A boisterous rally of about 100 state caseworkers yesterday protested that they have been made scapegoats for another horrific and high-profile failure of New Jersey's child-welfare system.

DYFS caseworkers speak out

“Caseworkers do not kill children. Caseworkers do not abuse children,” said Carla Katz, president of Communications Workers of America Local 1034, which represents 700 Division of Youth and Family Services workers in South Jersey. “We do not need knee-jerk reactions. We do not need caseworkers vilified,” she said in Camden, where the rally was held at a DYFS office.

DYFS suspended seven caseworkers and two supervisors after Bruce Jackson, a 19-year-old who weighed 45 pounds, was found rooting through a Collingswood neighbor's garbage for food last month. Jackson and three brothers, ages 9 to 14, later were removed from the home of their adoptive parents, Raymond and Vanessa Jackson, who were accused of starving them. (see previous feature)

As in the case of Faheem Williams, a 7-year-old boy found dead in a Newark basement in January, DYFS caseworkers have been chastised for a failure to protect children. In both cases, the families had been under some level of DYFS supervision. “What they call ‘scapegoating’ we call ‘accountability,’ ” said Micah Rasmussen, spokesman for Gov. McGreevey. “Anyone who takes one look at the Jackson children knows someone failed them.”

Gwendolyn Harris, commissioner of the state Department of Human Services, said the Jackson caseworkers had to be incompetent or uncaring not to notice the brothers' conditions.

Union officials at the rally blasted that assertion, saying blame rested with a broken system that overburdened inexperienced caseworkers and provided them with few tools. “The hundreds of workers before you here today have dedicated their lives to protecting and serving children,” Katz said. “They are angry. And they deserve to be angry.”

She said she could not talk about specifics of the Jackson case because the Camden County Prosecutor's Office was investigating possible criminal charges against the suspended workers. The employees — referred to at the rally as the “Camden Nine” — were not present.

Katz and others repeatedly said prosecutors had rushed to judgment — an argument made by supporters of the Jackson family. The Jacksons were released Sunday after posting bail, and received a welcome that day at their Medford church. Their pastor, who put up his home to secure their bail, started a Web site and defense fund for them.

Supporters have said the four brothers — suffering from a variety of maladies, such as fetal alcohol syndrome and possible eating disorders — were well-fed and loved. They blamed the brothers' conditions on medical problems that predated their adoptions, although prosecutors said the four had gained weight since being removed from the home.

The pastor, the Rev. Harry Thomas, attended the DYFS rally and likened the Jacksons' plight to that of the caseworkers. “Why would a parent want to take in a special-needs child and risk such humiliation?” he asked. “And, furthermore, why would anyone want to be a DYFS worker after this?”

Thomas said the caseworkers had not found any abuse because “it wasn't there.” Katz said that “in the end, this story will be much more complex than has been portrayed.”

Regardless of the outcome, union officials said their long-held complaints about systemic failures needed to be addressed. “While they are busy vilifying their own workforce... they have successfully directed you away from the central question: Where does the buck stop in this administration?” said Paul Alexander, assistant to the union's president. He mocked some promised state changes, such as reducing the number of foster children allowed in one home and filling all caseworker vacancies by Dec. 1, as laughable amid the realities the system.

He and other union officials said that there were not enough workers, and that the staff turnover rate of 9 percent was too high. They cited enormous caseloads, lack of communication, a foster-home shortage, and inadequate post-adoption follow-up as a few of the problems facing caseworkers.

DYFS also is scheduled to announce a package of proposals in December or January. The agency was given six months to come up with improvements after this summer's settlement of a lawsuit filed by a child advocacy group. The changes are being designed under the watch of an advisory panel and a federal judge.

The union instructed caseworkers at the rally not to speak with reporters because of confidentiality concerns. But a shop steward from Burlington County who identified herself only as Kathy said caseworkers went into the toughest neighborhoods armed with nothing more than a “clipboard and an ink pen.”

“No one's talking about the thousands and thousands of families we save every day,” she said. “We should be out on the street, but right now we're fighting to save ourselves.”

By Troy Graham
7 November 2003
 

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