Associated Press
ATLANTA — The right of grandparents to visit their grandchildren caught up in custody or divorce cases would be strengthened under a bill passed by Georgia lawmakers.
House lawmakers voted 154-0 on Wednesday to pass the bill sponsored by Republican Rep. John Meadows of Calhoun.
The bill seeks to increase the visitation rights of grandparents whose grandchildren are involved in cases involving child custody, divorce or the termination of parental rights. It would encourage judges to allow children to visit their grandparents when that grandparent has financially supported the child for a year or regularly visited with the child.
The bill would allow judges to rule that the child's interests would be harmed without some "minimal" contact with their grandparents. Those visits would total at least 24 hours in a month.
CPS corruption hurts and destroys families worldwide. Please use caution posting about CPS here or anyplace on the internet. For your protection, using your full, real name and precise location is not advised. CPS has eyes everywhere and CPS is notorious for taking what people say, twisting it, embellishing on it and then using it against them in CPS "investigations" and at court proceedings.
Showing posts with label lawmakers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lawmakers. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Child welfare confidentiality draws scrutiny - Indiana
Associated Press
SOUTH BEND, Ind.— An Indiana law that keeps all child-protection records confidential except in cases of fatality or near fatality is out of date and prevents accountability when a child dies, some judges and lawmakers say.
"I have to make decisions based on the evidence before me," said St. Joseph Probate Judge Peter Nemeth, "and I'm not always sure that DCS is telling me everything."
The Indiana House has voted to create a legislative committee to review changes in how the state investigates reports of child abuse and neglect. Democratic legislators have questioned the Department of Child Services' spending and a new child abuse hotline that routes all reports to a centralized call center in Indianapolis
Republican legislators have defended the agency's performance, saying DCS has doubled the number of caseworkers and helped reduce the number of child abuse deaths since 2005.
But critics say there is a cloak of secrecy surrounding the agency and worry that failing to provide some information could have tragic consequences.
An Indiana child fatality review team studies and reports on deaths of Indiana children. Its public reports provide a general overview and broad recommendations but don't delve into specifics of what happened or did not happen, the South Bend Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/AirHoB).
Reports from a DCS ombudsman office established in 2010 to investigate complaints involving the department also contain only general trends and non-identifying information about specific cases.
DCS Director James Payne said he supports more openness.
"I'm not opposed to loosening up the confidentiality. I've said for years that `confidential' is really `secret,"' said Payne, a former juvenile court judge who opened his Marion County courtroom to cameras for a "Dateline" television special about the juvenile justice system. "The issue really is the degree of that."
Child protection officials say they worry that more openness could expose parents to unfounded tips and stigmatize children.
But others note that unsubstantiated reports of abuse or neglect are only kept for three months and say that has prevented child welfare workers from having all the information they need in some cases, including the beating death of Tramelle Sturgis, a 10-year-old South Bend boy, in November.
In that case, prosecutors learned that earlier reports to DCS about the boy and his family had been destroyed.
State Sen. John Broden, D-South Bend, introduced an amendment this session to change DCS record-keeping rules to store records of unsubstantiated reports for at least three years.
Broden, a former DCS attorney, advocates easing the system's confidentiality requirements so long as names of children and parents remain confidential.
"If the press wants to come and look at various cases and orders, I'd have no problem with that," he said.
Source http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-childservices-con,0,1108594.story
SOUTH BEND, Ind.— An Indiana law that keeps all child-protection records confidential except in cases of fatality or near fatality is out of date and prevents accountability when a child dies, some judges and lawmakers say.
"I have to make decisions based on the evidence before me," said St. Joseph Probate Judge Peter Nemeth, "and I'm not always sure that DCS is telling me everything."
The Indiana House has voted to create a legislative committee to review changes in how the state investigates reports of child abuse and neglect. Democratic legislators have questioned the Department of Child Services' spending and a new child abuse hotline that routes all reports to a centralized call center in Indianapolis
Republican legislators have defended the agency's performance, saying DCS has doubled the number of caseworkers and helped reduce the number of child abuse deaths since 2005.
But critics say there is a cloak of secrecy surrounding the agency and worry that failing to provide some information could have tragic consequences.
An Indiana child fatality review team studies and reports on deaths of Indiana children. Its public reports provide a general overview and broad recommendations but don't delve into specifics of what happened or did not happen, the South Bend Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/AirHoB).
Reports from a DCS ombudsman office established in 2010 to investigate complaints involving the department also contain only general trends and non-identifying information about specific cases.
DCS Director James Payne said he supports more openness.
"I'm not opposed to loosening up the confidentiality. I've said for years that `confidential' is really `secret,"' said Payne, a former juvenile court judge who opened his Marion County courtroom to cameras for a "Dateline" television special about the juvenile justice system. "The issue really is the degree of that."
Child protection officials say they worry that more openness could expose parents to unfounded tips and stigmatize children.
But others note that unsubstantiated reports of abuse or neglect are only kept for three months and say that has prevented child welfare workers from having all the information they need in some cases, including the beating death of Tramelle Sturgis, a 10-year-old South Bend boy, in November.
In that case, prosecutors learned that earlier reports to DCS about the boy and his family had been destroyed.
State Sen. John Broden, D-South Bend, introduced an amendment this session to change DCS record-keeping rules to store records of unsubstantiated reports for at least three years.
Broden, a former DCS attorney, advocates easing the system's confidentiality requirements so long as names of children and parents remain confidential.
"If the press wants to come and look at various cases and orders, I'd have no problem with that," he said.
Source http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-childservices-con,0,1108594.story
Monday, December 5, 2011
Scandals at Texas agency facilities brought reforms, but state hospitals didn't follow lead
By Eric Dexheimer and Andrea Ball
In 2007, stunned by revelations of ongoing sexual abuse of young state wards by the adults charged with caring for them, legislators passed a series of laws that reformed how the Texas Youth Commission kept its teenage offenders safe. The changes included simple adjustments considered best practices in lockups for years: increased use of security cameras to capture and record incidents, independent monitors to field complaints and a separate investigative team to pursue allegations of abuse.
In 2009, images discovered on a lost cellphone revealed that staff members at a state-run school for people with disabilities had promoted a "fight club," instigating young residents to hit and push one another. The reports came on the heels of a federal lawsuit requiring reforms to the same system of schools. Another, but similar set of reforms added thousands of cameras and a standing order that investigators start looking for patterns in past claims of abuse to identify problem employees.
Now a third agency in less than five years finds itself in the spotlight because of claims a staffer abused children in state care. In late October, the Department of Family and Protective Services, which investigates claims of abuse in state facilities, found reason to believe psychiatrist Charles Fischer had sexually abused two patients, in 2003 and 2006, at the Austin State Hospital. Weeks later, the Texas Medical Board concluded that evidence supported nine claims of sexual abuse against Fischer dating back at least two decades.
Fischer has not been criminally charged. Through his lawyer he "vigorously" denied the allegations.
The news nevertheless has promoted self-examination among state officials.
"We want to know, how did we get to this place with a number of allegations (against Fischer), even if not confirmed?" said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the state Health and Human Services Commission.
One likely reason, reporting by the American-Statesman shows, is that none of the basic reforms mandated by lawmakers only a few years earlier at the Youth Commission and state schools made their way to the state hospital system, despite the similarities in the three agencies' missions: caring for troubled, mentally fragile children in an institutional setting.
The 13 state supported living centers (formerly called state schools) and the state psychiatric hospital system are even overseen by the same agency: the Health and Human Services Commission, which shares office space with the Texas Youth Commission.
"There are a number of things we put into place at the state supported living centers that we are looking at to see if we could put them in place at the state hospitals," acknowledged Goodman.
"In hindsight, could we have done things differently?" added Carrie Williams of the Department of State Health Services, which oversees the state's 10 psychiatric hospitals. "Absolutely."
There is no allegation that confirmed abuse claims at the state hospital system extend past a single person — a contrast to the Youth Commission and the living centers, which were found to have deep and systemic deficiencies requiring immediate repair.
Legislators are vowing new investigations anyway.
"I am reviewing the measures taken by our state agencies in response to this tragedy to determine whether they need to be put into statute and possibly strengthened," said state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound , who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee .
The allegation that one of the hospital system's doctors could have carried on a series of assaults over decades despite numerous reports, as reforms were occurring at similar agencies literally next door, suggests missed opportunities and raises questions about government's ability to anticipate and prevent serious problems, rather than to react and respond only to scandal.
The agencies treat different clients; however, not different enough to account for security variations, advocates say.
"Any additional precautions when you're working with such vulnerable population are important," said Beth Mitchell, supervising attorney for Disability Rights Texas, an Austin-based group that often litigates on behalf of mentally ill patients. "Hopefully, this will put the hospitals on notice, and they'll do the right thing."
News that officials at the Texas Youth Commission knew about but largely ignored confirmed reports that two administrators at a West Texas facility were sexually preying on teenagers in their custody hit just as the 2007 legislative session was getting under way. Forced by lawmakers to remake itself, the agency — last week renamed the Texas Juvenile Justice Department — undertook a series of reform measures.
A number of the changes were specifically designed to make Youth Commission facilities physically safer for offenders in its custody. Several were informed by the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a 2003 federal law that seeks to address the high incidence of sexual assault in lockups by targeting the culture and physical settings that allowed abuse.
Chief among them was the purchase, for $18 million, of 12,000 new high-definition cameras that peered into literally every corner of the Youth Commission's facilities. The images can be accessed at any time by the facility administrators, investigators and even agency executives in Austin.
The 10 state psychiatric hospitals, by comparison, have a total of 549 cameras, about a third from the 1980s. Three of the facilities have fewer than six cameras each.
Stored digital images not only protect youth, but also accused staff, said Cris Love, head of the Youth Commission's Office of Inspector General. "They're extremely important — a huge, huge asset to investigations," he said.
Though the agency doesn't keep numbers, Love said, images from the cameras have "absolutely" been used to both clear and convict staff of abuse allegations.
A November 2010 report by an outside consulting company hired to evaluate the reforms concluded, "Youth and staff commented at every TYC facility that cameras have increased safety, especially sexual safety."
The agency also made small but significant physical changes to its facilities. It took down walls that blocked sight lines, decreasing opportunities for hidden activity. It replaced solid wooden doors with doors that had windows and exchanged individual locks for a new keyless entry system that requires staff to have a control room operator open doors.
"This practice contributes to the sexual safety of youth by limiting the number of keys held by staff, thereby decreasing the number of areas they are able to access," the consultant wrote.
Criminal cases against the West Texas facility administrators had stalled when local prosecutors dragged their feet, so how the agency pursued claims of abuse was overhauled as well.
Senate Bill 103, which provided the blueprint for the Youth Commission's reform, created the independent inspector general, whose officers were granted police powers to investigate abuse claims and make arrests. New laws also allowed the Youth Commission to use the adult prison system's Special Prosecution Unit to take children's cases to court on its own.
"Looking at the fight club situation at the state school," Hurley said, "a lot of the things we now have in place would have prevented that."
Living centers react
In fact, recent reforms at the state living centers mirrored those implemented at the Youth Commission less than two years earlier.
The centers, residential facilities where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities receive a full range of psychiatric and medical care, came under scrutiny in 2006 after a federal civil rights investigation of the Lubbock center found "just deplorable conditions generally," recalled Disability Rights' Mitchell.
Follow-up investigations found problems in other centers, and the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state to force reforms. Among other claims, federal lawyers asserted that the Texas facilities did not provide "reasonably safe conditions, including protection from abuse, neglect, and other harm." In 2009, the Department of Aging and Disability Services signed a consent order, promising to improve how center residents were treated and cared for.
Reports in March 2009 that employees at the Corpus Christi living center had been arranging late-night fights among disabled residents came as legislators were beginning a new biennial session. Three months later, Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill mandating a sweeping set of reforms.
Within months, the state began laying 35 miles of fiber-optic cable and installing 3,200 new surveillance cameras at its centers.
Though the cameras were not as pervasively placed as those at the Youth Commission facilities — they cover mainly common areas, not treatment or residential rooms — they are monitored around the clock by center staff, spokeswoman Allison Lowery said.
State hospitals don't have employees designated to monitor cameras, health services department spokeswoman Williams said.
"They're a big component of our larger reforms," Lowery said, adding that the recorded images have been used to train staff, as well as to provide definitive evidence to confirm or dismiss complaints.
Department of Family and Protective Services data show the number of confirmed allegations at state supported living centers — reports that investigators determined were true based on a preponderance of evidence — grew from 8 percent in 2009, before the new cameras, to 9 percent in 2011, a difference of 90 cases. The case confirmation rate at state hospitals fell a percentage point over the same period.
Officials say the new cameras may not be entirely responsible for the difference. But "it has helped with the confirmation rate," said Wendy Ivy, a policy analyst with the protective service's facility investigation unit.
New inquiry policies
The 2009 living center reforms also required that investigations into allegations of abuse at the facilities be pursued differently than at other mental health agencies.
At state hospitals, Department of Family and Protective Services investigators looking into allegations of abuse are given 14 days to respond and finish their initial report. The new rules for the living centers require the reports be completed more expeditiously, in 10 days.
As with the Texas Youth Commission, the reforms also empowered the Health and Human Services Commission's Office of Inspector General to act as official law enforcement agents and assist with investigations — but only on those cases within the state supported living centers.
Perhaps the biggest difference in abuse inquiries between facilities, however, has been in how investigators can research and weigh an accused perpetrator's past record. At state hospitals, detectives generally do not take into account previous complaints and accusations against an individual.
Because of the 2009 federal reforms, however, the same investigators examining comparable allegations at the living centers must examine older cases to identify patterns. "Trends shall be tracked by the categories of: type of incident; staff alleged to have caused the incident; individuals directly involved; location of incident; date and time of incident; cause(s) of incident; and outcome of investigation," the new law stated.
Even if the new investigation is inconclusive, Ivy said, examiners can still document a noteworthy history of complaints on the "concerns and recommendations" portion of their reports, alerting future investigators to a suspect's troubled past.
Trending analysis "makes a big difference when you have a perpetrator who's constantly being reported, being called in for the same incidents time after time by different individuals," Mitchell added.
State records show that seven boys ages 13 to 17 who were patients at the Austin State Hospital accused Fischer of inappropriate sexual contact between 2001 and 2006 and that two others made complaints against him while he was working at other facilities.
Hospitals follow suit
State officials say they are already changing how they run the hospitals and investigate abuse incidents. Two weeks ago, executives announced a ban on after-hours therapy sessions unless two staff members are present and a requirement that individual treatment services occur only in rooms with windows or in locations that can be observed by other staff members — all rules adopted years earlier by the Texas Youth Commission following its 2007 scandal, Hurley said.
State Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, said he plans to introduce a bill in 2013 that would require the Department of State Health Services to perform a more extensive FBI fingerprint background check on employees — a safeguard already required by the Department of Aging and Disability Services, which runs the state centers.
Hospital administrators also have ordered "a review of sexual abuse allegations, confirmations and actions taken \u2026 to identify any trends" in old state hospital cases. The Department of Family and Protective Services announced that it was undertaking a review of all sexual abuse complaints filed in the past five years at every state facility. "Trends or patterns may result in the reopening of old cases," agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. "We want to make sure we haven't missed anything."
Williams said officials also are discussing whether to add more cameras to state hospitals, although vulnerabilities of its patients could limit where and how many. "These are psychiatric patients who come to us for mental health treatment, and they have a right to privacy," she said
Still, she added, "there will be more changes. We're looking at what other agencies have done."
About this story
Last month, the American-Statesman broke the story that state investigators had found credible evidence that longtime staff psychiatrist Charles Fischer had sexually abused two of his patients at Austin State Hospital. Soon after the story, state health officials announced immediate reforms to protect patients, and the Texas Medical Board suspended Fischer's license based on its determination that he had abused nine children under his care dating back to the early 1990s.
Source http://www.statesman.com/news/statesman-investigates/scandals-at-texas-agency-facilities-brought-reforms-but-2010985.html
In 2007, stunned by revelations of ongoing sexual abuse of young state wards by the adults charged with caring for them, legislators passed a series of laws that reformed how the Texas Youth Commission kept its teenage offenders safe. The changes included simple adjustments considered best practices in lockups for years: increased use of security cameras to capture and record incidents, independent monitors to field complaints and a separate investigative team to pursue allegations of abuse.
In 2009, images discovered on a lost cellphone revealed that staff members at a state-run school for people with disabilities had promoted a "fight club," instigating young residents to hit and push one another. The reports came on the heels of a federal lawsuit requiring reforms to the same system of schools. Another, but similar set of reforms added thousands of cameras and a standing order that investigators start looking for patterns in past claims of abuse to identify problem employees.
Now a third agency in less than five years finds itself in the spotlight because of claims a staffer abused children in state care. In late October, the Department of Family and Protective Services, which investigates claims of abuse in state facilities, found reason to believe psychiatrist Charles Fischer had sexually abused two patients, in 2003 and 2006, at the Austin State Hospital. Weeks later, the Texas Medical Board concluded that evidence supported nine claims of sexual abuse against Fischer dating back at least two decades.
Fischer has not been criminally charged. Through his lawyer he "vigorously" denied the allegations.
The news nevertheless has promoted self-examination among state officials.
"We want to know, how did we get to this place with a number of allegations (against Fischer), even if not confirmed?" said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the state Health and Human Services Commission.
One likely reason, reporting by the American-Statesman shows, is that none of the basic reforms mandated by lawmakers only a few years earlier at the Youth Commission and state schools made their way to the state hospital system, despite the similarities in the three agencies' missions: caring for troubled, mentally fragile children in an institutional setting.
The 13 state supported living centers (formerly called state schools) and the state psychiatric hospital system are even overseen by the same agency: the Health and Human Services Commission, which shares office space with the Texas Youth Commission.
"There are a number of things we put into place at the state supported living centers that we are looking at to see if we could put them in place at the state hospitals," acknowledged Goodman.
"In hindsight, could we have done things differently?" added Carrie Williams of the Department of State Health Services, which oversees the state's 10 psychiatric hospitals. "Absolutely."
There is no allegation that confirmed abuse claims at the state hospital system extend past a single person — a contrast to the Youth Commission and the living centers, which were found to have deep and systemic deficiencies requiring immediate repair.
Legislators are vowing new investigations anyway.
"I am reviewing the measures taken by our state agencies in response to this tragedy to determine whether they need to be put into statute and possibly strengthened," said state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound , who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee .
The allegation that one of the hospital system's doctors could have carried on a series of assaults over decades despite numerous reports, as reforms were occurring at similar agencies literally next door, suggests missed opportunities and raises questions about government's ability to anticipate and prevent serious problems, rather than to react and respond only to scandal.
The agencies treat different clients; however, not different enough to account for security variations, advocates say.
"Any additional precautions when you're working with such vulnerable population are important," said Beth Mitchell, supervising attorney for Disability Rights Texas, an Austin-based group that often litigates on behalf of mentally ill patients. "Hopefully, this will put the hospitals on notice, and they'll do the right thing."
News that officials at the Texas Youth Commission knew about but largely ignored confirmed reports that two administrators at a West Texas facility were sexually preying on teenagers in their custody hit just as the 2007 legislative session was getting under way. Forced by lawmakers to remake itself, the agency — last week renamed the Texas Juvenile Justice Department — undertook a series of reform measures.
A number of the changes were specifically designed to make Youth Commission facilities physically safer for offenders in its custody. Several were informed by the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a 2003 federal law that seeks to address the high incidence of sexual assault in lockups by targeting the culture and physical settings that allowed abuse.
Chief among them was the purchase, for $18 million, of 12,000 new high-definition cameras that peered into literally every corner of the Youth Commission's facilities. The images can be accessed at any time by the facility administrators, investigators and even agency executives in Austin.
The 10 state psychiatric hospitals, by comparison, have a total of 549 cameras, about a third from the 1980s. Three of the facilities have fewer than six cameras each.
Stored digital images not only protect youth, but also accused staff, said Cris Love, head of the Youth Commission's Office of Inspector General. "They're extremely important — a huge, huge asset to investigations," he said.
Though the agency doesn't keep numbers, Love said, images from the cameras have "absolutely" been used to both clear and convict staff of abuse allegations.
A November 2010 report by an outside consulting company hired to evaluate the reforms concluded, "Youth and staff commented at every TYC facility that cameras have increased safety, especially sexual safety."
The agency also made small but significant physical changes to its facilities. It took down walls that blocked sight lines, decreasing opportunities for hidden activity. It replaced solid wooden doors with doors that had windows and exchanged individual locks for a new keyless entry system that requires staff to have a control room operator open doors.
"This practice contributes to the sexual safety of youth by limiting the number of keys held by staff, thereby decreasing the number of areas they are able to access," the consultant wrote.
Criminal cases against the West Texas facility administrators had stalled when local prosecutors dragged their feet, so how the agency pursued claims of abuse was overhauled as well.
Senate Bill 103, which provided the blueprint for the Youth Commission's reform, created the independent inspector general, whose officers were granted police powers to investigate abuse claims and make arrests. New laws also allowed the Youth Commission to use the adult prison system's Special Prosecution Unit to take children's cases to court on its own.
"Looking at the fight club situation at the state school," Hurley said, "a lot of the things we now have in place would have prevented that."
Living centers react
In fact, recent reforms at the state living centers mirrored those implemented at the Youth Commission less than two years earlier.
The centers, residential facilities where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities receive a full range of psychiatric and medical care, came under scrutiny in 2006 after a federal civil rights investigation of the Lubbock center found "just deplorable conditions generally," recalled Disability Rights' Mitchell.
Follow-up investigations found problems in other centers, and the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state to force reforms. Among other claims, federal lawyers asserted that the Texas facilities did not provide "reasonably safe conditions, including protection from abuse, neglect, and other harm." In 2009, the Department of Aging and Disability Services signed a consent order, promising to improve how center residents were treated and cared for.
Reports in March 2009 that employees at the Corpus Christi living center had been arranging late-night fights among disabled residents came as legislators were beginning a new biennial session. Three months later, Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill mandating a sweeping set of reforms.
Within months, the state began laying 35 miles of fiber-optic cable and installing 3,200 new surveillance cameras at its centers.
Though the cameras were not as pervasively placed as those at the Youth Commission facilities — they cover mainly common areas, not treatment or residential rooms — they are monitored around the clock by center staff, spokeswoman Allison Lowery said.
State hospitals don't have employees designated to monitor cameras, health services department spokeswoman Williams said.
"They're a big component of our larger reforms," Lowery said, adding that the recorded images have been used to train staff, as well as to provide definitive evidence to confirm or dismiss complaints.
Department of Family and Protective Services data show the number of confirmed allegations at state supported living centers — reports that investigators determined were true based on a preponderance of evidence — grew from 8 percent in 2009, before the new cameras, to 9 percent in 2011, a difference of 90 cases. The case confirmation rate at state hospitals fell a percentage point over the same period.
Officials say the new cameras may not be entirely responsible for the difference. But "it has helped with the confirmation rate," said Wendy Ivy, a policy analyst with the protective service's facility investigation unit.
New inquiry policies
The 2009 living center reforms also required that investigations into allegations of abuse at the facilities be pursued differently than at other mental health agencies.
At state hospitals, Department of Family and Protective Services investigators looking into allegations of abuse are given 14 days to respond and finish their initial report. The new rules for the living centers require the reports be completed more expeditiously, in 10 days.
As with the Texas Youth Commission, the reforms also empowered the Health and Human Services Commission's Office of Inspector General to act as official law enforcement agents and assist with investigations — but only on those cases within the state supported living centers.
Perhaps the biggest difference in abuse inquiries between facilities, however, has been in how investigators can research and weigh an accused perpetrator's past record. At state hospitals, detectives generally do not take into account previous complaints and accusations against an individual.
Because of the 2009 federal reforms, however, the same investigators examining comparable allegations at the living centers must examine older cases to identify patterns. "Trends shall be tracked by the categories of: type of incident; staff alleged to have caused the incident; individuals directly involved; location of incident; date and time of incident; cause(s) of incident; and outcome of investigation," the new law stated.
Even if the new investigation is inconclusive, Ivy said, examiners can still document a noteworthy history of complaints on the "concerns and recommendations" portion of their reports, alerting future investigators to a suspect's troubled past.
Trending analysis "makes a big difference when you have a perpetrator who's constantly being reported, being called in for the same incidents time after time by different individuals," Mitchell added.
State records show that seven boys ages 13 to 17 who were patients at the Austin State Hospital accused Fischer of inappropriate sexual contact between 2001 and 2006 and that two others made complaints against him while he was working at other facilities.
Hospitals follow suit
State officials say they are already changing how they run the hospitals and investigate abuse incidents. Two weeks ago, executives announced a ban on after-hours therapy sessions unless two staff members are present and a requirement that individual treatment services occur only in rooms with windows or in locations that can be observed by other staff members — all rules adopted years earlier by the Texas Youth Commission following its 2007 scandal, Hurley said.
State Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, said he plans to introduce a bill in 2013 that would require the Department of State Health Services to perform a more extensive FBI fingerprint background check on employees — a safeguard already required by the Department of Aging and Disability Services, which runs the state centers.
Hospital administrators also have ordered "a review of sexual abuse allegations, confirmations and actions taken \u2026 to identify any trends" in old state hospital cases. The Department of Family and Protective Services announced that it was undertaking a review of all sexual abuse complaints filed in the past five years at every state facility. "Trends or patterns may result in the reopening of old cases," agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. "We want to make sure we haven't missed anything."
Williams said officials also are discussing whether to add more cameras to state hospitals, although vulnerabilities of its patients could limit where and how many. "These are psychiatric patients who come to us for mental health treatment, and they have a right to privacy," she said
Still, she added, "there will be more changes. We're looking at what other agencies have done."
About this story
Last month, the American-Statesman broke the story that state investigators had found credible evidence that longtime staff psychiatrist Charles Fischer had sexually abused two of his patients at Austin State Hospital. Soon after the story, state health officials announced immediate reforms to protect patients, and the Texas Medical Board suspended Fischer's license based on its determination that he had abused nine children under his care dating back to the early 1990s.
Source http://www.statesman.com/news/statesman-investigates/scandals-at-texas-agency-facilities-brought-reforms-but-2010985.html
Sunday, November 6, 2011
High court may revisit grandparents' rights
By STEPHANIE REITZ
Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. — Increasingly, a wrenching dispute is playing out in courts nationwide: balancing parents' constitutional rights to raise their children without interference against grandparents' desire to be involved in those youngsters' lives.
Now, a growing number of grandparents are pushing lawmakers around the country to change state standards they say are too restrictive and ignore the unique bonds many grandparents have with their grandchildren.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide this winter whether it will revisit the issue, which it addressed 11 years ago in a landmark case out of Washington state that makes competent parents' wishes the guiding principle in most disputes.
Although all state laws must meet that constitutional threshold, their efforts have resulted in a patchwork of state court rulings and legislation. They now impose such a variety of conditions that the parties' home states can affect the cases almost as much as the specifics.
Connecticut, Florida and Arizona are considered among the most parent-friendly based on their laws or court precedents. Others are considered more grandparent-friendly, including Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Connecticut has become a battleground state in the issue for two reasons: its protections for parents are among the nation's strictest and many of its grandparents are very vocal in their push to change it.
A task force will advise the General Assembly this winter on whether to change state law to give grandparents more chance to get into court to argue their cases.
"Right now it's the luck of the draw if you're some poor family stuck in a state that doesn't stand behind that grandparent-grandchild bond and attachment," said Susan Hoffman, 59. She founded Advocates for Grandparent Grandchild Connection after losing her California petition for visitation when her adult son signed away parenting rights to her grandson.
The growing movement among grandparents' groups has alarmed many parents and their advocacy groups nationwide, including organizers and participants on the parentsrights.com website.
Many say they are being pilloried by those who wrongly accept stereotypes that all grandparents are loving and supportive. And they say they're being drained financially to defend parenting rights the Supreme Court has already upheld.
Polly Tavernia, 41, said her New York case cost her family almost $10,000 even though her estranged mother's petition was eventually dismissed.
"It was one of the worst things I've ever been through," she said. "It's honestly just horrible to have to worry about someone else making those decisions for you, especially when they don't know the whole story."
All 50 states have laws governing the conditions for non-parent third parties seeking visitation, but it was only in 2000 that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling said none of those laws can infringe on the rights of competent parents.
Source http://www.kansas.com/2011/11/06/2091841/high-court-may-revisit-grandparents.html
Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. — Increasingly, a wrenching dispute is playing out in courts nationwide: balancing parents' constitutional rights to raise their children without interference against grandparents' desire to be involved in those youngsters' lives.
Now, a growing number of grandparents are pushing lawmakers around the country to change state standards they say are too restrictive and ignore the unique bonds many grandparents have with their grandchildren.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide this winter whether it will revisit the issue, which it addressed 11 years ago in a landmark case out of Washington state that makes competent parents' wishes the guiding principle in most disputes.
Although all state laws must meet that constitutional threshold, their efforts have resulted in a patchwork of state court rulings and legislation. They now impose such a variety of conditions that the parties' home states can affect the cases almost as much as the specifics.
Connecticut, Florida and Arizona are considered among the most parent-friendly based on their laws or court precedents. Others are considered more grandparent-friendly, including Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Connecticut has become a battleground state in the issue for two reasons: its protections for parents are among the nation's strictest and many of its grandparents are very vocal in their push to change it.
A task force will advise the General Assembly this winter on whether to change state law to give grandparents more chance to get into court to argue their cases.
"Right now it's the luck of the draw if you're some poor family stuck in a state that doesn't stand behind that grandparent-grandchild bond and attachment," said Susan Hoffman, 59. She founded Advocates for Grandparent Grandchild Connection after losing her California petition for visitation when her adult son signed away parenting rights to her grandson.
The growing movement among grandparents' groups has alarmed many parents and their advocacy groups nationwide, including organizers and participants on the parentsrights.com website.
Many say they are being pilloried by those who wrongly accept stereotypes that all grandparents are loving and supportive. And they say they're being drained financially to defend parenting rights the Supreme Court has already upheld.
Polly Tavernia, 41, said her New York case cost her family almost $10,000 even though her estranged mother's petition was eventually dismissed.
"It was one of the worst things I've ever been through," she said. "It's honestly just horrible to have to worry about someone else making those decisions for you, especially when they don't know the whole story."
All 50 states have laws governing the conditions for non-parent third parties seeking visitation, but it was only in 2000 that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling said none of those laws can infringe on the rights of competent parents.
Source http://www.kansas.com/2011/11/06/2091841/high-court-may-revisit-grandparents.html
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Oklahoma Lawmakers Chide DHS
http://www.newson6.com/story/15716290/oklahoma-lawmakers-chide-dhs?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6359699
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Lawmakers express continued frustration with DCF response in Barahona case
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 6:16 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011
Posted: 6:12 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011
TALLAHASSEE — Frustrated lawmakers grilled the head of Florida's Department of Children and Families Tuesday and expressed doubt about whether he's doing enough to make the state's children safer in the aftermath of the alleged Barahona child abuse case.
DCF Secretary David Wilkins' appearance Tuesday morning before the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee was his first since the July 25 release of a Miami-Dade County grand jury report that found that child welfare workers failed to properly monitor Nubia Barahona's adoptive parents as highlighted by her alleged torture and slaying this winter.
Wilkins was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott shortly before 10-year-old Nubia's body was discovered in a plastic bag in the back of her adopted father Jorge Barahona's truck alongside Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach on Valentine's Day. Her twin brother, Victor, was found drenched in chemicals and convulsing in the front seat.
Jorge Barahona and his wife Carmen, the children's foster parents for five years before adopting them, have been charged with first-degree murder and child abuse in Nubia's death.
Since then, the agency hired 100 child protection investigators, conducted additional training session for caseworkers and increased the number of foster children who are getting regular medical and dental care, Wilkins said. The department has also stopped measuring how long hot line operators spend on the phone with tipsters, he said. The abuse hot line received at least two calls in the days preceding Nubia's death.
"But we've still got a long way to go," Wilkins told the committee, acknowledging there was a "big breakdown" in the Barahona case.
The non-binding grand jury report recommended that child welfare workers have full access to databases containing reports of allegations about at-risk children, something that Wilkins said he was still trying to put into effect.
But he drew fire from Committee Chairwoman Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, when he blamed the tragedy on Andrea Fleary, the DCF child abuse investigator fired in March who allegedly repeatedly signed off on the children's welfare without making contact with them.
"Our assessment is that the number one symptom of the problem was the case manager was not owning the case," he said.
To which Storm said, "I don't know what the heck that means. What the blankety-blank does that mean? The little girl was practically peeling paint off the wall to eat and they were afraid of these people and everybody at the school was saying it and the most we can come up with was the case manager was not owning the case?
"I think you should be more direct to say this was a human failure for humanity for this person. That's a human failure. I don't know how else to say it."
Wilkins also said that all foster children are now being seen by caseworkers every 30 days but that he wanted an extra $25 million for additional visits "any time a major event" occurs in the child's life.
Caseworkers should already have been visiting the children monthly, Sen. Nan Rich said, because lawmakers initiated that requirement after the disappearance a decade ago of Rilya Wilson, a 4-year-old foster child who has never been found.
"We're going right back to the same kind of situation," Rich, D-Weston, said.
The disconnection of the Barahonas' telephone, the children's problems at school, hot line reports and an inability to make physical contact with the twins apparently went ignored, Rich said.
"Normally I would say we don't need legislation. But to me something is dramatically and drastically wrong if all of these red flags are not seen. This to me is just crying out for us to do something," she said.
Wilkins suggested that the agency keep tabs on adopted children for up to one year, especially in the case of special needs children.
But Storms, a lawyer, said she believed that would be unconstitutional.
After Wilkins' hour-long testimony, lawmakers appeared uncertain what, if anything, they could do.
"It's a source of enormous frustration. It can be very discouraging to continue to hear some of the same things," Storms said after Wilkins testified. "All I can do is keep trying and keep hoping that we get a different result. But we can make all the laws that we want to make and pass all the statutes and if people will not do what they're supposed to do then I don't know how you fix that."
Source http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/lawmakers-express-continued-frustration-with-dcf-response-in-1869405.html
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 6:16 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011
Posted: 6:12 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011
TALLAHASSEE — Frustrated lawmakers grilled the head of Florida's Department of Children and Families Tuesday and expressed doubt about whether he's doing enough to make the state's children safer in the aftermath of the alleged Barahona child abuse case.
DCF Secretary David Wilkins' appearance Tuesday morning before the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee was his first since the July 25 release of a Miami-Dade County grand jury report that found that child welfare workers failed to properly monitor Nubia Barahona's adoptive parents as highlighted by her alleged torture and slaying this winter.
Wilkins was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott shortly before 10-year-old Nubia's body was discovered in a plastic bag in the back of her adopted father Jorge Barahona's truck alongside Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach on Valentine's Day. Her twin brother, Victor, was found drenched in chemicals and convulsing in the front seat.
Jorge Barahona and his wife Carmen, the children's foster parents for five years before adopting them, have been charged with first-degree murder and child abuse in Nubia's death.
Since then, the agency hired 100 child protection investigators, conducted additional training session for caseworkers and increased the number of foster children who are getting regular medical and dental care, Wilkins said. The department has also stopped measuring how long hot line operators spend on the phone with tipsters, he said. The abuse hot line received at least two calls in the days preceding Nubia's death.
"But we've still got a long way to go," Wilkins told the committee, acknowledging there was a "big breakdown" in the Barahona case.
The non-binding grand jury report recommended that child welfare workers have full access to databases containing reports of allegations about at-risk children, something that Wilkins said he was still trying to put into effect.
But he drew fire from Committee Chairwoman Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, when he blamed the tragedy on Andrea Fleary, the DCF child abuse investigator fired in March who allegedly repeatedly signed off on the children's welfare without making contact with them.
"Our assessment is that the number one symptom of the problem was the case manager was not owning the case," he said.
To which Storm said, "I don't know what the heck that means. What the blankety-blank does that mean? The little girl was practically peeling paint off the wall to eat and they were afraid of these people and everybody at the school was saying it and the most we can come up with was the case manager was not owning the case?
"I think you should be more direct to say this was a human failure for humanity for this person. That's a human failure. I don't know how else to say it."
Wilkins also said that all foster children are now being seen by caseworkers every 30 days but that he wanted an extra $25 million for additional visits "any time a major event" occurs in the child's life.
Caseworkers should already have been visiting the children monthly, Sen. Nan Rich said, because lawmakers initiated that requirement after the disappearance a decade ago of Rilya Wilson, a 4-year-old foster child who has never been found.
"We're going right back to the same kind of situation," Rich, D-Weston, said.
The disconnection of the Barahonas' telephone, the children's problems at school, hot line reports and an inability to make physical contact with the twins apparently went ignored, Rich said.
"Normally I would say we don't need legislation. But to me something is dramatically and drastically wrong if all of these red flags are not seen. This to me is just crying out for us to do something," she said.
Wilkins suggested that the agency keep tabs on adopted children for up to one year, especially in the case of special needs children.
But Storms, a lawyer, said she believed that would be unconstitutional.
After Wilkins' hour-long testimony, lawmakers appeared uncertain what, if anything, they could do.
"It's a source of enormous frustration. It can be very discouraging to continue to hear some of the same things," Storms said after Wilkins testified. "All I can do is keep trying and keep hoping that we get a different result. But we can make all the laws that we want to make and pass all the statutes and if people will not do what they're supposed to do then I don't know how you fix that."
Source http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/lawmakers-express-continued-frustration-with-dcf-response-in-1869405.html
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Meeting on Laura Cummings Law to be Held Monday
BUFFALO, NY - Local lawmakers say they will press even harder for passage of what is known as the Laura Cummings law to make sure social services workers can better protect vulnerable people. They're frustrated it has not been approved so far.
The law is based on the case of Laura Cummings who's own mother admitted killing her in January 2010 in their North Collins home where she was also abused by one of her brothers.
The bill, which was spurred by a 2 On Your Side investigation, would require workers from Child and Adult Protective Services to get a court order to enter a home to check on an individual after they are twice denied access. It would also go after anyone who would deny such access and that may be why the bill stalled in the Assembly according to one State Senator who sponsored the measure.
Senator George Maziarz said, "It would have made it a crime for individuals to deny access to an individual that they were harming. And I think that criminal penalty is what slowed this thing down and stopped it in the New York State Assembly. And we're gonna try to put some pressure on the Assembly when we go back...we will be going back in September."
Maziarz says the measure did pass in the State Senate and the Governor was expected to sign it. He and other members of the local delegation in the Senate and Assembly will hold a press conference on this subject Monday morning in Buffalo.
Source http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/131742/37/Meeting-on-Laura-Cummings-Law-to-be-Held-Monday
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