Beneath faults of foster care in New Jersey,
A grim burden
In the thousands of pages of foster care records that a federal judge
has forced New Jersey officials to make public in recent months, the
state's failures to protect children are widespread, recurring and
dramatic. The documents are a record of botched abuse investigations and
the often utter lack of oversight of troubled households.
But at a more basic level, the documents, 2,900 pages of which were
released yesterday, provide an unrelenting, unvarnished look at the
often gruesome capacity of adults to harm children. And in that, even if
they hardly offer evidence to excuse the state, they do make clear the
size of the threat and the dimensions of the challenges in protecting
children from all and any kinds of danger.
For in the documents, even when the public may be inured to
disturbing newspaper headlines, the range of the established harm done
to children is breathtaking. Particularly troubling to those who studied the system is that in
many of the cases released yesterday, caseworkers failed to recognize
what advocates and others say were obvious signs of abuse.
In one case, the records show, two foster children were punished by
having pepper and dish detergent placed on their tongues, which caused
them to vomit.
In another, the files show, two foster children were punished by
repeatedly being forced to stand on one leg, their arms extended, for
minutes on end.
And in a third case, a foster mother made her two charges sleep
outside on an unheated porch during the winter, documents show. The
state also found that she sometimes used a small wooden baseball bat to
hit the children, sending one to the emergency room for treatment.
“There are just people who prey on vulnerable people,” said Cecilia Zalkind, executive director of the Association for Children of New
Jersey, an advocacy group based in Newark. “I think that has happened in
some of these cases. You're talking about a system that serves
vulnerable people and has no oversight.”
Such abuse is certainly not unique to children in New Jersey.
According to federal figures, about 900,000 children suffer maltreatment
each year, and roughly 1,100 children die annually because of abuse and
neglect. That people can commit the unthinkable, then, is well
established.
However, the thousands of pages that New Jersey has released — which
include cases from across the state that were collected in the past
several years — depict a world of near-limitless invention in ways to
harm children. The files, in page after page of clinical, almost neutral
language, make the unimaginable seem commonplace.
In the case of the children who had detergent and pepper placed on
their tongues, workers with the State Division of Youth and Family
Services also found that the children's foster mother beat them with a
belt and forced them to stand in a corner for long periods as a method
of punishment. The victims were two girls who were 5 and 6 years old.
Other files described the deplorable living conditions of some foster
homes. Workers found that a 6-year-old was so neglected in one home that
he picked through the garbage at school looking for food. His foster
mother beat him with a belt and refused to take him to the hospital
after he suffered first- and second-degree burns in a kitchen accident.
In another incident, caseworkers discovered a foster home that reeked
of urine and was so littered with garbage bags and newspapers that they
had to hold on to a wall for balance. After one visit, a caseworker
wrote to a colleague, “We have to move these babies.”
The documents released yesterday were designated in a court order
issued by United States Magistrate Judge John Hughes. In March, Judge
Hughes ordered New Jersey officials to make the documents public in
response to a court action brought by The New York Times.
The files were previously in the possession of Children's Rights
Inc., a Manhattan-based advocacy group that sued New Jersey over its
foster care system and had been given the confidential records as part
of court proceedings.
From April to June, three sets of state records were released by the
judge's order. On June 24, Gov. James E. McGreevey announced a
wide-reaching settlement with Children's Rights that, among other
measures, called for the creation of an independent Child Welfare Panel
to help overhaul the state's foster care system.
Yesterday, Children's Rights officials said they hoped that the files
that were made public would be used as a tool in the state's effort to
change the way it cares for foster children.
“It's always shocking to read the case file details, as recorded by
the agency, of abuse of children,” said Eric Thompson, a lawyer with
Children's Rights. “This should be a further wake-up call to the state.”
Mr. Thompson was particularly troubled because in many of the cases
released yesterday, caseworkers had ruled that allegations of abuse were
unsubstantiated. “It's essential that trained professionals be able to recognize the
red flags of abuse and neglect in order to protect these children,” he
said.
A spokesman for the State Division of Youth and Family Services, Joe
Delmar, said the agency was determined to improve its performance.
Mr. Delmar said the agency was reviewing its licensing requirements
for caregivers, conducting safety reviews of foster children and
increasing its monitoring of foster home and other programs by taking
steps like having more unannounced visits.
“We will continue to move forward with our transformation plan with
support and guidance from the Child Welfare Panel,” Mr. Delmar said.
By Richard Lezin Jones
13 August 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/12/nyregion/12CHIL.html?ex=1061265600&en=
9aaf5a173c30f8d6&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
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