The FLDS Children Seized in Texas are in Their Own Private Gitmo
http://www.alternet.org/rights/86704/?page=entire
By Richard Wexler, The Nation. Posted May 31, 2008.
Foster care is a toxic intervention, to be used sparingly. In the case
of the Yearning for Zion ranch, Texas prescribed megadoses of foster care.
A little boy, maybe 3 years old, walks past row after row of cots
arrayed in a s****ts coliseum in Texas, carrying a little pillow. "I need
someone to rock me," he says. "I just want to be rocked, I want to find
a rocking chair." Two adults, whose job is child protection, are
following him. But they make no move to comfort him. They just follow
him and write in their notebooks.
Other children, with their mothers, are jammed into a building dating to
the 1800s, with no air conditioning and no indoor plumbing. Chicken pox
quickly spreads; many children come down with diarrhea, some are
hospitalized. At night, hostile overseers keep the women awake with
their loud conversations and sometimes ****ne lights in their eyes.
More than 400 children and their mothers endured those conditions in the
first days after Texas Child Protective Services raided the Yearning for
Zion Ranch in Eldorado, according to the only independent eyewitnesses
-- mental health professionals brought in by the State of Texas. (Their
statements were published in the Salt Lake Tribune.) The state alleges
that because some of the mothers are underage, all of the girls are at
risk of ***ual abuse and all of the boys are at risk of being "groomed"
to be abusers.
The physical conditions under which the women and children were held
ultimately improved, but the emotional conditions deteriorated, as the
children, even toddlers, were separated from their mothers.
Indefinite detention without meaningful hearings, inadequate defense
counsel, standards of proof that range from low to nonexistent and, in
most states, secret tribunals, may sound like the Bush Administration's
war on terror. In fact, it's all standard operating procedure as part of
America's war on child abuse. But mass detention is new. And now, with
its raid on the compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints in Eldorado, the State of Texas has filled that last
gap -- complete with their own private Guantánamo.
A Texas appeals court ruled May 22 that the state had no right to take
many of the children. But the children remain scattered throughout
Texas, as CPS appeals the decision.
On one point, defenders of this indefinite detention are right. The
issue on which this massive detention turns is not religion -- the issue
is alleged rape. But the allegations against the detainees at Guantánamo
also are serious and real. There, the issue also is not religion but
terrorism. What's happening in Texas may be worse than Guantánamo. For
starters, the victims are children.
When children are needlessly put into foster care, they lose not only
mom and dad but often brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents,
teachers, friends and classmates. For a young enough child, it's an
experience akin to a kidnapping. One recent study of foster care
"alumni" found they had twice the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder
of Gulf War veterans and only 20 percent could be said to be "doing well."
Another study comparing outcomes for 15,000 children found that even
maltreated children left in their own homes with little or no help fared
better, on average, than comparably maltreated children placed in foster
care.
And in the case of the Eldorado 400+, even the State of Texas doesn't
claim most children actually were abused; officials say they took the
children because they might be abused at some point in the future.
None of this means no child ever should be taken from her or his
parents. It means that foster care is an extremely toxic intervention
that must be used sparingly and in small doses. In the case of the
Yearning for Zion ranch, Texas prescribed megadoses of foster care.
There is one group of foster-care children for whom the trauma of
separation is even worse: those taken from battered mothers who
allegedly "failed to protect" them from abuse. Taking children under
these cir***stances is, in the words of one expert, "tantamount to
pouring salt into an open wound." "Failure to protect" is the only
allegation against the mothers of Eldorado. The way Texas has handled
the Eldorado case can be boiled down to a single sentence: Pass the salt.
Emotional harm often occurs to children even when foster homes are good.
The majority are. But the rate of abuse in foster care, both in family
foster homes and in institutions, is far higher than generally realized
and far higher than in the general population. Texas institutions are
particularly notorious; they were the subject of two scathing re****ts
issued in 2004 by the former State Comptroller. And if the Eldorado
detentions go on long enough, many children who probably never were
abused on the Yearning for Zion ranch probably will be abused in foster
care.
And, arguably, some have been mistreated already. Texas authorities
repeatedly have said one reason they separated the children from their
mothers was to make it easier to get the "real stories" out of the
children -- a tactic that amounts to emotional waterboarding. There also
are allegations that authorities pretended to believe some adults they
held -- including a 27-year-old who produced a driver's license and
birth certificate -- were minors, in order to question them without
their lawyers present.
All this suffering is unnecessary because, from the beginning, there has
been an alternative. It may have been necessary to take some of the
children from the ranch. But none needed to be taken from their mothers.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, claims made to justify the raid are
eroding. Remember the re****ts that a do***ent had been found on the
ranch concerning cyanide? It turned out to be part of a first-aid
manual. Remember the claims about young children with broken bones?
Looks like the pro****tion of such children is about the same as in the
general population. And every day more "underaged" mothers turn out to
be adults.
Through it all, Texas CPS has made one point over and over: aside from
the size of the case, there is nothing unusual here. We treat all
families this way.
They're right. If anything, the families of the Eldorado 400+ are
getting better treatment than the overwhelming majority of families who
lose children to state child welfare agencies every year.
Those families are overwhelmingly poor and dispro****tionately minority.
If they get legal representation at all it's likely to be from an
overworked public defender who just met them in the hallway five minutes
before the hearing. Texas is one of relatively few states where these
hearings are public. In most states, children's fate is decided behind
closed doors.
At the moment, the fate of the Eldorado children rests with the Texas
Supreme Court, but every day foster care is prolonged, more damage is
done. The fate of the 300,000 of other American children taken from
their parents every year rests with all of us. The usual answers from
the left, "more money" and "more training," won't fix this. The Eldorado
children could have been put up in five-star hotels and the separation
from their mothers still would have been devastating. No one says the
solution to Guantánamo is better-trained guards.
Neither money nor training is a substitute for due process. At-risk
children will be safer when we demand open hearings, higher standards of
proof, and meaningful legal representation for indigent families. They
will be safer when we demand civil liberties without exception.
Shortcuts that bypass civil liberties will win neither the war on terror
nor the war on child abuse.
Richard Wexler is executive director of the National Coalition for Child
Protection Reform and author of Wounded Innocents: The Real Victims of
the War Against Child Abuse (Prometheus Books).
An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"
Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS.
every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Wa****ngton. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
Perpetrators of Maltreatment
Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
***ual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and ***ual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST
Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…
THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia
http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/articles.php?filter=6
This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.
http://www.jbs.org/node/4632
Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-callahan16oct16,0,5019944.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILURE:. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler
http://www.nccpr.org/re****ts/cfpanalysis.doc
HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN
http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html
Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News
http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2000/5_May/mayds4.htm
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relation****ps. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Sup****t
80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.
The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991
Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent
housing.
This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.
Front-page story in USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm?csp=34#Close
Read the studies online.
Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"
www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/NorthwestAlumniStudy.htm
MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"
www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf
Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" re****ts:
www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren
The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLI****NG CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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