SD DSS and ACLU Director Issues

Blogger Note:

It would be intresting to know who much of this story may have to do with the following story below. It would be quite surprising if there is absolutely no connection but it appears that something fishy is going on.
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Indian Child Welfare Act Violations Prompts ACLU Investigation Into South Dakota Foster Care System

ACLU Seeks Input from American Indian Families With Children in DSS

SIOUX FALLS, SD - The appalling treatment of American Indian children, family, and tribes by the South Dakota Department of Social Services as described in recent NPR News reports has prompted the ACLU of South Dakota to investigate the actions as violations of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

The NPR News series, "Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families," explains how American Indian children represent more than half of all children in foster care, yet account for less than 15 percent of the state's total child population. The report also features interviews from tribal members who recall DSS officials driving onto the reservation, removing children from homes, and preventing contact with family.

The report describes several instances of ICWA violations, as well as blatant disregard of fundamental Constitutional norms and international human rights as affirmed by the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, according to Robert Doody Esq., Executive Director of the ACLU of South Dakota.

"The ACLU is firmly committed to addressing this most recent manifestation of racism and colonization in our state," Doody said. "It is shocking to see politicians and members of the government, who hold themselves out as "pro-family," react in utter contempt and callous disregard to the legitimate grievances of American Indians."

The ACLU of South Dakota wants to hear from American Indians who recently had children removed by DSS in order to ascertain the depth and breadth of the problem. Any American Indian with concerns regarding their experiences with or treatment by DSS should contact the ACLU at (605) 332-2508 or email southdakota@aclu.org.

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Please direct media inquiries to Taté Walker, ACLU of South Dakota Communications Director: (605) 332-2508, (646) 421-9387 or twalker@aclu.org. For more information about the ACLU of South Dakota, visit www.aclusd.org, or find us on Facebook and Twitter.


http://www.aclusd.org/indian-child-welfare-act-violations-prompts-aclu-investigation-into-south-dakota-foster-care-system.html

Children removed from home of ACLU director after dispute - South Dakota

Written by John Hult

The stepchildren of the director of the South Dakota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union were placed in protective custody last week after a family dispute call at his address.

Robert Doody, 31, was asked to leave a closed child protection hearing Tuesday morning at the Minnehaha County Courthouse. A judge decided at the hearing to keep the children in protective custody during a Department of Social Services investigation.

The inquiry was sparked by a report of physical abuse given to the Department of Social Services by the biological father of two of the children. By law, Social Services can place children in protective custody for 10 days while it investigates claims against parents.

Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Aaron McGowan confirmed Tuesday that he was aware of allegations, but said no charges have been filed against the mother or stepfather.

“We’ll have to wait for the investigating agency’s report,” McGowan said.

Doody said the removal of his Native American stepchildren, as well as his absence from the courtroom, constitute violations of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

The welfare act bars the foster care placement of Native children under most circumstances and gives Native parents additional rights during custody hearings.

“This is a disgrace. It goes to show that the state does not give due process to Indians or non-Indians,” Doody said after the hearing. “It’s a sham.”

Doody and the children’s maternal grandmother initially walked into the hearing Tuesday morning but were asked to leave, he said.

Doody denied any wrongdoing.

The only family members inside the courtroom were the children’s biological parents: Doody’s wife, Kimberly St. John, and their father, David Knorr.

After the hearing, Knorr said the judge determined that the children would remain in protective custody while the Social Services investigation proceeds. Doody and his wife objected to a placement in Knorr’s home.

The report appears on the Sioux Falls Police Department’s daily call log as a “family dispute” Friday morning, although Knorr said the incident in question took place Wednesday.

Police spokesman Sam Clemens confirmed only that the call came in as a Department of Social Services referral.

Doody has been the director of South Dakota’s chapter of the civil rights organization since 2008.

The organization has offered support to Native Americans suing the Department of Corrections and displaced voters on Indian reservations.

A spokesperson for the national ACLU declined to comment on the matter Tuesday.

“Robert Doody is an ACLU employee and as this is a personal matter,” Marsha Zeesman said.

Doody’s lawyer, Debra Voight, did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday night.

St. John is director of Mita Maske Ti Ki, a shelter for victims of domestic violence.

Source http://www.argusleader.com/article/20120222/NEWS/302210043/Children-removed-from-home-of-ACLU-director-after-dispute?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

Abuse, native foster care focus of Unity Rally - South Dakota

by David Montgomery

A small group of activists rallied Friday in Rapid City to protest sexual abuse of children and the state's foster care system.

The two-issue Unity Rally for the Children took place at 1 p.m. at Memorial Park. Addressing the issue of sexual abuse were Mayor Sam Kooiker and Robert Brancato, director of the Rapid City chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Tate Walker of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota and Evelyn Red Lodge, a reporter for the Native Sun News, talked about problems they see with the state's foster care system.

Galvanizing Kooiker and Brancato was a 2010 law limiting the time frame within which people can bring lawsuits for childhood sexual abuse. Both men say that statute of limitations should be repealed.

"It is time that South Dakota joins our friends in Montana and other states that have repealed the civil and criminal statutes of limitations on childhood sexual abuse," Kooiker said. "It's very important that victims have the right to bring this up later in life, to not have an arbitrary barrier stand in their way."

Brancato, an abuse survivor himself, pledged to "do everything I can" to rescind what he called "such a horrible law."

After Kooiker and Brancato spoke on sexual abuse, Walker and Red Lodge tackled the foster care issue. An NPR investigative report published this fall alleged that South Dakota's Department of Social Services violated the federal Indian Child Welfare Act by placing Native American children in non-Native households.

Walker, of the ACLU, said her organization has been gathering stories of families who claim their children have been unjustly taken away by social workers.

"We are sad to say we've been very busy," Walker said. "Too many children and families have been affected and not in good ways."

State officials have disputed the accusations, saying they have placed as many Native American children as possible with Native families and only turn to non-Native foster parents and group homes as a last resort.

Walker said the ACLU is "investigating legal angles" to "bring justice to the families."

The rally was a one-shot event, Red Lodge said.

"This was just basically a group of concerned individuals who got together and said, ‘We've got to make a noise. We've got to get out there. We've got to let people know,'" she said.

Source http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/abuse-native-foster-care-focus-of-unity-rally/article_c1048b36-2859-11e1-b1c0-001871e3ce6c.html

ACLU to probe if SD breaks child-protection laws

Associated Press

The American Civil Liberties Union is investigating whether the South Dakota Department of Social Services violated federal law by removing Native American children from their homes and placing them in foster care instead of with relatives.

Tate Walker, an ACLU spokeswoman in Sioux Falls, said the civil rights organization has fielded individual complaints for years from families who said the state violated the federal Indian Child Welfare Act. The law directs officials to place Native American children removed from homes with their relatives or tribes except in unusual situations.

But the cases had been too scattered and disparate to tackle, Walker said, until a recent National Public Radio series accused the state of routinely breaking the law and disrupting the lives of hundreds of Native Americans each year.

"That aired and then boom: We're getting calls left and right," Walker told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "The outcry was phenomenal, not only from people demanding that something be done, but also from several potential plaintiffs."

The ACLU investigation could lead to a potential lawsuit that would unite complainants as plaintiffs against the state.

The three-part NPR report described Native American children as being placed in South Dakota's foster care system at a disproportionate rate: More than half of all children in foster care are Native American, despite them accounting for just 15 percent of the state's child population.

The series suggested that the motive might be money, since the state gets federal financial assistance for each child removed from his or her home. It also suggested a conflict of interest in Gov. Dennis Daugaard's work for Children's Home Society of South Dakota when he was a lieutenant governor. That organization received millions of dollars for housing Native American children under contracts the state awarded without competitive bid.

The governor's office criticized the report and went on the defensive even before the series began airing last week, releasing a memo titled "Setting the Record Straight" that accused NPR's reporter of being unfair and biased. According to the memo, Children's Home Society has had contracts with the state since 1978, long before Daugaard became its chief operating officer in 2002.

While Walker commended the NPR report, she said the ACLU isn't out to attack the governor.

"It's not about the governor. It's about these kids," she said. "They deserve someone to check into this."

At the center of the conflict, she said, is a merging of state, federal and tribal jurisdiction that is difficult to navigate. The ACLU hopes the spotlight on the issue will prompt new legislation to make it easier for child-protective services workers to do their jobs.

On its website, NPR describes the three-part series as the culmination of a yearlong investigation.

"Some children are removed from their homes for legitimate reasons," the series' introduction reads. "But in South Dakota very few are taken because they've been physically or sexually abused. Most are taken under a far more subjective set of circumstances."

After the series began airing, two members of Congress _ U.S. Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass, and Dan Boren, D-Okla. _ sent a letter to the Interior Department of Indian Affairs calling for an investigation.

"If the information on the NPR article is accurate, it would appear that the state of South Dakota has failed not only to abide by the mandates of federal law but also failed its Indian children, their families and their tribes by violating the letter and spirit" of the Indian Child Welfare Act, the congressmen wrote to Larry Echo Hawk, Indian Affairs' assistant secretary.

The federal law was passed in 1978 to help ensure that Native American children weren't separated from their families and tribes through involuntary removal.

Gubernatorial aide Tony Venhuizen told the Rapid City Journal it was unfortunate that two members of Congress representing other states didn't contact South Dakota officials before seeking an investigation into allegations about the state.

"These congressmen based their letter on an NPR report that was deeply flawed," he said. "It's really too bad that they took this step without even asking the Department of Social Services or anyone in South Dakota for the facts."

Walker, the ACLU spokeswoman, said the NPR piece highlighted an important and overlooked issue affecting Native American families.

"I have much respect for the (Department of Social Services) workers. I have to imagine that meeting all of the requirements they have to meet can get tricky," she said. "I think that some statutory legislative could potentially ease some of the burden."

Source http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/aclu-to-probe-if-sd-breaks-child-protection-laws/article_2210024d-e8c1-5de7-a2d5-b2bcaacebf39.html

Chicago psychiatric hospital cited for chaotic conditions in report

By DEBORAH L. SHELTON - Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO - In a damning new report, experts from University of Illinois, Chicago paint a grim portrait of conditions at a Chicago psychiatric hospital, describing an environment of chaos, physical attacks and sexual assaults that regularly puts its young patients in harm's way.

The report, released Tuesday by the state Department of Children and Family Services, found that Hartgrove Hospital, on Chicago's West Side, often was understaffed and overcapacity - a dangerous combination that created opportunities for frequent attacks by patients on other patients and hospital staff.

In some cases, hospital employees physically harmed patients.

Reviewers from UIC interviewed children and teens who expressed fear for their safety or that of more vulnerable peers.

After reviewing findings of a preliminary report, DCFS officials in June put an "intake hold" on the facility, meaning they will not authorize the placement of state wards at Hartgrove.

"It's our duty to ensure the safety of children in state care, and we will take whatever action is necessary to keep our kids safe," said Kendall Marlowe, DCFS spokesman.

Experts from UIC's department of psychiatry spent about six months investigating conditions at Hartgrove, a 150-bed private psychiatric hospital that treats adults, children and teens.

The psychiatry department's mental health policy program has been conducting reviews of psychiatric hospitals on behalf of DCFS since 1995 pursuant to a federal court consent decree involving DCFS and the ACLU. The reviewers serve as independent experts.

About 100 violent incidents were documented between December 2010 and mid-June 2011, which included physical attacks, uncontrolled threatening behavior and sexual assaults.

In one case, an "aggressive" male patient, a DCFS ward, who had been discovered receiving oral sex from a female patient a day earlier, was observed "stalking females" on one of the units, according to records.

In another incident, one girl assaulted another, "tearing out her hair and punching her in the face," according to the report. The victim sustained a swollen eye.

The Chicago Tribune previously has reported on violence and sexual assaults at psychiatric facilities for youth, including Hartgrove.

In a statement, officials from Universal Health Services Inc., the Pennsylvania-based parent company of Hartgrove, said: "Despite the findings in the UIC report, Hartgrove is proud of its track record and has many more success stories to its credit than the negative ones highlighted in the report."

The statement said hospital officials are working with the appropriate agencies "towards a resolution which will allow Hartgrove to serve DCFS wards again."

Other hospitals owned by UHS have come under scrutiny in recent years, including facilities in at least eight states.

Among the chilling details in the UIC report on Hartgrove were descriptions of some hospital employees who appeared to be indifferent or too poorly trained to treat seriously mentally ill youth.

One case involved a 16-year-old girl with severe sickle cell anemia who was forced to cope with intense pain for long periods of time. When she became overwhelmed and had emotional outbursts as a result, staff blamed her for not being able to control herself.

A psychiatrist at the facility labeled her behavior as "med-seeking," according to records.

In another case, employees in May reportedly fractured the arm of a 16-year-old boy, who was not a state ward, apparently because they were not properly trained in restraint techniques.

The UIC experts said hospital staff and company officials at times tried to mislead them by attempting to cover up problems or keep reviewers from finding out about them.

"Perhaps most disturbing," the report said, "Hartgrove staff were reportedly told by UHS (parent company) officials that anyone suspected of providing information to the UIC reviewers would be fired."

However the reviewers said they were heartened that a number of employees stepped forward and provided them with much of the data in the report. A section of the report is devoted to comments from employees.

Among the litany of problems detailed were: inadequate training sessions and falsified certification records, psychiatrists spending too little time with patients, extended medication delays and inadequate treatment and discharge plans that frequently were boiler-plate and not individualized to patients' needs.

The report cited "a consistent pattern of unacceptable risks of harm" and "questionable clinical management practices by hospital and corporate officials at all levels of the organization."

The UIC experts found that overcrowding was commonplace, with many young patients regularly forced to sleep on cots in hallways or day rooms.

In many cases, patients were worse off at Hartgrove than they were in the facilities from which they were transferred, which typically had higher staff to patient ratios, the experts said.

"Their opportunity to receive needed mental health treatment in a safe environment suffered as a result of hospital-induced trauma," the report said.

In a letter to DCFS, Steven Airhart, CEO and managing director at Hargrove, denied sleeping kids in hallways, routinely understaffing the hospital and threatening to fire employees who talked to reviewers.

He said the "overwhelming majority" of those involved in training "met the time requirements and competency assessment procedures for the facility."

In its statement to the Tribune, the company said: "While we may not agree with the findings or conclusions of this report, we welcome the input and feedback from the UIC team and will embrace the appropriate recommendations to enhance our services and improve the quality of care we provide."

Virtually all of the UIC findings on Hartgrove were confirmed by surveyors from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. A CMS spokesman said that the federal agency had threatened to pull funding from the hospital but has accepted the hospital's plan of corrections to fix the problems.

The Joint Commission, an independent, not-for-profit organization, that accredits and certifies health care facilities and programs, said it found significant violations when it conducted an unannounced survey for cause earlier this month.

A spokeswoman said the group is working with the company to bring the hospital up to standards in two areas: its processes for assessing patients and its processes for providing care and services. "Our goal is to make sure the organization fixes what they need to do," she said.

No one at the Illinois Department of Public Health, which licenses Hartgrove Hospital, was available to comment on the report.

Ben Wolf, an ACLU attorney, said he was deeply troubled by the situation. The ACLU oversees the services provided to the state's estimated 15,000 foster children as part of the consent decree.

"The scope of the problem and some of the issues of violence and inadequate training were even more troubling than expected," Wolf said. "These are kids who come to a psychiatric hospital in a very vulnerable situation. We need to make sure, either that Hartgrove improves or we stop using it for our clients."

Source http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/09/27/2205071/chicago-psychiatric-hospital-cited.html