Greegor
January 24th 07, 12:16 PM
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/16495152.htm
Posted on Fri, Jan. 19, 2007email thisprint this
Repulsive mess
Social-services scandal needs strong cleaner
Joel Pett's latest cartoon
Pett's video commentary
Sadistic and criminal aren't words usually associated with social
workers. But they come to mind while reading the results of a yearlong
investigation into a Kentucky child-protection bureaucracy that was
allowed to go rogue.
Social workers gave each other nicknames like "The Queen of Removal"
and "Terminator" and laughed as they stripped children from their
parents.
Workers and supervisors lied and falsified documents to cover up their
misconduct and misled an accrediting agency. Those who protested or
tried to report the abuses were targeted for retaliation, while some of
those responsible were rewarded.
Not all, or even most, of the social workers in the eight-county
Lincoln Trail area, based in Elizabethtown, are guilty of the abuses of
government power detailed by Inspector General Robert J. Benvenuti III.
And such abuses are not confined to Lincoln Trail.
But that's not much consolation.
It underlines the "luck of the draw" quality of life-changing decisions
being made about children and their families. "Kentucky's Other
Lottery" is the apt title of the report by child advocates that
launched the Inspector General's investigation.
The good news is that the scathing review was commissioned by the state
Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which administers Lincoln Trail
and the rest of Kentucky's community-based services offices.
If the cabinet is willing to air its nasty linen, maybe it will also
deal aggressively with the problems the report revealed. A lot of
people are watching to see how the cabinet responds.
Kentucky's social workers expose themselves daily to great danger for
little pay while making difficult judgment calls on which the safety
and well-being of children hinge.
Social worker Boni Frederick was killed last year while supervising an
in-home visit between a foster child and his biological mother.
No one is criticizing the judgment calls required in the course of a
day's work. But what developed within Lincoln Trail was pernicious and
rotten -- an "attitude of supremacy" toward clients and the public,
according to the IG's report.
The report identified 13 possible criminal violations that were turned
over to a local prosecutor, along with various violations of cabinet
policy.
The inspector general also issued a list of recommendations, some of
which would require legislation and some of which the cabinet could
accomplish by itself.
A blue-ribbon task force was already at work on reforms aimed at
correcting abuses in the processes for terminating parental rights and
adoption.
But no amount of legislation or reorganization can clean out all the
rottenness that this investigation exposed.
The responsible parties should be held accountable.
Posted on Fri, Jan. 19, 2007email thisprint this
Repulsive mess
Social-services scandal needs strong cleaner
Joel Pett's latest cartoon
Pett's video commentary
Sadistic and criminal aren't words usually associated with social
workers. But they come to mind while reading the results of a yearlong
investigation into a Kentucky child-protection bureaucracy that was
allowed to go rogue.
Social workers gave each other nicknames like "The Queen of Removal"
and "Terminator" and laughed as they stripped children from their
parents.
Workers and supervisors lied and falsified documents to cover up their
misconduct and misled an accrediting agency. Those who protested or
tried to report the abuses were targeted for retaliation, while some of
those responsible were rewarded.
Not all, or even most, of the social workers in the eight-county
Lincoln Trail area, based in Elizabethtown, are guilty of the abuses of
government power detailed by Inspector General Robert J. Benvenuti III.
And such abuses are not confined to Lincoln Trail.
But that's not much consolation.
It underlines the "luck of the draw" quality of life-changing decisions
being made about children and their families. "Kentucky's Other
Lottery" is the apt title of the report by child advocates that
launched the Inspector General's investigation.
The good news is that the scathing review was commissioned by the state
Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which administers Lincoln Trail
and the rest of Kentucky's community-based services offices.
If the cabinet is willing to air its nasty linen, maybe it will also
deal aggressively with the problems the report revealed. A lot of
people are watching to see how the cabinet responds.
Kentucky's social workers expose themselves daily to great danger for
little pay while making difficult judgment calls on which the safety
and well-being of children hinge.
Social worker Boni Frederick was killed last year while supervising an
in-home visit between a foster child and his biological mother.
No one is criticizing the judgment calls required in the course of a
day's work. But what developed within Lincoln Trail was pernicious and
rotten -- an "attitude of supremacy" toward clients and the public,
according to the IG's report.
The report identified 13 possible criminal violations that were turned
over to a local prosecutor, along with various violations of cabinet
policy.
The inspector general also issued a list of recommendations, some of
which would require legislation and some of which the cabinet could
accomplish by itself.
A blue-ribbon task force was already at work on reforms aimed at
correcting abuses in the processes for terminating parental rights and
adoption.
But no amount of legislation or reorganization can clean out all the
rottenness that this investigation exposed.
The responsible parties should be held accountable.