Wednesday, September 26th, 2007...6:36 am
CPS Reform Hearings
Yesterday’s CPS hearings didn’t turn into nearly the zoo I thought they would be, despite Ray Barnes’s best efforts.
Both Jonathan Paton and Kirk Adams seem to be endorsing more funding for CPS and giving them more power to intervene when situations warrant it. I’m still doubtful that they can get support for this from their own party’s legislators. For example, Karen Johnson and her allies (including former legislator and current congressional candidate Laura Knaperak) have all but argued for getting rid of CPS entirely and has been critical of them taking children from parents, no matter what the circumstances.
Johnson, by the way, was rumored to have wanted to attend the hearing but was asked not to go.
Many of the committe members endorsed mandating drug testing and treatment for parents who are involved with CPS. This would make sense, given that 70% of all such cases involve substance abuse. However, some of these same folks advocated the house budget earlier this year that cut $2 million from Families First. Adams, Paton, Barnes, Tom Boone and Rich Crandall all voted for this, which would have been a 40% cut to the program that would have to do exactly what they say is necessary here.
This is an example of one of the biggest policy problems that CPS faces: policy schizophrenia. Policy makers demand treatment programs, but don’t fund them. CPS is asked to intervene quickly when children are in danger, but please do your best to keep families together. Demand that CPS hire competent, experienced and caring staff, but don’t give them the budget to recruit and retain quality employees.
In the end, the observers I talked to believe that only two minor but necessary reforms will come out of this. One would be giving CPS the ability to file missing persons cases, which they currently can’t do. The other would be making it easier for CPS to have access to criminal background checks.
Political side note, because this is a political blog: At one point, there was a recess and a huddle over whether to compel testimony about an infant. There were confidentiality issues involved. Jim Weiers, who was in the room at that point, suggested that they just read one of the press accounts into the record. To his credit, Adams ignored the Speaker’s suggestion, and the others followed his lead. Hmm, Adams was in charge? Is this foreshadowing?
15 Comments
September 26th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Good post. Karen Johnson is an idiot. Jonathon Paton is not.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
I wish the folks who complain about CPS would spend just one week working there. I can’t think of a more thankless job. I’m glad, however, for the hearings. People need to be aware what exactly what CPS is up against.
Remove a child in danger? Sure…and place him/her where? Into an over-crowded group home with poorly paid staff — so the child gets traumatized further? How about into the foster care system — only to be moved around from home to home.
Or…you keep the child in his/her family, good old “family preservation.” Sometimes you have no other choice, even though you might suspect a child is being abused because you can’t prove it. This is especially true in cases of sexual abuse.
The vast majority of cases involve alcohol and/or drug-dependent parents, yet I can’t think of a treatment center other than New Arizona Family (which does a fine job) that has beds for children while their mothers receive treatment on-site.
Moreover, the Governor is right when she says that child welfare is everyone’s responsibility. Too few people get involved with the youth in our communities, whether it’s coaching a team or being a scout leader, or a church group. Instead we’re too quick to pass the buck on to CPS, sit back and point fingers when mistakes are made.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
CPS reform is another failure by Napolitano. Not that the media cares. She’s a Democrat and that’s all that matters.
x4mr is an idiot. Karen Johson is not.
September 27th, 2007 at 6:54 am
No, no … Karen Johnson is most certainly an idiot, on this matter at least.
How, exactly, is it a failure by Napolitano when it’s the legislature cutting funding?
September 27th, 2007 at 9:52 am
The legislature didn’t cut funding. They increased it, particularly for in-home services. In fact every democrat voted for the final budget bill and the governor signed it. Here’s the deal (because apparently seperation of powers wasn’t your strong suit in high school): the legislature passes bills and the governor either signs or vetoes them. My question is when the governor signs something you like she gets the credit, when she signs something you don’t like, the legislature gets the blame.
September 27th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Hmmmm … I was simply referring to the reference in Tedski’s post about the $2 million cut for Families First. I haven’t looked up the details, and presume he is correct. If so, then the legislature did, in fact, pass a bill which cut funding in the area.
Yes, Janet could veto everything, and then you get complete gridlock. Actually, if a bill gets passed I like I am perfectly happy to give credit to the legislature. After all, as you mention, they are the ones who craft the bills.
I also tend to blame the legislature more for legislation I don’t like … after all, they are the ones that craft the bills. Yes, Janet could veto them all, but there are so many and I tend to prefer vetoes be saved only for the most heinous.
September 27th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Jim Weiers has a lot of nerve (I could say a great deal more than that) to make any suggestions regarding child abuse.
There is still a lot that is yet to be uncovered regarding his past relationship with Arthur Vitasek, among others.
September 27th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Anyone who is not clear that Karen Johnson is an idiot,
is an idiot.
September 27th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Re:
“Jim Weiers has a lot of nerve”
He also has much explaining to do regarding this cover up with his friend ARTHUR L VITASEK.
This man should not be making decisions about the welfare of children.
http://www.supreme.state.az.us/publicaccess/notification/casedetail.asp?cs_id=kekeqkao&crt_name=Maricopa%20County%20Superior#footnote
http://www.courtminutes.maricopa.gov/scri
pts/meeds/qreturn.asp?casenumber=CR2005030514
September 29th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Karen Johnson IS a big idiot. The biggest kind. Voting against increased penalties for spousal rape, for example, she explained that it might deter marital reconciliation. And she should know a thing or two about the difficulties of keeping marriages together, being married more times than you can count. She has no business even being part of this discussion, in my opinion.
October 9th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and the Child Protection “INDUSTRY”
CPS Does not protect children…
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.
every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch…
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8×11.pdf
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
Perpetrators of Maltreatment
Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per 100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a bunch of social workers.
Currently Child Protective Services violates more civil rights on a daily basis then all other agencies combined, Including the NSA/CIA wiretaping program…
FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILURE:. A Brief Analysis of the Casey Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:E2PcWEpNCD4J:www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc
or for .doc
http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc
HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN
http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems, including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment than the general population.
80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.
The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should just be blown up.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991
This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in the first place.
Front-page story in USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm?csp=34#Close
The full study is available here.
http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf
The bottom line? - the foster care system nationwide for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than Walking Wreckage…
But it is Good for Arizonas economy, first massive amounts of federal dollars flowing into the state to take care of all the Poor “paper orphans” And then more federal dollars when eighty percent of the former foster care children come back into state custody as “PRISONERS OF THE STATE” after having aged out of the system at 18 and are now in trouble with the law as young adults because they had no family or relatives for support, and now everybody is wondering why Arizona can’t build prisons fast enough?
in its current configuration Child Protective Services is like a “CRACK ADDICT” addicted to Kids the more money you give CPS the more kids they will remove from their homes until the CPS & foster care system is overloaded again….
money and more power for CPS is not the answer to the problem…
we’ve already tried that several times, they already have more than enough to the job!
The answer? save the family and you save the child, pretty simple?
but how to go about it? also pretty simple, addressed the underlying cause, usually its poverty…
January 17th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Cps is a corrupt government bureaucracy. it harms far more children than it helps not because of lack of funding but because the target low income young couples that are not abusive. the reason being is that non abused young children are more easily adopted out making money for the state in the process. real children of abuse cost much more to maintain and are harder to adopt out resulting in a loss of the bonus money paid per adoption. CPS social workers routinely fabricate evidence and lie on the stand. the juvenile court system in which parents are forced do not offer due process or any civil rights. parents are considered guilty and must prove their innocence . an impossible task when no real evidence is offered against them. parents are then black mailed into sign service plans and away what little rights they do have under threat of losing their children for ever. they then lose their children any way even if they comply with all the insane requirements set forth for them. in the end it is about making money not helping children as can be noted in the recent congressional reports. when around 80% pg cps removals are deemed by research to be based on false accusation the system is broken
January 17th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
g hardaway:
Certainly CPS could be improved, but it is needed. There are some truly evil sex predators out there (some of whom are much more plugged in to this debate than you can possibly imagine) and CPS is in some cases the only protection kids have. Kill it, and you go back to the way things were thirty years ago, when adults could do pretty much anything they wanted to children and get away with it. Some of them still are.
February 6th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
CPS is never needed it harms far more children than it helps. in fact children are more likley to be abused in the cps system care than in their own homes. yes we need some kind of system that actualy helps abused childen but as CPs targets non abused children for profit it is never needed
June 24th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Diane D’Angelo
September 26th, 2007 at 9:05 pm Refers to the previous post:
Perhaps all CPS workers need to be accused of child abuse and have their children removed for a week—without knowing you will ever see them again. Work with CPS for a week–what a joke! Do you know what it is like to have a threat over your head each day—-I would rather face international terrorist every day than deal with CPS!
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