Grandparents lobby for child-custody measure | KTKA.com
A group of grandparents is lobbying a Senate committee to improve their status in cases when grandchildren are removed from their homes.
The Wichita Eagle reports Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau is sponsoring a bill that would automatically establish grandparents as interested parties in such cases.
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
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
BEVERLY TRAN: Former Judge Tried On Child Welfare Fraud
BEVERLY TRAN: Former Judge Tried On Child Welfare Fraud
Former Pa. judge to go on trial in kickbacks case
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press – Sun Feb 6, 2:19 pm ET
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Kids in Luzerne County had a powerful incentive to stay out of the courtroom of Mark Ciavarella, a fearsome, zero-tolerance judge who tossed youths into juvenile detention even when their crimes didn't warrant it.
Ciavarella ordered a 13-year-old boy to spend 48 terrifying days in a private jail for throwing a piece of steak at his mother's boyfriend during an argument. An honor roll student who had never been in trouble before was sent to the same jail, PA Child Care, because she gave the middle finger to a police officer. A girl who accidentally set her house ablaze while playing with a lighter languished in PA Child Care for more than a month — forced to shower naked in front of male guards, she says, and prohibited from hugging her family during rare visits.
She was only 10 years old.
PA Child Care's beds were filled with young offenders who didn't belong there, prosecutors allege, because its owner was paying kickbacks to Ciavarella. On Monday, the disgraced former judge will stand trial in one of the biggest courtroom scandals in U.S. history — a $2.8 million bribery scheme known as "kids for cash."
A state panel that investigated the scandal called Ciavarella "Dickensian" in his treatment of juvenile offenders and said that he reigned over juvenile court in a "harsh, autocratic and arbitrary" manner. The ex-judge has said he didn't believe he was breaking the law.
Hillary Transue, 19, plans to watch the trial from afar.
Now a college sophomore in New Hampshire, Transue appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom in 2007 and spent a month in a wilderness camp for building a MySpace page that lampooned her assistant principal. She did not have an attorney when she went before Ciavarella, nor was she told of her right to one.
Whatever Ciavarella's fate, she said, the important thing is that he no longer wields any power. Ciavarella and another implicated judge, Michael Conahan, left the bench shortly after being charged in January 2009.
"I don't care if he's away for seven minutes or seven years," she said. "The man's reputation is destroyed, and he's never going to do this to children again."
Ciavarella's attorney declined comment.
Court documents outline a scheme in which Conahan, then Luzerne County's president judge, forced the county-run juvenile detention center to close in 2002 and helped PA Child Care LLC, a company owned by his friend, secure contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to house youth offenders at its new facility outside Wilkes-Barre.
Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, sent youths to PA Child Care and to a sister facility in western Pennsylvania while he was taking payments from the owner and the builder of the facilities, prosecutors said. He ran his courtroom with "complete disregard for the constitutional rights of the juveniles," in the words of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.
Megan, whose last name is being withheld by The Associated Press, was perhaps the youngest defendant to appear in Ciavarella's courtroom. At age 10, she had set fire to a piece of paper in her bedroom. She thought she put it out, but the paper smoldered and eventually set her room ablaze. No one was hurt.
Though the landlord didn't want to press charges and Megan had no history of delinquency, Ciavarella claimed she committed arson and sent her to PA Child Care. She left the courtroom in handcuffs and shackles.
In an interview with AP, Megan said she was forced to shower naked in front of two or three men her first morning at the facility. She said she assumed they were guards. She said they told her it was a "one-time" requirement.
"It made me feel really uncomfortable and nervous and shaking because I didn't want anybody to see me naked, and I was really shy," she said.
Megan cried herself to sleep almost every night she was in the detention center. After she got out, classmates teased her mercilessly. She dropped out of school and enrolled in a cyberschool.
The trauma has turned a normal, quiet 10-year-old into an angry and withdrawn young woman of 16 going on 17. She's been diagnosed with anorexia. She has also cut herself, as recently as two months ago.
Megan said she wants Ciavarella to be sent to prison.
"He deserves it. Because now my life, I can't describe it. I've become really depressed all the time. I do things I really shouldn't be doing," she said. "I just want a good therapist, but there are none around there. I'm always so sad."
Ciavarella has vigorously denied the allegation that he sent children to PA Child Care in exchange for money.
Testifying in 2009 in an unrelated proceeding, he said he considered the payments he took to be a "finder's fee" for helping to secure county business for PA Child Care.
"I did not consider what I did to be illegal," Ciavarella said. "I was told it was legal money. I was told it was something that I was entitled to. And for that reason, I did not have a problem with where that money went or how it came to me."
Ciavarella and Conahan initially pleaded guilty in February 2009 to honest services fraud and tax evasion in a deal with federal prosecutors that called for a sentence of 87 months in prison. But their plea deals were rejected by Senior U.S. District Judge Edward M. Kosik, who ruled they had failed to accept responsibility for their actions.
A federal grand jury in Harrisburg subsequently returned a 48-count racketeering indictment against the judges. Conahan pleaded guilty to a single racketeering charge last year and awaits sentencing.
The scandal sent shockwaves through Pennsylvania's court system. The Supreme Court overturned thousands of juvenile convictions issued by Ciavarella.
The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, a panel created by then-Gov. Ed Rendell and the Legislature to investigate the scandal, uncovered a breakdown of state oversight and "serious and chronic malfunction" within Luzerne County's juvenile court system. The commission issued dozens of recommendations last May, from reforming the board that disciplines wayward judges to ensuring that juveniles have access to lawyers to reducing or eliminating the use of shackling in juvenile courtrooms.
But change has been slow.
A bill that would have mandated legal counsel for juvenile defendants passed the Senate last year but died in the House. The sponsor, Republican Sen. Lisa Baker, plans to reintroduce the legislation as part of a broader package of juvenile justice reforms.
"We need to put these protections into law. I don't want us to fall into the trap that the crisis is passed and that this isn't going to happen again," she said.
Youth advocates accuse the Legislature of dragging its feet.
"There was an implicit promise that the state was committed to reforming the system and certainly addressing the specific issues that gave rise to the scandal in Luzerne," said Marsha Levick, co-founder and chief counsel of the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which blew the whistle on Ciavarella's harsh treatment of juveniles years before he was charged. "In terms of things the Legislature had a firm ability to control, there's been no forward movement."
The Pennsylvania court system, meanwhile, is working on procedural changes that would presume all juveniles to be indigent for purposes of appointing counsel; reduce the use of courtroom shackling; clarify the role of prosecutors in juvenile courts; and enhance victims' rights. The Supreme Court must approve the new rules.
John Cleland, a semi-retired state appeals judge who chaired the now-defunct interbranch commission, said he's satisfied that progress is being made.
"I wouldn't go so far as to say that anything we've done would prevent a person with a criminal bent from manipulating the system," he said. "But I think it's also true that the safeguards have been enhanced. They're not foolproof, but they are better."
Former Pa. judge to go on trial in kickbacks case
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press – Sun Feb 6, 2:19 pm ET
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Kids in Luzerne County had a powerful incentive to stay out of the courtroom of Mark Ciavarella, a fearsome, zero-tolerance judge who tossed youths into juvenile detention even when their crimes didn't warrant it.
Ciavarella ordered a 13-year-old boy to spend 48 terrifying days in a private jail for throwing a piece of steak at his mother's boyfriend during an argument. An honor roll student who had never been in trouble before was sent to the same jail, PA Child Care, because she gave the middle finger to a police officer. A girl who accidentally set her house ablaze while playing with a lighter languished in PA Child Care for more than a month — forced to shower naked in front of male guards, she says, and prohibited from hugging her family during rare visits.
She was only 10 years old.
PA Child Care's beds were filled with young offenders who didn't belong there, prosecutors allege, because its owner was paying kickbacks to Ciavarella. On Monday, the disgraced former judge will stand trial in one of the biggest courtroom scandals in U.S. history — a $2.8 million bribery scheme known as "kids for cash."
A state panel that investigated the scandal called Ciavarella "Dickensian" in his treatment of juvenile offenders and said that he reigned over juvenile court in a "harsh, autocratic and arbitrary" manner. The ex-judge has said he didn't believe he was breaking the law.
Hillary Transue, 19, plans to watch the trial from afar.
Now a college sophomore in New Hampshire, Transue appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom in 2007 and spent a month in a wilderness camp for building a MySpace page that lampooned her assistant principal. She did not have an attorney when she went before Ciavarella, nor was she told of her right to one.
Whatever Ciavarella's fate, she said, the important thing is that he no longer wields any power. Ciavarella and another implicated judge, Michael Conahan, left the bench shortly after being charged in January 2009.
"I don't care if he's away for seven minutes or seven years," she said. "The man's reputation is destroyed, and he's never going to do this to children again."
Ciavarella's attorney declined comment.
Court documents outline a scheme in which Conahan, then Luzerne County's president judge, forced the county-run juvenile detention center to close in 2002 and helped PA Child Care LLC, a company owned by his friend, secure contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to house youth offenders at its new facility outside Wilkes-Barre.
Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, sent youths to PA Child Care and to a sister facility in western Pennsylvania while he was taking payments from the owner and the builder of the facilities, prosecutors said. He ran his courtroom with "complete disregard for the constitutional rights of the juveniles," in the words of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.
Megan, whose last name is being withheld by The Associated Press, was perhaps the youngest defendant to appear in Ciavarella's courtroom. At age 10, she had set fire to a piece of paper in her bedroom. She thought she put it out, but the paper smoldered and eventually set her room ablaze. No one was hurt.
Though the landlord didn't want to press charges and Megan had no history of delinquency, Ciavarella claimed she committed arson and sent her to PA Child Care. She left the courtroom in handcuffs and shackles.
In an interview with AP, Megan said she was forced to shower naked in front of two or three men her first morning at the facility. She said she assumed they were guards. She said they told her it was a "one-time" requirement.
"It made me feel really uncomfortable and nervous and shaking because I didn't want anybody to see me naked, and I was really shy," she said.
Megan cried herself to sleep almost every night she was in the detention center. After she got out, classmates teased her mercilessly. She dropped out of school and enrolled in a cyberschool.
The trauma has turned a normal, quiet 10-year-old into an angry and withdrawn young woman of 16 going on 17. She's been diagnosed with anorexia. She has also cut herself, as recently as two months ago.
Megan said she wants Ciavarella to be sent to prison.
"He deserves it. Because now my life, I can't describe it. I've become really depressed all the time. I do things I really shouldn't be doing," she said. "I just want a good therapist, but there are none around there. I'm always so sad."
Ciavarella has vigorously denied the allegation that he sent children to PA Child Care in exchange for money.
Testifying in 2009 in an unrelated proceeding, he said he considered the payments he took to be a "finder's fee" for helping to secure county business for PA Child Care.
"I did not consider what I did to be illegal," Ciavarella said. "I was told it was legal money. I was told it was something that I was entitled to. And for that reason, I did not have a problem with where that money went or how it came to me."
Ciavarella and Conahan initially pleaded guilty in February 2009 to honest services fraud and tax evasion in a deal with federal prosecutors that called for a sentence of 87 months in prison. But their plea deals were rejected by Senior U.S. District Judge Edward M. Kosik, who ruled they had failed to accept responsibility for their actions.
A federal grand jury in Harrisburg subsequently returned a 48-count racketeering indictment against the judges. Conahan pleaded guilty to a single racketeering charge last year and awaits sentencing.
The scandal sent shockwaves through Pennsylvania's court system. The Supreme Court overturned thousands of juvenile convictions issued by Ciavarella.
The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, a panel created by then-Gov. Ed Rendell and the Legislature to investigate the scandal, uncovered a breakdown of state oversight and "serious and chronic malfunction" within Luzerne County's juvenile court system. The commission issued dozens of recommendations last May, from reforming the board that disciplines wayward judges to ensuring that juveniles have access to lawyers to reducing or eliminating the use of shackling in juvenile courtrooms.
But change has been slow.
A bill that would have mandated legal counsel for juvenile defendants passed the Senate last year but died in the House. The sponsor, Republican Sen. Lisa Baker, plans to reintroduce the legislation as part of a broader package of juvenile justice reforms.
"We need to put these protections into law. I don't want us to fall into the trap that the crisis is passed and that this isn't going to happen again," she said.
Youth advocates accuse the Legislature of dragging its feet.
"There was an implicit promise that the state was committed to reforming the system and certainly addressing the specific issues that gave rise to the scandal in Luzerne," said Marsha Levick, co-founder and chief counsel of the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which blew the whistle on Ciavarella's harsh treatment of juveniles years before he was charged. "In terms of things the Legislature had a firm ability to control, there's been no forward movement."
The Pennsylvania court system, meanwhile, is working on procedural changes that would presume all juveniles to be indigent for purposes of appointing counsel; reduce the use of courtroom shackling; clarify the role of prosecutors in juvenile courts; and enhance victims' rights. The Supreme Court must approve the new rules.
John Cleland, a semi-retired state appeals judge who chaired the now-defunct interbranch commission, said he's satisfied that progress is being made.
"I wouldn't go so far as to say that anything we've done would prevent a person with a criminal bent from manipulating the system," he said. "But I think it's also true that the safeguards have been enhanced. They're not foolproof, but they are better."
Statewide program redesign in works to reunite families faster-How about NH?
Statewide program redesign in works to reunite families faster - News
DAYTONA BEACH -- Spending time playing with her three children is a luxury for Nicole DiCologero and something she's learned not to take for granted.
That wasn't always the case for the Daytona Beach mother who struggled with crack cocaine and prescription-drug abuse. The addiction resulted in her children being removed in May 2009 and placed in foster care.
Her 4-year-old daughter was with her in treatment, and her 5-year-old returned in December after 18 months. Her 2-year-old son returned home permanently Friday after being in foster care most of his life.
It's been a long road of residential substance-abuse treatment, family drug court, outpatient counseling and parenting classes.
"It's the worst feeling in the world," DiCologero said about being separated from her children. "It was like a part of me was missing. Having somebody else raise my kids was not a good feeling."
But she also knew she was living a life her children shouldn't see, adding: "I wasn't there for them emotionally."
About 70 percent of local child-welfare cases that are high-risk for children being removed are due to prescription-substance abuse, according to Mark Jones, chief executive officer of Community Partnership for Children, the local foster care provider.
In the past several months, the numbers of children being removed from their parents is also increasing compared to the same period last year, Jones said, because of prescription-drug abuse. For example, 46 children were removed during December in Volusia, Flagler and Putnam counties compared to 31 the previous year.
The problem has prompted new programs as part of a statewide foster-care redesign initiative to get treatment and services to parents more quickly.
Reggie Williams, local administrator for the state Department of Children & Families, said prescription-drug abuse on top of crack cocaine and alcohol "is complicating the system and making it more difficult as far as how you address the needs of these families."
Community Partnership for Children has started several new programs working with area substance-abuse-treatment agencies for both outpatient and inpatient treatment.
Williams said the agencies are trying to get parents "into treatment quicker and get the family stabilized in hopes of returning the kids" more quickly.
Jones said some of the programs, which started at the end of last year, have already had an impact on lowering the amount of time children are in foster care. Last year, the average amount of time children were in foster care was 10 to 12 months. That number recently has been decreasing to eight months, Jones said.
"The whole foster-care redesign is based on getting people services they need immediately so there is not a wait," Jones said.
A $244,000 contract with Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavioral Healthcare has outpatient detox counselors and family-intervention specialists helping parents. Previously, parents had to wait for counseling or a space to open. Jones said, now, a family-intervention specialist responds to the family within 24 hours of a call to the state abuse hotline.
Chet Bell, CEO of Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavioral Healthcare, said prescription drugs such as pain pills can be highly addicting, and, in some cases, people who were legitimately taking the medicine have become dependent.
The counselors are able to work exclusively with the child-welfare clients. A new program that started in January with Haven Recovery Center is also providing parents involved in the child-welfare system with immediate access to residential substance-abuse treatment.
Randy Croy, executive director of Haven Recovery Center, said the program will help stop the cycle of child abuse and neglect, and "children will be safer and be able to live healthier, productive lives."
Another program is also providing intensive after-care services through Children's Home Society when children return home.
DiCologero received help from numerous agencies since 2009, but she may have been able to get her children home more quickly if the new programs had been in place previously, officials said.
She had been addicted to cocaine since she was a teen, she said, and problems with pain pills started after a surgery and a separate back injury.
She's now set to graduate drug court in May and receives counseling once a week. She soon will be in training to be an assistant manager at her job at a local doughnut shop and is living in a rented home with help through Haven Recovery Center and a federal assistance program.
Her husband, who does not live with her, is only able to see the children on supervised visits until he finishes treatment, child-welfare officials said.
Annette Gerardi, drug-court case manager for Community Partnership for Children, said DiCologero has come far and is "now placing her children first and her sobriety. The changes in her life are tremendous."
After already getting her GED in November, she's planning to go to Daytona State College in the summer to become an addiction specialist to help others.
"I know where they are coming from, and I know how to deal with it," DiCologero said. "If I can just help one person out of a thousand, I'm doing my job."
DAYTONA BEACH -- Spending time playing with her three children is a luxury for Nicole DiCologero and something she's learned not to take for granted.
That wasn't always the case for the Daytona Beach mother who struggled with crack cocaine and prescription-drug abuse. The addiction resulted in her children being removed in May 2009 and placed in foster care.
Her 4-year-old daughter was with her in treatment, and her 5-year-old returned in December after 18 months. Her 2-year-old son returned home permanently Friday after being in foster care most of his life.
It's been a long road of residential substance-abuse treatment, family drug court, outpatient counseling and parenting classes.
"It's the worst feeling in the world," DiCologero said about being separated from her children. "It was like a part of me was missing. Having somebody else raise my kids was not a good feeling."
But she also knew she was living a life her children shouldn't see, adding: "I wasn't there for them emotionally."
About 70 percent of local child-welfare cases that are high-risk for children being removed are due to prescription-substance abuse, according to Mark Jones, chief executive officer of Community Partnership for Children, the local foster care provider.
In the past several months, the numbers of children being removed from their parents is also increasing compared to the same period last year, Jones said, because of prescription-drug abuse. For example, 46 children were removed during December in Volusia, Flagler and Putnam counties compared to 31 the previous year.
The problem has prompted new programs as part of a statewide foster-care redesign initiative to get treatment and services to parents more quickly.
Reggie Williams, local administrator for the state Department of Children & Families, said prescription-drug abuse on top of crack cocaine and alcohol "is complicating the system and making it more difficult as far as how you address the needs of these families."
Community Partnership for Children has started several new programs working with area substance-abuse-treatment agencies for both outpatient and inpatient treatment.
Williams said the agencies are trying to get parents "into treatment quicker and get the family stabilized in hopes of returning the kids" more quickly.
Jones said some of the programs, which started at the end of last year, have already had an impact on lowering the amount of time children are in foster care. Last year, the average amount of time children were in foster care was 10 to 12 months. That number recently has been decreasing to eight months, Jones said.
"The whole foster-care redesign is based on getting people services they need immediately so there is not a wait," Jones said.
A $244,000 contract with Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavioral Healthcare has outpatient detox counselors and family-intervention specialists helping parents. Previously, parents had to wait for counseling or a space to open. Jones said, now, a family-intervention specialist responds to the family within 24 hours of a call to the state abuse hotline.
Chet Bell, CEO of Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavioral Healthcare, said prescription drugs such as pain pills can be highly addicting, and, in some cases, people who were legitimately taking the medicine have become dependent.
The counselors are able to work exclusively with the child-welfare clients. A new program that started in January with Haven Recovery Center is also providing parents involved in the child-welfare system with immediate access to residential substance-abuse treatment.
Randy Croy, executive director of Haven Recovery Center, said the program will help stop the cycle of child abuse and neglect, and "children will be safer and be able to live healthier, productive lives."
Another program is also providing intensive after-care services through Children's Home Society when children return home.
DiCologero received help from numerous agencies since 2009, but she may have been able to get her children home more quickly if the new programs had been in place previously, officials said.
She had been addicted to cocaine since she was a teen, she said, and problems with pain pills started after a surgery and a separate back injury.
She's now set to graduate drug court in May and receives counseling once a week. She soon will be in training to be an assistant manager at her job at a local doughnut shop and is living in a rented home with help through Haven Recovery Center and a federal assistance program.
Her husband, who does not live with her, is only able to see the children on supervised visits until he finishes treatment, child-welfare officials said.
Annette Gerardi, drug-court case manager for Community Partnership for Children, said DiCologero has come far and is "now placing her children first and her sobriety. The changes in her life are tremendous."
After already getting her GED in November, she's planning to go to Daytona State College in the summer to become an addiction specialist to help others.
"I know where they are coming from, and I know how to deal with it," DiCologero said. "If I can just help one person out of a thousand, I'm doing my job."
2010 Adoption Incentive Awards
2010 Adoption Incentive Awards
Based on FY 2009 Earning Year State Award
Alabama $1,477,397
Alaska $719,213
Arizona $584,582
Arkansas $1,360,481
California $0
Colorado $0
Connecticut $520,809
Delaware $102,745
Dist of Columbia $0
Florida $5,718,271
Georgia $364,921
Hawaii $187,775
Idaho $1,147,906
Illinois $155,888
Indiana $1,360,481
Iowa $0
Kansas $531,438
Kentucky $1,371,110
Louisiana $1,006,189
Maine $113,373
Maryland $173,603
Massachusetts $0
Michigan $3,511,033
Minnesota $446,408
Mississippi $38,972
Missouri $510,180
Montana $0
Nebraska $637,726
Nevada $467,665
New Hampshire $49,601
New Jersey $0
New Mexico $658,983
New York $0
North Carolina $1,077,048
North Dakota $0
Ohio $0
Oklahoma $1,204,593
Oregon $637,726
Pennsylvania $2,175,353
Rhode Island $198,403
South Carolina $655,440
South Dakota $60,230
Tennessee $0
Texas $7,468,475
Utah $432,236
Vermont $0
Virginia $14,172
Washington $0
West Virginia $1,030,990
Wisconsin $276,348
Wyoming $49,601
Puerto Rico $382,635
Based on FY 2009 Earning Year State Award
Alabama $1,477,397
Alaska $719,213
Arizona $584,582
Arkansas $1,360,481
California $0
Colorado $0
Connecticut $520,809
Delaware $102,745
Dist of Columbia $0
Florida $5,718,271
Georgia $364,921
Hawaii $187,775
Idaho $1,147,906
Illinois $155,888
Indiana $1,360,481
Iowa $0
Kansas $531,438
Kentucky $1,371,110
Louisiana $1,006,189
Maine $113,373
Maryland $173,603
Massachusetts $0
Michigan $3,511,033
Minnesota $446,408
Mississippi $38,972
Missouri $510,180
Montana $0
Nebraska $637,726
Nevada $467,665
New Hampshire $49,601
New Jersey $0
New Mexico $658,983
New York $0
North Carolina $1,077,048
North Dakota $0
Ohio $0
Oklahoma $1,204,593
Oregon $637,726
Pennsylvania $2,175,353
Rhode Island $198,403
South Carolina $655,440
South Dakota $60,230
Tennessee $0
Texas $7,468,475
Utah $432,236
Vermont $0
Virginia $14,172
Washington $0
West Virginia $1,030,990
Wisconsin $276,348
Wyoming $49,601
Puerto Rico $382,635
Monday, February 7, 2011
NCCPR Child Welfare Blog: Who is in foster care? The lie at the heart of CR’s fundraising campaign
NCCPR Child Welfare Blog: Who is in foster care? The lie at the heart of CR’s fundraising campaign
Repeatedly on this blog I have criticized the group that so arrogantly calls itself Children's Rights (CR). I've done that even though I believe the group’s founder, Marcia Lowry, and the people who work for her have good intentions. I think they believe what they do helps children, and I'm on record taking issue with those who have questioned the group's motives.
I continue to believe all that - even though, a few months ago, CR began a new fundraising campaign built on a lie.
Not simply a statement that is misleading or disingenuous, but an out-and-out lie.
This is the lie: The group claims that "right now, there are nearly 500,000 abused and neglected children in foster care."
The problem isn't that the figure is a bit out of date and the actual number probably is closer to 424,000. Whatever the exact number, it is way too high.
The lie is the claim that all of these children were abused or neglected before they came into foster care.
Of course some of the children were, indeed, abused or neglected before they came into foster care. Some even were abused in a way that fits the stereotypes of sadism and brutality conjured up by the claim. But certainly not all of them. Probably not even close.
MONTHS IN LIMBO BEFORE A JUDGE DECIDES
I'm not talking here about things like the confusion of poverty with neglect - areas where one can dispute whether the child was abused or neglected.
Rather I am talking about the basic, fundamental fact that children can be trapped for months in foster care before any judge ever decides whether the children were, in fact, abused or neglected in the first place. They may even be torn from everyone they know and love, consigned to foster care for months, and then sent home without any neutral arbiter ever determining if there was any abuse at all.
In a presentation at an Urban Institute forum in 2010, John Mattingly, commissioner of New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services, and no friend of family preservation, complained about court delays making cases drag on for months. Among other things, he said this:
We are returning families [sic] home before we’ve even decided they abused or neglected their children.
And Mattingly was basing his comment on data from one of CR’s own reports.
Here’s how it happens:
In all 50 states child protective services workers can take away children entirely on their own authority if those workers believe the case is an emergency and they don't have time to go to a judge first. In some states they can do it themselves, in the others they can call law enforcement to do it for them. Even when a judge approves the removal at a hearing a few days later, that doesn't mean the judge has determined that there was abuse and neglect. Rather, the judge is holding the child in foster care until such a determination is made.
It is much like someone accused of a crime who is in jail, not because he is a criminal, but simply because he can't make bail before trial. Just as everyone in jail is not a criminal, every child in foster care was not abused or neglected before being taken away. And it's not as if CR, which was after all founded by a lawyer and is led by lawyers, isn't aware of this.
THE SECOND LIE
In fact, there are two lies in CR's fundraising campaign - first, when they say that "right now, there are nearly 500,000 abused and neglected children in foster care” and then, when they refer to all of those children who are abused in foster care itself as suffering "further abuse" [Emphasis added]. That second lie fails to account for the fact that there are some children who never were abused until they were placed in foster care. Children like, to cite just one example back in the news lately, Logan Marr.
So why did CR launch a campaign built on a lie? You'd have to ask them - and I wish someone would.
Certainly it’s puzzling since, if the goal is to find permanent homes for children, then the statement works just as well the honest way, by saying simply that there are nearly 500,000 children in foster care.
Perhaps CR wants to reinforce the false stereotype that all parents who lose their children to foster care are brutally abusive or hopelessly addicted. Perhaps they want people to believe that bad as foster care can be, it can't possibly be worse than leaving the children with their "abusive" or "neglectful" parents. Perhaps they want people to believe that even when children are abused in foster care, there is no such thing as a child who never was abused until he was placed in foster care.
Certainly, if people believe the lie, they are less likely to ask CR why their lawsuits and settlements keep ignoring the best option for most children most of the time: not taking them away in the first place. They won't ask CR why they've actually undermined such efforts in Tennessee, Georgia and Michigan (see the section of our second Michigan report starting on Page 30).
Perhaps it's just easier to use horror stories to get people to give money - even when the whole campaign is built on a lie.
Posted by National Coalition for Child Protection Reform at 6:00 AM
Repeatedly on this blog I have criticized the group that so arrogantly calls itself Children's Rights (CR). I've done that even though I believe the group’s founder, Marcia Lowry, and the people who work for her have good intentions. I think they believe what they do helps children, and I'm on record taking issue with those who have questioned the group's motives.
I continue to believe all that - even though, a few months ago, CR began a new fundraising campaign built on a lie.
Not simply a statement that is misleading or disingenuous, but an out-and-out lie.
This is the lie: The group claims that "right now, there are nearly 500,000 abused and neglected children in foster care."
The problem isn't that the figure is a bit out of date and the actual number probably is closer to 424,000. Whatever the exact number, it is way too high.
The lie is the claim that all of these children were abused or neglected before they came into foster care.
Of course some of the children were, indeed, abused or neglected before they came into foster care. Some even were abused in a way that fits the stereotypes of sadism and brutality conjured up by the claim. But certainly not all of them. Probably not even close.
MONTHS IN LIMBO BEFORE A JUDGE DECIDES
I'm not talking here about things like the confusion of poverty with neglect - areas where one can dispute whether the child was abused or neglected.
Rather I am talking about the basic, fundamental fact that children can be trapped for months in foster care before any judge ever decides whether the children were, in fact, abused or neglected in the first place. They may even be torn from everyone they know and love, consigned to foster care for months, and then sent home without any neutral arbiter ever determining if there was any abuse at all.
In a presentation at an Urban Institute forum in 2010, John Mattingly, commissioner of New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services, and no friend of family preservation, complained about court delays making cases drag on for months. Among other things, he said this:
We are returning families [sic] home before we’ve even decided they abused or neglected their children.
And Mattingly was basing his comment on data from one of CR’s own reports.
Here’s how it happens:
In all 50 states child protective services workers can take away children entirely on their own authority if those workers believe the case is an emergency and they don't have time to go to a judge first. In some states they can do it themselves, in the others they can call law enforcement to do it for them. Even when a judge approves the removal at a hearing a few days later, that doesn't mean the judge has determined that there was abuse and neglect. Rather, the judge is holding the child in foster care until such a determination is made.
It is much like someone accused of a crime who is in jail, not because he is a criminal, but simply because he can't make bail before trial. Just as everyone in jail is not a criminal, every child in foster care was not abused or neglected before being taken away. And it's not as if CR, which was after all founded by a lawyer and is led by lawyers, isn't aware of this.
THE SECOND LIE
In fact, there are two lies in CR's fundraising campaign - first, when they say that "right now, there are nearly 500,000 abused and neglected children in foster care” and then, when they refer to all of those children who are abused in foster care itself as suffering "further abuse" [Emphasis added]. That second lie fails to account for the fact that there are some children who never were abused until they were placed in foster care. Children like, to cite just one example back in the news lately, Logan Marr.
So why did CR launch a campaign built on a lie? You'd have to ask them - and I wish someone would.
Certainly it’s puzzling since, if the goal is to find permanent homes for children, then the statement works just as well the honest way, by saying simply that there are nearly 500,000 children in foster care.
Perhaps CR wants to reinforce the false stereotype that all parents who lose their children to foster care are brutally abusive or hopelessly addicted. Perhaps they want people to believe that bad as foster care can be, it can't possibly be worse than leaving the children with their "abusive" or "neglectful" parents. Perhaps they want people to believe that even when children are abused in foster care, there is no such thing as a child who never was abused until he was placed in foster care.
Certainly, if people believe the lie, they are less likely to ask CR why their lawsuits and settlements keep ignoring the best option for most children most of the time: not taking them away in the first place. They won't ask CR why they've actually undermined such efforts in Tennessee, Georgia and Michigan (see the section of our second Michigan report starting on Page 30).
Perhaps it's just easier to use horror stories to get people to give money - even when the whole campaign is built on a lie.
Posted by National Coalition for Child Protection Reform at 6:00 AM
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