DSS finds disproportionate contact with blacks - North Carolina

By Melody Guyton Butts

DURHAM – African-American children are nearly four times more likely than the general population to be the subjects of child abuse or neglect reports in Durham County and more than seven times more likely to be placed in foster care, county Department of Social Services officials reported this week at a DSS board meeting.

“Our system is overloaded with contact with African-American families as opposed to any other family in Durham,” said Toina Coley, an in-home services social worker who serves on a committee looking to tackle the issue of disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in agencies across the county.

DSS decided to look at its DMC numbers after the N.C. Central University Juvenile Justice Institute, through a grant from the Governor’s Crime Commission, issued a report on disproportionality within Durham County’s juvenile justice system.

That report found that in fiscal year 2006, African-American youths were 3.2 times more likely than the general population to have a court petition filed. In 2010, that number skyrocketed to 7.22 times more likely.

Coley dissected local DSS numbers from fiscal year 2011, finding that African-American children were the subjects of child abuse or neglect reports at a 3.78 higher rate than the general population. Disproportionality in the child welfare system hovers around 4.0 through investigations, case substantiations and in-home services – until spiking to 7.54 with initial entries into foster care.

That’s something DSS officials want to address, and the solution starts with awareness of the problem, said Catherine Williamson-Hardy, assistant director of customer accountability with the agency. From individuals reporting abuse or neglect to the social workers investigating it, everyone has cultural biases, she said.

“It’s not about sugarcoating it and pretending we don’t have them – it’s about being aware of them so that we can manage them,” she said.

Just as with race playing a role in which new mothers are drug-tested at the hospital, a school teacher might be more apt to make a report about a black child not dressed for cold weather than a white child, Williamson-Hardy gave as an example.

Awareness is beginning to take hold within DSS, suggested John Holtkamp, the agency’s assistant director for family safety and permanency. “There was just kind of a murmur that went through our people” when the DMC numbers were presented at a division meeting last week, he said.

“Most of them don’t know. You work day by day,” he said. “No one’s intentionally doing this.”

Coley’s data collection suggests that disproportionality isn’t a currently significant concern for the Latino community, as the reports rate was 1.39, and the initial entry into foster care rate was 0.0. But Holtkamp worries that it might become an issue in the future, as juvenile justice system officials recently reported a growing DMC for that population in their system.

Dean. F. Duncan, a professor at the UNC School of Social Work, examined DMC data from across the nation and across North Carolina in a 2009 report, looking at 2007-08 data. He found that North Carolina’s DMC with regard to African-American youths in foster care (2.07) was below the U.S. as a whole (3.32). However, in that same report, he noted that Durham was one of just two counties in North Carolina – the other was Mecklenberg – with DMCs with regard to child protective investigations of black children greater than 4.0, and among 11 counties with DMCs with regard to black youths in foster care greater than 4.0.

Reached this week, Duncan said he no longer had access to the exact figures for counties and that he hasn’t revisited the data since the 2009 study. His analysis then led him to believe that factors of poverty played a large part in African-Americans’ DMC, and he cautioned against assuming that it’s only a race issue.

Holtkamp noted that Arnold Dennis, executive director of N.C. Central’s Juvenile Justice Institute, has also suggested that poverty contributes to DMC. He cited Dennis as having suggested that family-of-origin issues, like child-rearing practices and family support, and policies and practices of systems of intervention, like DSS and law enforcement, play a part.

The DMC committee of which Coley is a member was launched early this year, and its focus is now on spreading awareness of the issue, she said. The committee is looking to reach out to other parts of the community, like faith-based organizations. Committee members are also looking at hosting some sort of community meeting to help spread the word.

Stan Holt, chairman of the DSS board, asked that the board be briefed on possible solutions to the disproportionality problem at its February meeting.

It must be understood that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to addressing disproportionality, Duncan said.

One method might be prevention programs, although there’s not a “major funding stream” for that, he said. Preventing abuse and neglect isn’t the work of DSS alone – it requires the partnership of the whole community, from schools to faith-based organizations to mental health agencies, he continued.

He’s pleased that Durham is looking to address the issue.

“There’s a need to come up with very tailored solutions,” he said, “and be able to track it over time to see if we get the outcomes we want to achieve.”

Source http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/16821376/article-DSS-finds-disproportionate-contact-with-blacks-

Orange County Deputy arrested and relieved from duty - Florida

Blogger note:
Finally, we can say that a CPS call turned out to help. The sad part is, the people we are to trust, such as this Deputy Sheriff, prove to be the offenders of the very thing that many of us have been accused of. Yet, people like this testify in courtrooms everyday and are believed without question when the accusations are made against regular people, even though what they testify to is usually a blatant lie.
-----

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL Fox 35) - An Orange County Deputy has been arrested for battery with bodily injury and relieved from duty.

On Friday, just before 7pm, a Lake Mary Police Officer was responding to the residence of Deputy Sheriff Michael Shambaugh to assist with a Child Protection Services investigation. While at the residence, the Lake Mary Police Officer observed the physical condition of Shambaugh’s wife and determined there was probable cause to take Deputy Sheriff Shambaugh into custody. Deputy Shambaugh was transported to the Seminole County Jail for processing.

An Orange County Watch Commander responded to the Seminole County Jail and confiscated Deputy Shambaugh's law enforcement credentials and firearms, and relieved him from duty as an Orange County Deputy Sheriff.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office Professional Standards Section will be conducting an administrative review of the circumstances.

Source http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/orange_news/121711-orange-county-deputy-arrested-and-relieved-from-duty

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

Feud puts court cases on hold - Nevada

By Jeff German

Fallout from a budding romantic relationship between a former prosecutor and Family Court Judge Steven Jones is now causing delays in child abuse and neglect cases.

And a longtime child advocate is blaming the judge for the disruptions and calling for his removal from hearing all child welfare cases.

The disruptions are the result of a rift between District Attorney David Roger and Jones over the judge's relationship with Lisa Willardson, who as a prosecutor made regular court appearances before Jones. Roger fired Willardson, a deputy in the district attorney's child welfare unit, on Tuesday. She insisted Thursday that she never made appearances before Jones while in a relationship with him.

Jones, 53, last week issued an order banning from his courtroom the two prosecutors in the unit who exposed his courtship of Willardson, creating confusion within the district attorney's office on how to move forward with abuse and neglect cases.

"He should know better," said Donna Coleman, co-founder and former member of the nonprofit Children's Advocacy Alliance. "There are children in foster care waiting to go home for Christmas, and they have to deal with this nonsense.

"The No. 1 priority should be the children, and I am very disgusted by the posturing and game-playing that is going on down there. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of money and, more than anything, they're victimizing children who have already been victimized."

Coleman, who ends a two-year term at the end of the month as a member of the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission, said she will file a complaint against Jones with the panel if he is not removed from all child welfare cases.

Chief District Judge Jennifer Togliatti, who has authority to reassign Jones at Family Court, declined to comment Thursday.

Togliatti is presiding over a hearing Tuesday on a motion by Roger to disqualify Jones from a child welfare case because of his "personal bias" against Roger's two whistle-blowing deputies. The court filing amounts to a test case on whether Jones has compromised his ability to make decisions on child welfare matters involving the district attorney's office.

Jones is preparing his written response. He did not return phone calls Thursday.

Roger filed the motion this week after Jones issued the courtroom ban on the two deputy district attorneys, Michelle Edwards and Janne Hanrahan. In his order, Jones cited the "inappropriate and unprofessional behavior" of the two deputies.

Edwards and Hanrahan had provided supervisors with a clandestine photo taken of Willardson and Jones appearing cozy with each other at a public function.

Concerns were subsequently raised within the district attorney's office that the relationship invited a professional conflict of interest for both Willardson and Jones, and Willardson was removed before her firing from handling child abuse and neglect cases in front of Jones.

Willardson said in an email Thursday that the allegations in Roger's court papers are "factually incorrect" and read like a "story from the Enquirer."

She contends she was removed from the child welfare unit before she struck up a relationship with Jones.

"The district attorney's office simply does not want to address the real issue that two of their deputy district attorneys drank way too much alcohol, took a photograph of a District Court judge's crotch and hand, disseminated it around the courthouse and manufactured a relationship in order to downplay the disgraceful behavior of their deputies," Willardson said.

Jones also said earlier this week that "falsehoods" were being spread about him.

On Thursday, the fallout over the relationship caused delays in 34 child abuse and neglect cases being heard by Brigid Duffy, a Family Court hearing master who works under Jones' supervision.

When Edwards showed up to handle the cases, Duffy said that under Jones' order, Edwards was prohibited from practicing before her. Duffy read a statement in each case explaining the ban.

Roger's office did not send a prosecutor to take Edwards' place, forcing Duffy to continue the cases. Some were delayed a week and others two weeks.

"This is additional evidence that Judge Jones is abusing his power," Roger said after learning of the delays. "Some entity is going to have to step in and rein him in."

Earlier this week, Roger called Jones a "bully" who was trying to ruin the careers of Edwards and Hanrahan. Jones said he was troubled that Roger was "condoning" the "inappropriate and unprofessional" behavior of his deputies.

Source http://www.lvrj.com/news/feud-puts-court-cases-on-hold-135721003.html?ref=003

Improvements suggested for Iowa's child abuse registry

Written by Lee Rood

A panel charged with making changes to Iowa’s controversial and confidential child abuse registry issued a series of suggested improvements Friday, some of which would require action by the Legislature next year.

In the short term, state officials are taking steps to expedite appeals of abuse findings, especially when people’s jobs are at stake.

“The timeframes and delays in getting hearings and decisions completed was a priority for me,” said Citizens Aide/Ombudsman Ruth Cooperrider, whose office receives several calls each year inquiring how to appeal or dispute abuse findings. “We have had cases that have languished for more than a year, and there are legal issues involved.”

One long-term recommendation from the mix of state officials and child-welfare professionals on the panel would give Iowa’s Department of Human Services more authority to remove people from the 10-year registry and seal abuse findings based on certain criteria.

Others ideas panel members thought should be explored: Allowing DHS to put only certain kinds of abuse on the registry, and varying the length of time names remain on the list based on the severity of the abuse.

Legislators and parents have complained for years that people whose names are placed on the registry have few due-process rights. It takes no conviction in court to end up on the registry - only a finding by DHS staff that it was "more likely than not" that the person neglected a child or, in a much smaller number of cases, abused a child.

The Legislature this year required the agency to work with other agencies and groups to address problems.

Currently, between 50,000 and 60,000 Iowans are on the registry, which is used to screen child-care workers and others who deal with children.

About 8,890 abuse reports were “founded” by social workers last year, meaning the individuals responsible were placed on the registry. Another 3,071 reported resulted in “confirmed” abuse, meaning there was evidence of abuse but not enough to place someone on the registry.

About 1,270 people filed appeals of abuse findings in 2011. Of those, 109 were from a finding of “not confirmed.”

The remaining 75 percent to 80 percent were settled. The most common finding is that the abuse is confirmed, but not placed on the registry. Settlements often involve those accused taking part in recommended services to reduce the risk of future abuse.

Source http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111216/NEWS/111216023/-1/SPORTS09/Improvements-suggested-Iowa-s-child-abuse-registry