it was a policymaking board.
But the council, which meets quarterly, does review rule changes, such as this year's proposed tweaks for day care centers (the council expects to make recommendations later this year on whether to lower adult-child ratios). And Audrey Deckinga, Department of Family and Protective Services assistant commissioner for Child Protective Services, said of council members: "We take their advice very seriously."
Bryant says she'll work to discourage the department from separating siblings in the foster system. "Why are we still talking about kids needing to be with siblings?" she asked. She said of her brother and sisters: "We could have been together and known each other." She is not in touch with her sisters.
Bryant frequently gives speeches about foster care. She talks about the horrors she endured in the system but also of her optimism for the future and desire to make improvements. She says she doesn't want people who hear her story to feel sorry for her — rather, she wants them to do something to improve the life of a child.
"Would I have chosen this life for myself and my siblings?" she asked during a speech at a Central Texas Council of Child Protection Boards event in May. "No, but it makes me who I am."
Information from: Austin American-Statesman, http://www.statesman.com
Click here to "Soundoff" on this story
Texas leader hopes to change foster care system »
Latest News »
Corsicana Daily Sun, Corsicana, Texas
http://bit-news.com/texas-leader-hopes-to-change-foster-care-system-latest-news-corsicana-daily-sun-corsicana-texas/
Posted by Admin | Posted in General | Posted on 25-07-2010-05-2008
With the State of Texas watching over her, Bryant often thinks in response, "Why shouldn't I have made it through?"
But Bryant, a small-business owner, mother of three and civic volunteer, understands why people say that. She understands because the system failed to protect her. And she's heartbroken over the way she believes it failed her brother. She doesn't want it to fail anymore.
As Gov. Rick Perry's recently appointed chairwoman of the Department of Family and Protective Services Council, Bryant hopes to use her experiences to help shape a system that she says struggles with many of the same problems as it did decades ago.
"We're still looking at the same process that breaks children, stopping children from dreaming to be the best they can be," Bryant said. "I never stopped dreaming."
Texas officials think she's the first former foster child to lead the council, which advises the state agency on issues ranging from protecting children and elderly or disabled adults to rules for day cares.
"Her personal journey will really help us to be more in tune, to be more aware, to be more understanding and to just make sure we're always putting in the forefront what we'd want for our own children and families," said Joyce James, deputy commissioner of the department.
Bryant says that through the advisory council, she'll work to address the over-representation in the foster system of African American children, who also stay in the system longer than other children. And Bryant says she wants to see a foster care system in which children make it because of the experience, not in spite of it, as she did.
"When 'foster' is added in front of a child's name, certain things happen that would not happen if it was your own child," Bryant said. "It's not a title a child asks for."
Bryant, 52, is a fifth-generation Austinite. She entered the foster system at age 6 with her three siblings after their mother was arrested for killing a man.
Bryant, her brother and two sisters, still in blood-spattered clothing, were taken from home. Their mother was placed in a state psychiatric hospital, where she received electric shock treatment and was never herself again, according to Bryant. She didn't get her kids back. Bryant never knew her father.
Meanwhile, the children were separated and placed in foster homes.
For Bryant, that was the start of living in some 20 homes, mostly in the Austin and Corsicana areas, by the time she left the system at 18. Her school and church changed every time she moved. She's been Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and a member of the Church of Christ.
"We never completed a thing," she said.
Worse, she said, the system failed to keep her safe. She was sexually abused by foster parents and by other children in various foster homes, she said, until she learned that wasn't supposed to be happening. And though she figured out that she could be moved to another home if she reported the abuse, she never received counseling, she said. She said she is not aware of police ever having been contacted.
Her brother, Charles Rector, disappeared at 14 and resurfaced years later in jail, she said. As an adult, he was convicted of the 1981 kidnap, rape, shooting and drowning death of Carolyn Kay "Katy" Davis, 22, whose naked, bruised body was found in Lady Bird Lake.
Bryant reconnected with her brother and was a witness to his 1999 execution. After the lethal drugs began flowing, the American-Statesman reported at the time, Rector, 44, said softly: "I love you, sister."
Bryant links Rector's fate to his time in the foster system.
Bryant and those who knew her as a teenager say that she was able to endure her time in the system because she was fiercely determined to succeed. Influenced by her biological great-grandmother's focus on prayer, her Christian faith sustained her, she said.
"I just believed there had to be something else," she said.
Along the way, she found people who cared.
Judith Martin was a caseworker to Bryant when, as a teenager, she was pregnant and determined to keep her baby.
"Gigi was definitely a memorable kid on my caseload, oh my, yes," Martin said. "She was clear about who she was and where she wanted to go. She wouldn't just let people make choices for her. And shining through all that was her spirit."
Modean Wilkins, Bryant's last foster mother, said: "I saw her wanting more in life than the average 16-year-old."
Wilkins remembers Bryant taking great care with her allowance and babysitting money. If she got $20, she'd keep $10 and put $10 in the bank, Wilkins said. When she graduated from high school, she had saved enough to buy a Volkswagen.
Today, Gigi Bryant is president of GMSA Management Services Inc., a business development consulting firm. She is on the board of the Austin Community College Foundation and the advisory council of the Assistance League of Austin, and is a member of the Douglas Club, a volunteer organization.
She earned a bachelor's degree from St. Edward's University after a decade of taking classes while working and raising her daughter, now 35, and older son, now 30. She also has an 18-year-old son. She holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas.
After years of what she says were abusive relationships, Bryant is now married to her "best friend," Sam Bryant, who is the father of two children of his own. Together, the Bryants have four grandchildren.
Gigi Bryant's daughter, Shantel Wilkins (no relation to Modean Wilkins), said her mother kept her and brother Marcus Wilkins "on the straight and narrow," encouraging academic achievement to the point that summers were spent reading and handing in book reports to their mom. "We weren't watching TV and hanging out," said Shantel Wilkins, whose brother Marcus played football for the University of Texas and the NFL.
Bryant had been on the Department of Family and Protective Services Council for four years when the governor tapped her in March as chairwoman. She said she made sure Perry's aides knew about her experiences in the foster system, telling them that "if they wanted me to hide that, I'm not the right person."
James, the department deputy commissioner, said Bryant has long volunteered to share her experiences with child welfare workers.
Bryant has "always encouraged us to listen to the young people," James said. "Part of her experience was we did not listen to her when she outcried about what was happening to her. It was like no one heard her."
Scott McCown, a former state district judge who is executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, said the advisory council holds less sway now than it did years ago, when it was a policymaking board.
But the council, which meets quarterly, does review rule changes, such as this year's proposed tweaks for day care centers (the council expects to make recommendations later this year on whether to lower adult-child ratios). And Audrey Deckinga, Department of Family and Protective Services assistant commissioner for Child Protective Services, said of council members: "We take their advice very seriously."
Bryant says she'll work to discourage the department from separating siblings in the foster system. "Why are we still talking about kids needing to be with siblings?" she asked. She said of her brother and sisters: "We could have been together and known each other." She is not in touch with her sisters.
Bryant frequently gives speeches about foster care. She talks about the horrors she endured in the system but also of her optimism for the future and desire to make improvements. She says she doesn't want people who hear her story to feel sorry for her — rather, she wants them to do something to improve the life of a child.
"Would I have chosen this life for myself and my siblings?" she asked during a speech at a Central Texas Council of Child Protection Boards event in May. "No, but it makes me who I am."
Information from: Austin American-Statesman, http://www.statesman.com
Click here to "Soundoff" on this story
Texas leader hopes to change foster care system »
Latest News »
Corsicana Daily Sun, Corsicana, Texas
http://bit-news.com/texas-leader-hopes-to-change-foster-care-system-latest-news-corsicana-daily-sun-corsicana-texas/
Prison Shouldn't be a Bar to Motherhood-It Is In NH!
Prison Shouldn't be a Bar to Motherhood
By Rachel Roth
WeNews commentator
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Rigid foster care rules threaten to dissolve family ties when mothers are in prison or residential drug treatment. A new law in New York State takes steps to help these families weather the separation.
(WOMENSENEWS)--A 29-year-old woman whose mother went to prison when she was a baby says she is just like any other child.
"I need my mother. I've always needed her and in this way I am no different than any other child. Living away from her--having to live away from her because of something she did--has not changed how much I want her mothering," she said.
However, a well-meaning federal law passed in 1997 all too often overrides this sentiment, arbitrarily and permanently severing family bonds.
The Adoption and Safe Families Act, called ASFA, was intended to prevent children from bouncing indefinitely between foster homes and to increase their chances of being placed with permanent adoptive families. It set rigid time frames by which an absent parent loses legal rights to his or her child. Once a child spends 15 of 22 months in foster care, the foster care agency moves to terminate the parent's rights. Some states adopted even shorter timelines in their versions of the law, moving to terminate parental rights after as little as six months when a child was placed in foster care as a newborn.
Courts can terminate a parent's rights to take care of her child because she is unavailable by virtue of incarceration or residence in a treatment center, even when there is no evidence of child abuse and when the child wishes to be reunited with the parent.
One-third of children who were so "freed" from their biological parents in New York City between 2000 and 2004 were not adopted, according to a report published in 2006 by the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York. They stayed in foster care. These children are "legal orphans," children who have a parent but whose relationship to their parent is no longer recognized by the state.
'People Need More Time'
"I think people need more time," said Sharmaine, whose rights were terminated while she was in treatment. "Just because you're incarcerated or in substance abuse treatment doesn't mean that you don't want to be a mother to your child . . . I am his mother biologically, but the law says I'm not his mother."
In June, Gov. David Paterson of New York signed into law the "ASFA Expanded Discretion" bill to ensure that parents like Sharmaine do not lose rights to their children solely for bureaucratic reasons.
The new law allows for foster care agencies and courts to take into account the special circumstances of parents in prison or residential treatment when determining a child's fate. These circumstances include parents' difficulty seeing children in person, difficulty meeting with lawyers or social workers and difficulty making court appearances, especially for women from New York City who are sent to serve their time in distant upstate prisons. The median prison sentence for women in New York is 36 months, longer than the 15-month deadline in effect until the time the law was changed.
The new law also allows for parents to participate in meetings about their children by video conference or other means if meeting in person is impracticable.
Prison Shouldn't be a Bar to Motherhood
By Rachel Roth
WeNews commentator
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Rigid foster care rules threaten to dissolve family ties when mothers are in prison or residential drug treatment. A new law in New York State takes steps to help these families weather the separation.
Page 2 of 2
Because foster care agencies have not always provided the reunification services that parents in prison are supposed to receive, the new law requires such agencies to give parents information about their rights and responsibilities, as well as referrals to services available to help maintain relationships with their children. (This provision warrants monitoring, as it is not clear how providing referrals would work when parents cannot access services without the assistance of prison or treatment center employees.)
New York Joins Select Group
By allowing for greater flexibility in the foster care system, New York joins a small group of states that have adjusted their laws, including Nebraska, New Mexico, Colorado and California. But in most of the country, parental rights remain in serious jeopardy.
Most women in prison are mothers, and they are five times as likely as imprisoned fathers to have children in foster care. (When a father goes to prison, the children are most likely to live with their mother; when a mother is in prison, the children are most likely to live with a grandparent, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reports.)
ASFA therefore has a disproportionate impact on mothers in prison. Given the overrepresentation of poor women and women of color in prison--and the overrepresentation of poor children and children of color, particularly African American children, in foster care--it takes a heavy toll on already disadvantaged families and communities.
Earlier this year, the American Bar Association adopted new standards for the treatment of people in prison, including a provision saying they should be informed of the consequences for their parental rights of any arrangements contemplated for the care of a child. If put into practice, this standard would ensure that women are aware of the particular timeframes and risks inherent in each state's foster care system.
One of the barriers to changing the 1997 adoption law is the lack of data. In many cases, government agencies simply do not know how many children are in foster care because their parents are in prison, nor how many parents' rights have been terminated for this reason. Where something as fundamental as the parent-child relationship is at stake, governments need to provide a fuller accounting of how public policies affect the families who are subject to them.
New York Activist Example
Activists in other states can learn from the New York experience, which involved a sustained commitment by advocates and policymakers who believe that protecting family bonds is an issue of fundamental fairness.
Tamar Kraft-Stolar, director of the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York, says it took four years to get a bill through the legislature and onto the governor's desk. Before that came three years of research and consultations with stakeholders, including affected parents and children.
A critical part of the organizing strategy was to highlight the perspectives of women directly affected by the law.
Formerly incarcerated mothers met with legislators and spoke out at public events. Those still in prison wrote letters, which the Coalition for Women Prisoners collected and turned into a book, along with letters from children of imprisoned mothers.
One contributor to the book describes the pain of losing her children: "As the clock ticked away, I remained in constant fear wondering which monthly visit would be our last . . . I was told that if I agreed to a conditional surrender agreement then I would be allowed limited communication (cards, letters and photos) with my sons. Sadly, these stipulations were never honored . . . I love my sons! I want what I was promised, when I acted in good faith, and signed my agreement!"
Implementation of the new law should spare other families this fate.
Would you like to Comment but not sure how? Visit our help page at http://www.womensenews.org/help-making-comments-womens-enews-stories.
Rachel Roth writes about reproductive politics and the impact of imprisonment on women's rights and health. She is the author of the book "Making Women Pay: The Hidden Costs of Fetal Rights."
For more information:
The Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York:
http://www.correctionalassociation.org/policy_agenda/protecting_mothers_and_children.htm
"Rebuilding Families, Reclaiming Lives: State Obligations to Children in Foster Care and their Incarcerated Parents," by Patricia Allard and Lynn Lu:
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/rebuilding_families_reclaiming_lives/
"A Tangle of Problems Link Prison, Foster Care," by Michelle Chen:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/socialservices/20090413/15/2882
http://www.womensenews.org/story/incarceration/100722/prison-shouldnt-be-bar-motherhood?page=0,1
By Rachel Roth
WeNews commentator
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Rigid foster care rules threaten to dissolve family ties when mothers are in prison or residential drug treatment. A new law in New York State takes steps to help these families weather the separation.
(WOMENSENEWS)--A 29-year-old woman whose mother went to prison when she was a baby says she is just like any other child.
"I need my mother. I've always needed her and in this way I am no different than any other child. Living away from her--having to live away from her because of something she did--has not changed how much I want her mothering," she said.
However, a well-meaning federal law passed in 1997 all too often overrides this sentiment, arbitrarily and permanently severing family bonds.
The Adoption and Safe Families Act, called ASFA, was intended to prevent children from bouncing indefinitely between foster homes and to increase their chances of being placed with permanent adoptive families. It set rigid time frames by which an absent parent loses legal rights to his or her child. Once a child spends 15 of 22 months in foster care, the foster care agency moves to terminate the parent's rights. Some states adopted even shorter timelines in their versions of the law, moving to terminate parental rights after as little as six months when a child was placed in foster care as a newborn.
Courts can terminate a parent's rights to take care of her child because she is unavailable by virtue of incarceration or residence in a treatment center, even when there is no evidence of child abuse and when the child wishes to be reunited with the parent.
One-third of children who were so "freed" from their biological parents in New York City between 2000 and 2004 were not adopted, according to a report published in 2006 by the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York. They stayed in foster care. These children are "legal orphans," children who have a parent but whose relationship to their parent is no longer recognized by the state.
'People Need More Time'
"I think people need more time," said Sharmaine, whose rights were terminated while she was in treatment. "Just because you're incarcerated or in substance abuse treatment doesn't mean that you don't want to be a mother to your child . . . I am his mother biologically, but the law says I'm not his mother."
In June, Gov. David Paterson of New York signed into law the "ASFA Expanded Discretion" bill to ensure that parents like Sharmaine do not lose rights to their children solely for bureaucratic reasons.
The new law allows for foster care agencies and courts to take into account the special circumstances of parents in prison or residential treatment when determining a child's fate. These circumstances include parents' difficulty seeing children in person, difficulty meeting with lawyers or social workers and difficulty making court appearances, especially for women from New York City who are sent to serve their time in distant upstate prisons. The median prison sentence for women in New York is 36 months, longer than the 15-month deadline in effect until the time the law was changed.
The new law also allows for parents to participate in meetings about their children by video conference or other means if meeting in person is impracticable.
Prison Shouldn't be a Bar to Motherhood
By Rachel Roth
WeNews commentator
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Rigid foster care rules threaten to dissolve family ties when mothers are in prison or residential drug treatment. A new law in New York State takes steps to help these families weather the separation.
Page 2 of 2
Because foster care agencies have not always provided the reunification services that parents in prison are supposed to receive, the new law requires such agencies to give parents information about their rights and responsibilities, as well as referrals to services available to help maintain relationships with their children. (This provision warrants monitoring, as it is not clear how providing referrals would work when parents cannot access services without the assistance of prison or treatment center employees.)
New York Joins Select Group
By allowing for greater flexibility in the foster care system, New York joins a small group of states that have adjusted their laws, including Nebraska, New Mexico, Colorado and California. But in most of the country, parental rights remain in serious jeopardy.
Most women in prison are mothers, and they are five times as likely as imprisoned fathers to have children in foster care. (When a father goes to prison, the children are most likely to live with their mother; when a mother is in prison, the children are most likely to live with a grandparent, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reports.)
ASFA therefore has a disproportionate impact on mothers in prison. Given the overrepresentation of poor women and women of color in prison--and the overrepresentation of poor children and children of color, particularly African American children, in foster care--it takes a heavy toll on already disadvantaged families and communities.
Earlier this year, the American Bar Association adopted new standards for the treatment of people in prison, including a provision saying they should be informed of the consequences for their parental rights of any arrangements contemplated for the care of a child. If put into practice, this standard would ensure that women are aware of the particular timeframes and risks inherent in each state's foster care system.
One of the barriers to changing the 1997 adoption law is the lack of data. In many cases, government agencies simply do not know how many children are in foster care because their parents are in prison, nor how many parents' rights have been terminated for this reason. Where something as fundamental as the parent-child relationship is at stake, governments need to provide a fuller accounting of how public policies affect the families who are subject to them.
New York Activist Example
Activists in other states can learn from the New York experience, which involved a sustained commitment by advocates and policymakers who believe that protecting family bonds is an issue of fundamental fairness.
Tamar Kraft-Stolar, director of the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York, says it took four years to get a bill through the legislature and onto the governor's desk. Before that came three years of research and consultations with stakeholders, including affected parents and children.
A critical part of the organizing strategy was to highlight the perspectives of women directly affected by the law.
Formerly incarcerated mothers met with legislators and spoke out at public events. Those still in prison wrote letters, which the Coalition for Women Prisoners collected and turned into a book, along with letters from children of imprisoned mothers.
One contributor to the book describes the pain of losing her children: "As the clock ticked away, I remained in constant fear wondering which monthly visit would be our last . . . I was told that if I agreed to a conditional surrender agreement then I would be allowed limited communication (cards, letters and photos) with my sons. Sadly, these stipulations were never honored . . . I love my sons! I want what I was promised, when I acted in good faith, and signed my agreement!"
Implementation of the new law should spare other families this fate.
Would you like to Comment but not sure how? Visit our help page at http://www.womensenews.org/help-making-comments-womens-enews-stories.
Rachel Roth writes about reproductive politics and the impact of imprisonment on women's rights and health. She is the author of the book "Making Women Pay: The Hidden Costs of Fetal Rights."
For more information:
The Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York:
http://www.correctionalassociation.org/policy_agenda/protecting_mothers_and_children.htm
"Rebuilding Families, Reclaiming Lives: State Obligations to Children in Foster Care and their Incarcerated Parents," by Patricia Allard and Lynn Lu:
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/rebuilding_families_reclaiming_lives/
"A Tangle of Problems Link Prison, Foster Care," by Michelle Chen:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/socialservices/20090413/15/2882
http://www.womensenews.org/story/incarceration/100722/prison-shouldnt-be-bar-motherhood?page=0,1
Brothers in foster care in Muskogee missing since 2006-2007
July 24, 2010
Brothers in foster care in Muskogee missing since 2006-2007
By Donna Hales
Phoenix Staff Writer
Two teenage brothers in foster care here were reported missing five months apart in 2007.
Michael Christopher Gross, who turned 18 in April, went missing Nov. 9, 2006, at the age of 14. He had been in a treatment center in Tulsa when he went missing, and the man who was Michael’s foster father said he believes Michael’s mother went to the treatment center to visit him and identified herself as the foster mother and took him.
Michael’s younger brother, Robert Mitcheall Gross, had lived in the same foster home as his brother. On Aug. 26, 2007, Robert, then 13, was reported missing by his foster mother. That report was made the same day he went missing.
A police report about Michael missing wasn’t made by a Department of Human Services worker until more than four months later, on March 15, 2007. DHS would give no information to explain why there was a delay in reporting Michael missing.
“We can’t comment on any particular case,” said DHS Public Information Officer Beth Scott.
The boys are believed to be with their birth mother in Georgia, but no one in Muskogee has reported hearing from them, police said. The mother, Beulah Lorraine Miller, had taken the children once before while they were in a foster home in Muskogee. They were found in Georgia with their uncle.
Scott said less than one percent of children in DHS custody go missing. On Wednesday, there were 59 children missing out of 7,972 in state DHS custody, Scott said.
The number of children in out-of-home care through DHS is dropping annually. There are over 1,000 fewer children in out-of-home care than there were in July of 2009, Scott said. More than 3,800 fewer children are in out-of-home care than there were in July of 2007, a 32 percent reduction in three years, she said.
When the report was filed stating Michael had left his foster home on Altamont Street in 2006, he had tuberculosis and had left his medicine. He also had a mood disorder, according to a police report.
The report mentioned Michael running away before and being found in Atlanta with family members.
Police were told the mother had at least 15 aliases, including: Sara White, Buelah Larane Miller, Daphne Jackson, Erica U. Brown, Buelah Miller, Tiffany L. Lee, Renee Gant and Diana Rosa Lee Frowner.
Miller was on probation in Georgia at the time her son went missing in 2006, police were told.
When Robert disappeared, the foster mother told police she was worried his biological mother had taken him. She told police the last time she saw him he was walking toward Fifth Street on the Sunday afternoon he disappeared.
OSBI Public Relations Officer Jessica Brown said the OSBI had never worked the case. She said they got the information on their Web site from The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Web site.
Reach Donna Hales at 684-2923 or dhales @muskogeephoenix.com.
http://muskogeephoenix.com/local/x1255110287/Brothers-in-foster-care-in-Muskogee-missing-since-2006-2007
Brothers in foster care in Muskogee missing since 2006-2007
By Donna Hales
Phoenix Staff Writer
Two teenage brothers in foster care here were reported missing five months apart in 2007.
Michael Christopher Gross, who turned 18 in April, went missing Nov. 9, 2006, at the age of 14. He had been in a treatment center in Tulsa when he went missing, and the man who was Michael’s foster father said he believes Michael’s mother went to the treatment center to visit him and identified herself as the foster mother and took him.
Michael’s younger brother, Robert Mitcheall Gross, had lived in the same foster home as his brother. On Aug. 26, 2007, Robert, then 13, was reported missing by his foster mother. That report was made the same day he went missing.
A police report about Michael missing wasn’t made by a Department of Human Services worker until more than four months later, on March 15, 2007. DHS would give no information to explain why there was a delay in reporting Michael missing.
“We can’t comment on any particular case,” said DHS Public Information Officer Beth Scott.
The boys are believed to be with their birth mother in Georgia, but no one in Muskogee has reported hearing from them, police said. The mother, Beulah Lorraine Miller, had taken the children once before while they were in a foster home in Muskogee. They were found in Georgia with their uncle.
Scott said less than one percent of children in DHS custody go missing. On Wednesday, there were 59 children missing out of 7,972 in state DHS custody, Scott said.
The number of children in out-of-home care through DHS is dropping annually. There are over 1,000 fewer children in out-of-home care than there were in July of 2009, Scott said. More than 3,800 fewer children are in out-of-home care than there were in July of 2007, a 32 percent reduction in three years, she said.
When the report was filed stating Michael had left his foster home on Altamont Street in 2006, he had tuberculosis and had left his medicine. He also had a mood disorder, according to a police report.
The report mentioned Michael running away before and being found in Atlanta with family members.
Police were told the mother had at least 15 aliases, including: Sara White, Buelah Larane Miller, Daphne Jackson, Erica U. Brown, Buelah Miller, Tiffany L. Lee, Renee Gant and Diana Rosa Lee Frowner.
Miller was on probation in Georgia at the time her son went missing in 2006, police were told.
When Robert disappeared, the foster mother told police she was worried his biological mother had taken him. She told police the last time she saw him he was walking toward Fifth Street on the Sunday afternoon he disappeared.
OSBI Public Relations Officer Jessica Brown said the OSBI had never worked the case. She said they got the information on their Web site from The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Web site.
Reach Donna Hales at 684-2923 or dhales @muskogeephoenix.com.
http://muskogeephoenix.com/local/x1255110287/Brothers-in-foster-care-in-Muskogee-missing-since-2006-2007
Jardine:Child agency's secrecy irritates
Jardine: Child agency's secrecy irritates
By Jeff Jardine
jjardine@modbee.com
By law, Stanislaus County Child Protective Services operates under a cloak of secrecy when it comes to specific families and their problems.
So when little Aureliano Joel Vasquez drowned in the algae-clouded water of his backyard pool last weekend, it didn't matter that his mother, Florcita Vasquez, told The Bee that CPS repeatedly had visited her home in recent months because of complaints about her parenting skills.
County authorities couldn't even acknowledge whether they had been to her home because it would have breached her privacy. So the agency's official response was that it had none.
Modesto Bee - (BRIAN RAMSAY/bramsay@modbee.com) Florcita Valdez, 34, of Ceres called police after her 2-year-old boy went missing for about 30 minutes from their family home. The Ceres Police Department has opened a criminal investigation into the drowning of the boy, Aurelianao Valez, 2, who was discovered by rescue workers in the family's algae-tainted backyard pool minutes after authorities were called. July 20, 2010.
CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS
Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News section of The Modesto Bee and at modbee.com/columnists/jardine
He can be reached at 578‑2383 or jjardine@modbee.com
Consequently, both Florcita Vasquez and the agency incurred the wrath of angry readers who posted comments below the story Wednesday on modbee.com.
Some examples of the vitriol, as they appeared online:
"CPS is also to blame. ... I don't care what excuses the workers come up with ... they are also to blame. I hope they are feeling it ... especially the person in charge of the CPS unit that let all these calls and visits 'slip by.' Your job is to PROTECT these children and to HEAR the people who are crying out for help for the children. CPS, you have your part in this too."
And,
"It does not matter about your lifestyle or your culture when it comes to the raising of a child in a safe environment ... there isn't one perfect way to do it BUT YOU DON'T DO IT by continuous neglect. The whole system needs to change and if that is why CPS couldn't do their job then there is their excuse BUT MAKE NO MISTAKES ABOUT THIS CASE ... CPS DROPPED THE BALL ..."
Pretty harsh indictments. I met Friday with some CPS officials who, while they can't talk specifically about the Vasquez case, discussed their duties and their agency in general terms.
And yes, most social workers would rather be allowed to answer their critics.
"Many of us would like to vent," said George Medina, who supervises the staff's emergency response social workers. "But we have to respect (clients') privacy."
The problem with secrecy under any circumstance is that it can be used to mask mistakes or ineptitude. It also opens the door to criticism, and CPS has taken its share.
Whenever a child dies or is severely injured through abuse or neglect, and it's disclosed that CPS had been working with the family, people demand to know why the agency hadn't removed the child from the home when it had the chance.
Certainly, social workers can do so when they find that a child is in immediate danger, manager Sheelah Grant said.
But even though taking an abused or neglected child from the home seems like the obvious solution, it isn't always, social workers said. More often than not, the children would prefer to stay with their parents -- despite living in fear of them -- than be put into the foster care system. A survey of child clients spoke volumes.
"Kids were scared of three things," Medina said. "Gangs, cops and CPS. And of the three, they were most afraid of CPS because we can remove them from their homes."
The Community Services Agency, of which Child Protective Services is a part, has 86 social workers who work 42 to 75 cases per month. Budget cuts have reduced the staff by 25 positions since 2008.
CPS officials respond to every complaint or referral, said Christine Applegate, director of the Community Services Agency. The social worker who takes the complaint goes through a lengthy questionnaire to gather as much information as possible from the caller about the child, the family and the circumstances.
"Things do get taken seriously," she said. "Our main goal is child safety. The child is our customer, though we work with the parents and the whole family."
Many referrals come from law enforcement agencies after they have responded to incidents at a home and believe the children there might be at risk. They can come from schoolteachers, physicians or any other person who is required to report such abuse. Frequently, reports comes from neighbors or relatives.
The social workers determine the urgency of the situation. In cases considered immediate -- which include reports of physical or sexual abuse -- CPS contacts the family within two hours. Generally in those cases, the police already have been called to the home, Applegate said.
In other cases, contact is made within one to 10 days.
Sexual and physical abuse make the decision to remove the child from the home more clear-cut. Neglect is a tougher call. A social worker might find children living in squalor or unsupervised and order the parent to clean it up.
If the parent complies and if after 18 months of contact conditions have improved, the case is closed. Then the parent might slip back into the same old ways. Another complaint can restart the cycle.
If within 18 months, the parents haven't improved and the children remain in peril, the CPS can petition the court to have them removed and placed in foster homes. When that happens, CPS knows it will be criticized by friends and relatives of the family for being too intrusive. If it didn't remove the child, it would get ripped by others.
In many cases, parents are directed toward drug or alcohol rehab, parenting classes, anger management and other assistance offered by various agencies under the blanket term of "family resource centers."
"If it's (a report of) parents yelling at their kids but no physical abuse, we'll refer them to the family resource center, but we'll go out with (the other agency's worker)," Medina said. "This job is not black and white. Every family is different. Every situation is different. To use a cookie-cutter (approach), we'd be kidding ourselves."
So they operate on the belief -- one supported by the courts -- that children are better off when the family is kept together. They work to change the parents' behavior and improve their skills.
"We don't have a crystal ball," Grant said. "To be in this profession, you have to believe people can change. We have to believe people do love their kids and want to do right by their kids."
When faced with the threat of losing their children to the foster system, many parents do show some improvement. But it takes just one tragedy like the death of little Aureliano Joel Vasquez to remind CPS workers that the system is anything but perfect.
In that case or any other, they can't even explain why.
The cloak of secrecy prevents it.
Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at 578-2383 or jjardine@modbee.com.
Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2010/07/25/1266126_p2/jardine-child-agencys-secrecy.html#ixzz0ujaJ3JV6
Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2010/07/25/1266126/jardine-child-agencys-secrecy.html#ixzz0uja0VVV3
By Jeff Jardine
jjardine@modbee.com
By law, Stanislaus County Child Protective Services operates under a cloak of secrecy when it comes to specific families and their problems.
So when little Aureliano Joel Vasquez drowned in the algae-clouded water of his backyard pool last weekend, it didn't matter that his mother, Florcita Vasquez, told The Bee that CPS repeatedly had visited her home in recent months because of complaints about her parenting skills.
County authorities couldn't even acknowledge whether they had been to her home because it would have breached her privacy. So the agency's official response was that it had none.
Modesto Bee - (BRIAN RAMSAY/bramsay@modbee.com) Florcita Valdez, 34, of Ceres called police after her 2-year-old boy went missing for about 30 minutes from their family home. The Ceres Police Department has opened a criminal investigation into the drowning of the boy, Aurelianao Valez, 2, who was discovered by rescue workers in the family's algae-tainted backyard pool minutes after authorities were called. July 20, 2010.
CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS
Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News section of The Modesto Bee and at modbee.com/columnists/jardine
He can be reached at 578‑2383 or jjardine@modbee.com
Consequently, both Florcita Vasquez and the agency incurred the wrath of angry readers who posted comments below the story Wednesday on modbee.com.
Some examples of the vitriol, as they appeared online:
"CPS is also to blame. ... I don't care what excuses the workers come up with ... they are also to blame. I hope they are feeling it ... especially the person in charge of the CPS unit that let all these calls and visits 'slip by.' Your job is to PROTECT these children and to HEAR the people who are crying out for help for the children. CPS, you have your part in this too."
And,
"It does not matter about your lifestyle or your culture when it comes to the raising of a child in a safe environment ... there isn't one perfect way to do it BUT YOU DON'T DO IT by continuous neglect. The whole system needs to change and if that is why CPS couldn't do their job then there is their excuse BUT MAKE NO MISTAKES ABOUT THIS CASE ... CPS DROPPED THE BALL ..."
Pretty harsh indictments. I met Friday with some CPS officials who, while they can't talk specifically about the Vasquez case, discussed their duties and their agency in general terms.
And yes, most social workers would rather be allowed to answer their critics.
"Many of us would like to vent," said George Medina, who supervises the staff's emergency response social workers. "But we have to respect (clients') privacy."
The problem with secrecy under any circumstance is that it can be used to mask mistakes or ineptitude. It also opens the door to criticism, and CPS has taken its share.
Whenever a child dies or is severely injured through abuse or neglect, and it's disclosed that CPS had been working with the family, people demand to know why the agency hadn't removed the child from the home when it had the chance.
Certainly, social workers can do so when they find that a child is in immediate danger, manager Sheelah Grant said.
But even though taking an abused or neglected child from the home seems like the obvious solution, it isn't always, social workers said. More often than not, the children would prefer to stay with their parents -- despite living in fear of them -- than be put into the foster care system. A survey of child clients spoke volumes.
"Kids were scared of three things," Medina said. "Gangs, cops and CPS. And of the three, they were most afraid of CPS because we can remove them from their homes."
The Community Services Agency, of which Child Protective Services is a part, has 86 social workers who work 42 to 75 cases per month. Budget cuts have reduced the staff by 25 positions since 2008.
CPS officials respond to every complaint or referral, said Christine Applegate, director of the Community Services Agency. The social worker who takes the complaint goes through a lengthy questionnaire to gather as much information as possible from the caller about the child, the family and the circumstances.
"Things do get taken seriously," she said. "Our main goal is child safety. The child is our customer, though we work with the parents and the whole family."
Many referrals come from law enforcement agencies after they have responded to incidents at a home and believe the children there might be at risk. They can come from schoolteachers, physicians or any other person who is required to report such abuse. Frequently, reports comes from neighbors or relatives.
The social workers determine the urgency of the situation. In cases considered immediate -- which include reports of physical or sexual abuse -- CPS contacts the family within two hours. Generally in those cases, the police already have been called to the home, Applegate said.
In other cases, contact is made within one to 10 days.
Sexual and physical abuse make the decision to remove the child from the home more clear-cut. Neglect is a tougher call. A social worker might find children living in squalor or unsupervised and order the parent to clean it up.
If the parent complies and if after 18 months of contact conditions have improved, the case is closed. Then the parent might slip back into the same old ways. Another complaint can restart the cycle.
If within 18 months, the parents haven't improved and the children remain in peril, the CPS can petition the court to have them removed and placed in foster homes. When that happens, CPS knows it will be criticized by friends and relatives of the family for being too intrusive. If it didn't remove the child, it would get ripped by others.
In many cases, parents are directed toward drug or alcohol rehab, parenting classes, anger management and other assistance offered by various agencies under the blanket term of "family resource centers."
"If it's (a report of) parents yelling at their kids but no physical abuse, we'll refer them to the family resource center, but we'll go out with (the other agency's worker)," Medina said. "This job is not black and white. Every family is different. Every situation is different. To use a cookie-cutter (approach), we'd be kidding ourselves."
So they operate on the belief -- one supported by the courts -- that children are better off when the family is kept together. They work to change the parents' behavior and improve their skills.
"We don't have a crystal ball," Grant said. "To be in this profession, you have to believe people can change. We have to believe people do love their kids and want to do right by their kids."
When faced with the threat of losing their children to the foster system, many parents do show some improvement. But it takes just one tragedy like the death of little Aureliano Joel Vasquez to remind CPS workers that the system is anything but perfect.
In that case or any other, they can't even explain why.
The cloak of secrecy prevents it.
Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at 578-2383 or jjardine@modbee.com.
Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2010/07/25/1266126_p2/jardine-child-agencys-secrecy.html#ixzz0ujaJ3JV6
Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2010/07/25/1266126/jardine-child-agencys-secrecy.html#ixzz0uja0VVV3
Guardianship plan for foster children
Guardianship plan for foster children
AMY NOONAN From: The Advertiser July 23, 2010 8:38pm
LONG-TERM foster children could be transferred to the guardianship of their carers, the State Government plans.
The news has been welcomed by a foster carers' network. However, a grandparents' group would like to see more done to support grandparents acting as carers for their grandchildren.
Families and Communities Minister Jennifer Rankine said Directions for Alternative Care in South Australia, a draft paper to be released on Monday, would show a carer could "apply through the Youth Court to have full guardianship and therefore have greater say in the health, education and life choices of these young children".
"We know that many wonderful carers build lifelong commitments to the children in their care and these changes will make their life easier," she said.
There are about 2000 children in care - half cared for by a family member who is not a parent, about 800 in foster care and about 200 cared for by Families SA staff. A spokesman said children were no longer cared for in hotels or motels.
Connecting Foster Carers SA chairwoman Maureen Madden, herself a foster carer for the past 30 years, said she was "excited" at the news. "It's so important for these kids to have a family, they'll actually belong - that's wonderful ... I can tell you there will be carers dancing at this news," Mrs Madden said.
Grandparents for Grandchildren SA Inc executive officer Denise Langton said: "It certainly doesn't help grandparents who have informal care or who have gone through the Family Court.
Grandparents who take on full-time care through the Family Court get no financial assistance, nothing like foster carers. We have to rely on the family tax benefit and all our savings and super to bring up these children."
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/guardianship-plan-for-foster-children/story-e6frea83-1225896288042
AMY NOONAN From: The Advertiser July 23, 2010 8:38pm
LONG-TERM foster children could be transferred to the guardianship of their carers, the State Government plans.
The news has been welcomed by a foster carers' network. However, a grandparents' group would like to see more done to support grandparents acting as carers for their grandchildren.
Families and Communities Minister Jennifer Rankine said Directions for Alternative Care in South Australia, a draft paper to be released on Monday, would show a carer could "apply through the Youth Court to have full guardianship and therefore have greater say in the health, education and life choices of these young children".
"We know that many wonderful carers build lifelong commitments to the children in their care and these changes will make their life easier," she said.
There are about 2000 children in care - half cared for by a family member who is not a parent, about 800 in foster care and about 200 cared for by Families SA staff. A spokesman said children were no longer cared for in hotels or motels.
Connecting Foster Carers SA chairwoman Maureen Madden, herself a foster carer for the past 30 years, said she was "excited" at the news. "It's so important for these kids to have a family, they'll actually belong - that's wonderful ... I can tell you there will be carers dancing at this news," Mrs Madden said.
Grandparents for Grandchildren SA Inc executive officer Denise Langton said: "It certainly doesn't help grandparents who have informal care or who have gone through the Family Court.
Grandparents who take on full-time care through the Family Court get no financial assistance, nothing like foster carers. We have to rely on the family tax benefit and all our savings and super to bring up these children."
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/guardianship-plan-for-foster-children/story-e6frea83-1225896288042
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