The system is broken

August 30, 2006 7:38 PM

Some kidsunder the "protection" of DSHS in Washington state have been murdered. Others have been sexually abused. DSHS doesn't want you to know this, and if you do, they want you to know that it's not their fault.
posted by leftcoastbob (23 comments total)

I'm not for capital punishment, but anyone who allows shit like this to be swept under the rug should swing.

There is no excuse.
posted by isopraxis at 7:43 PM on August 30, 2006

I think that first link is behind a paywall.
posted by bob sarabia at 7:44 PM on August 30, 2006

First link no-go.

"A judge granted a motion by the girl's attorney that said the file "demonstrates unfavorable facts" about both the state of Washington and YouthCare and should be hidden away "to protect all parties from embarrassment."

WTF? Someone club that judge with a clue-by-four, please.

FWIW, abuse and deaths occur in the BC system. I'm pretty sure that hospitals are legally required to report child abuse, and coroners will automatically flag any state-held children for inquest. Certainly we get a lot of noise about inquiries and reports and changes to the system. I'd have to hear from the front-line workers, though, as to whether the media and government bleatings have any relation to reality.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:47 PM on August 30, 2006

I'll make a wild blanket statement in saying there will always be some level of horriblness with any agency, but it is bound to be much higher when such services struggle for money and are overworked. 311 billion for a silly war and what exactly for State level social services?
posted by edgeways at 7:50 PM on August 30, 2006

Sorry about the link; it worked okay when I linked to it. Here's another link.
posted by leftcoastbob at 8:22 PM on August 30, 2006

Well, what do you expect? Some children get raped, some children are under the care of social services, so naturally some children under the care of social services are going to be raped. I would imagine the percentages are higher under social services, but that's really the measure of success, IMO.
posted by delmoi at 8:35 PM on August 30, 2006

Sorry I should say the measure of success would be keeping the rates of abuse and soforth consummate with the general population.
posted by delmoi at 8:35 PM on August 30, 2006

Sorry I should say the measure of success would be keeping the rates of abuse and soforth consummate with the general population.

That's a rather unfortunate selection of words.
posted by loquacious at 9:19 PM on August 30, 2006

THE SYSTEM
IS DOWN

THE SYSTEM
IS DOWN

unz unz unz
posted by borkingchikapa at 9:25 PM on August 30, 2006

This won't come as a surprise at all to anyone who's had the profound misfortune of dealing with federally-funded social workers.

I'm pretty sure that hospitals are legally required to report child abuse, and coroners will automatically flag any state-held children for inquest.

Ha. Ha. Tell me another.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 9:26 PM on August 30, 2006

At age 9 the court found me a Child In Need Of Supervision
and placed me in a state Residential Care Facility. All
that surprises me about these articles is that anybody cared
enough for us to find out anything about these "incidents".
posted by davy at 9:27 PM on August 30, 2006

Group homes are generally awful (institutional at best, dangerous/scary at worst) and IMO should be used as a last resort -- when a kid in the system is unable to live in a "regular" home. Instead group homes become the standard placement for teens, because the system can't figure out how to make more home placements available.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 9:36 PM on August 30, 2006

PS and it's not just about lack of money, though that's part of it. It's about really incompetent systems (and some good people and some really incompetent people) that do not easily change.

Aside -- Group home placements cost up to $10,000 per month per kid, while regular home placements cost less than $1,000.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 9:41 PM on August 30, 2006

Related recent news: In Cincinnati, a pair of foster parents locked a 3-year old in a closet (bound by a blanket and packing tape) and left town for two days. After a two-week manhunt (they claimed the boy had disappeared in a park) it was revealed that, discovering the boy had died, the foster parents burned the body.

Four other children were taken from the home. According to the County Prosecutor, "They accumulated as many foster kids and day-care kids to maximize how much money they made." (The couple was paid $2,500 a month for day care, $1,000 a month for Marcus and got additional help for nutrition.)

The child was placed with the couple on the recommendation of a faith-based agency that is now under investigation by the state.
posted by rafter at 10:00 PM on August 30, 2006

Holy motherfucker, why the hell is the US at war when they got this shit happenin' at home?
posted by Vindaloo at 10:37 PM on August 30, 2006

I'd have to hear from the front-line workers, though

I'm not on the front lines, but I'm close enough to see how utterly hamstrung the front-liners are.

DSHS isn't completely broken, but like most human services programs in this country, it's overworked and underfunded. Among the workers, conventional wisdom states that the different agency subdivisions take turns at getting their asses handed to them in court. (When working in the public sector, black humor is practically a job requirement.) A few years ago, it was the aging/disabilities branch--see the Linda David case for an example. Now the childrens' administration is taking heat, for reasons addressed in the original article as well as others. No one I've talked to thinks these scandals are anything other than reprehensible. But the inherent inertia of government, in combination with the chronic money shortage, guarantees that some people who come to DSHS for help will fall through the cracks.

And unfortunately, the cracks in the system can be really fucking deep.
posted by Vervain at 10:38 PM on August 30, 2006

Well, what do you expect? Some children get raped, some children are under the care of social services, so naturally some children under the care of social services are going to be raped.
posted by delmoi

What do I expect? Competence, for one thing.

For 5 ½ months, DSHS failed to let YouthCare know the seriousness of Gregory's record. YouthCare, meanwhile, failed to push DSHS for details, even knowing something had popped up on his background check.

I expect them to do their job.

At 8:40 p.m., Seattle police arrived at Threshold and arrested Gregory — for the assault earlier that day, not for the rape. Before taking him away, police let Gregory find someone to cover his shift. He was, after all, working alone.
Later, Lynn let Gregory's replacement know what had happened upstairs. But he didn't call police or DSHS. He decided to let someone else handle it the next morning, he later told a state investigator.

This is not--on any level--acceptable.
posted by leftcoastbob at 10:51 PM on August 30, 2006

What do I expect? Competence, for one thing.

Just an idea, but paying the professionals who are responsible for taking care of these kids more than $18,000 a year might be one way towards finding people who have that.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:06 PM on August 30, 2006

The Therapeutic Foster Care program of the "faith-based agency" rafter mentioned.

They open their "appeal" like so:

"Imagine, if you will, the emotional trauma of a girl who has been sexually abused by her father for all of her young life."

Does anyone else find this wording a bit disturbing?
posted by davy at 7:52 AM on August 31, 2006

Picture the helplessness of a diabetic child with an I.Q. of 10 who was found living in his own waste.

Is that even possible? I mean I imagine a diabetic child couldn't live without proper care.
posted by delmoi at 8:17 AM on August 31, 2006

don't forget about the OK Boys Ranch.
posted by owhydididoit at 8:26 PM on August 31, 2006

oops, try this instead.
posted by owhydididoit at 8:29 PM on August 31, 2006

Text of first link is here.
posted by etoile at 7:56 AM on September 5, 2006