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I see, so you have cornered the truth on the amount of actual abuse have you? And your conclusion is there isn't enough actual abuse to justify the budgets?
Absolutely. The majority of family interventions and parental terminations in my state are far from justified. And of course the agencies pick on the poorest families, who are unable to afford representation.
Absolutely. The majority of family interventions and parental terminations in my state are far from justified. And of course the agencies pick on the poorest families, who are unable to afford representation.
If you can't afford representation it is provided for you, and the attorneys do a good job in most areas. You obviously have no idea about what goes on in CPS whatsoever. You read a couple of sensationalized news stories and think you know something.
As far as who is picked on - there is a problem of disproportionality that is well known and worked on. It is due to many issues. People with alot of money have alot more means to hide their abuse. But I can guarantee you it isn't only poor people who get into trouble with CPS. I live in an upper middle class/lower upper class area and there are TONS of cases here too.
If you can't afford representation it is provided for you, and the attorneys do a good job in most areas.
No they do not. They are even worse, on average, than public defenders in criminal cases, who are notoriously more interested in keeping on the judge's good side than in actually presenting a case. I've seen the same pattern in many states, and many of the attorneys themselves admit as much.
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People with alot of money have alot more means to hide their abuse.
People with a lot of money have due process, people who have no money have zilch.
First off the vast majority of CPS cases never become removals. Some are BS that was made up, or part of a vindictive (ex/family member/whoever) trying to cause trouble. Others are things that never happened or no proof exists. Others are minor incidents where there is no ongoing risk or safety issues. Then there are a great number of cases where even if there are risks/safety concerns the children are not removed, but services are offered to the families to help them overcome their issues.
Then you have the cases where there is legitimate issues going on and custody does need to be taken. Yes I do work for CPS (after two earned degrees, and a relatively lengthy and successful career in management, last working in Oil and Gas, I decided I wanted to leave the world a better place and took the massive pay cut to switch careers to what I do now), and I deal with the cases where we had to come in and take custody. Here are the cases I have worked in the last 9 months in different parts of the state:
-Two girls under 5, mom was on crystal meth while caring for them, extreme domestic abuse in the house
-three teen boys hooked on crack and weed. Mom and dad in and out of jail, mom gets high with them, excuses their drug use. Kids missed over 65 days of school in the last school year.
-mom of 6 kids by 3 men, addicted to cocaine and meth, left her three oldest kids with their dad, then disapeared on the other 3. father of the oldest three later found to be physically abusing them and they have to be removed from him.
-3 children under 6 living with mom and grandpa. Oldest boy severely physically beaten, and nightly is put into strait jacket, tied to his bed and locked in his room. Middle daughter is sexually abused. Youngest son is the product of incest between grandpa/dad and mom.
-newborn baby. Mom admited to cocaine use throughout her pregnancy. Drug dealer father is a registered child sex offender, and lives in a home with another child sex offender. Mom talked of giving child to the dad and leaving.
-mom of teen girl arrested for third DWI and sent to jail for 4 years. father is in jail in another state for sexually abusing this girl. No family will agree to care for or accept the child.
-teen girl living with her mom and two brothers in grandmothers house. She is kicked out of the home and has nowhere to go, no one who will accept her (no the other children were not removed).
-mom of two teen girls is arrested for DWI with the kids in the vehicle and goes to jail. Upon interviewing the girls the youngest girl was being sexually abused by mom's boyfriend.
-mom of two girls under three gets tired of watching her kids and takes them to a bar where father is drunk, and leaves them in his care. A couple of months later a delivery man arrives at the home and finds the girls home alone. They say that their parents leave before the sun comes up and sometimes don't come home until after dark. It was 4 hours later before either parent got home. Father is also addicted to crystal meth.
-5 children living on the streets with mother after she becomes homeless. One of the child sexually abuses another child at school. Mom then moves in with her boyfriend who is a registered child sex offender himself.
-girl sexually abused by father over a course of several years.
-infant beaten and violently thrown against a wall and subsequently spent months in ICU barely surviving. Because mom wasn't home and his crying was interupting dad's attempts to play XBox.
-two children whose parents refused to care for them anylonger and just walked away.
Caseworkers have workloads of 25-40 cases, and in some instances more than that. It is very hard to keep up with that kind of caseload. I work 50-60 hour weeks, and don't get paid overtime (OT acrues in a pool, once you have 240 hours accumulated you can draw checks with approval. When you leave the employ of the state you will be paid for any pooled hours. Or you can use those hours as vacation hours).
Trust me there is no need to manufacture caseloads, what we have is both legitimate and more than can be handled. Worker turnover is also extremely high because of the low pay, long hours and stressful work conditions.
Me? I love what I do, and know that I make a difference in the world. My kids love pretty much all love me, and call me at all hours of the day just to talk.
So I will go back to what I said before. You read a few sensationalized stories. Maybe you had a family member or friend who was involved with CPS. And so you demonize us. You have no CLUE what the hell you are talking about.
Yes I do work for CPS (after two earned degrees, and a relatively lengthy and successful career in management, last working in Oil and Gas, I decided I wanted to leave the world a better place and took the massive pay cut to switch careers to what I do now), and I deal with the cases where we had to come in and take custody.
The Oil and Gas Industry is much less hazardous to the public than CPS.
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