Friday, August 1, 2008

Saving Danieal Was Just Too Much Trouble

There was a story from JSOnline' AP feed, regarding the tragic and completely avoidable death of Danieal Kelly. Danielle was a fourteen year old girl that lived in Philadelphia. She was allowed to die through malicious neglect. Nine people have been criminally charged with her death, based on an investigation and report by a grand jury. Four of the nine are social workers. Two were from the Philadelphia Department of Human Services and two were from a private contracted agency.

Danieal was killed by her mother's willful neglect. At the time of her death, Danieal weighed only 42 pounds, suffered from starvation and dehydration, and had maggot-infested bedsores that went to her bone.

Via the website Philly.com, I was able to find the grand jury's report (pdf, 258 pages). (Warning: The report contains graphic photos, including at least one from the autopsy.) The report reveals a long history of ineptitude and unethical behavior by the governmental social worker and his supervisor, including the falsifying of official records to cover up their failures.

The report points out that the private agency was even worse, with the case worker being known for falsely billing the government and failing to follow court orders for the level of supervision needed. His supervisor knew all this and still called him one of her best workers.

I was sickened by what I read.

This poor child not only had Cerebral Palsy and was for the most part defenseless, but she had to go through being psychologically tortured. She had to watch while her mother openly showed favoritism towards her brothers and sisters, was denied food and water, and watched as her mother wouldn't even allow one of her sisters to call for medical help when she was dying. Her father knew what was going on and did nothing. At least three friends of the family, who also have been charged, knew about it, and not only did they do nothing, they even lied to try to cover for the mother, up to the day before the girl died.

And I can only imagine the psychological scarring the other siblings must have from watching their own mother treat their sister like that. This will affect them the rest of their lives. The article doesn't say, but I certainly hope that those children are all being offered counseling.

So, what does the death of this girl in Philadelphia from two years ago have to do with Wisconsin or Milwaukee? Judging by what I read, their system of child welfare sounds awfully similar to the the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare. The BMCW is a state-operated system, with government workers taking the referrals, doing the investigations and then passing the cases off to private agencies, just like in Philly. The private agencies are to manage these ongoing cases under the watchful eye of the BMCW, again like in Philly.

The BMCW has had their share of problems as well. Many children have died, and no one is ever held accountable. And every six or twelve months, a report is issued that states that the BMCW is not doing their job adequately, and the director of the program, Denise Revels Robinson, tells the papers, the courts and everyone else that they are aware of the problems and are taking steps to address them. Then everyone, satisfied, goes back about their business until the next child dies or the next bad report comes out. Then the whole cycle is repeated.

Even the board that was created to keep a watchful eye on the BMCW has been failing in their job. Board Members often don't attend meetings, and some have not been to one single meeting.

I don't know for sure how we fix this problem. I do know that we need to start holding these people more accountable, both on a personal level, like they did when charging the workers in Philly, and on an agency level. Right now, there is too much leeway for the State and the private agencies to point fingers at each other without either of them really being held accountable, and the board that is supposed to help guide the whole shebang is AWOL. They also need to have people on the board that are willing to invest the time and energy needed to make the system work as well as it possibly can.

We, as a society, also need to do better. We need to make sure that these workers have the tools they need to get their jobs done the way they ought to be done. And when there are people that do want to do the right thing by the children, we need to let them do so without interfering or putting up roadblocks.

We need to stop worrying as much about what it would cost to do the right thing, and worry more about what it would cost not to do the right thing.

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