Related: Massachusetts' Deplorable DCF
"DCF chief tries to right agency as scrutiny grows; Olga Roche faces a massive task" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, January 12, 2014
She has what one children’s advocate called “the worst job in state government.” She runs an agency that in recent months completely lost track of a 5-year-old Fitchburg boy, allegedly ignored multiple reports of sexual abuse of another child, and was chastised by a federal judge for failing thousands of children whose futures in Massachusetts he called “murkier than in most places in America.”
What? The compassionate, caring, lovingly liberal Democratic fa$ci$t state of Massachusetts? What, what, what? Worse than icky redneck Repuglican states? What, what, what?
“Do you care?” the judge wrote, expressing outrage.
Olga I. Roche, the commissioner of the state Department of Children and Families, says the answer is an emphatic yes.
But child welfare advocates say the problems plaguing DCF may be too monumental and longstanding for any one commissioner, no matter how confident, to fix.
The agency, which is charged with protecting 36,000 children from abuse and neglect in some of the most troubled families in the state, is woefully underfunded, its caseworkers are overburdened, and morale is low, according to advocates.
But hey, Hollywood and well-connected corporate interests all got taxpayer-subsidized checks so what are you complaining about?
Competence is also a chronic concern, according to federal judge William G. Young, who declared in November that the department has “failed not only to comport with national standards of care and state and federal requirements, but also to comply with its own internal policies” for protecting children in foster care.
Young issued his ruling as he dismissed a class-action lawsuit against the department, but said he was disturbed to find that DCF places children in inappropriate foster homes, lacks proper educational and medical services, and has subpar caseload management and training practices.
The agency’s failings, Young said, were “more about budgetary shortfalls than management myopia” and added: “We are all complicit in this financial failure.”
Even as charitable giving from our ma$ters has allegedly hit records?
And speak for your$elf, judge.
“When next you bemoan your tax burden, remember that, at that moment, somewhere in Massachusetts there is a youngster who has just been taken from her parents’ home,” Young wrote. “She is confused, inexpressibly lonely, homesick, and desperately afraid. Because of Massachusetts’ penury, her future is murkier than in most places in America. Do you care?”
Related: Time For Buffett
Also see: Firms line up for Mass. tax breaks
Why do profitable companies and people already loaded with loot need further tax breaks and subsidies while services are shit?
Roche’s response to that ruling, as well at to the case of the missing boy, Jeremiah Oliver, has been relentlessly forward-looking….
OH! Yeah, don't look back at the disaster the department has become (from the good government that promises to take good care of you; God forbid we ever have a bad government that does not).
A social worker who has spent 33 years climbing the ranks of the state’s social services system, she became interim commissioner in April and was given the job permanently in October.
I can see why she does not want to look back: she is PART of the PROBLEM!
Born in the Bronx and raised in Puerto Rico, she is one of four children of a teenage mother. She says she was raised in part by her grandmother and great-grandmother, like many of the children in foster care the agency now tracks.
Roche, 59, spent six years working for the state Department of Youth Services before joining the social services department in 1987. Since then, she has risen from area director to regional director, to deputy commissioner in 2007.
As DCF commissioner, she has “the worst job in state government,” said Maria Mossaides, executive director of Cambridge Family and Children’s Service, a private child welfare agency. “And that is because you are dealing with an inconsistent mandate, a mandate that says protect children and preserve families, and that is a very hard line.”
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But the agency is under intense scrutiny. The state auditor, the state Office of the Child Advocate, and three legislative committees have launched investigations. The Children’s Welfare League of America is conducting an outside review.
Some child advocates worry the focus on safety, while long overdue, could have a downside. More children under DCF supervision, they say, could now be removed from their homes, because DCF workers would rather take the safer route of sending children to foster care, rather than leave them in a home that could result in another tragedy.
The advocates say that approach reflects workers more concerned with job safety than helping families in distress.
Since when have state workers not felt that way?
Sorry, but the truth hurts in this day and age. I'm not blaming them. I just see them as parasites in this age of wealth inequality.
“Safety concerns tend to blind people to the connections that kids have to their families and communities,” said Michael Dsida, a public defender who represents children and families battling DCF custody orders.
Not when it comes to making a buck off the false flags and hoaxes of "terrorism!" and promoting the tyrannical state of "national $ecurity."
I'm sorry, folks, but this rank Globe rot is unreadable.
Martha Grace, a retired chief justice of the Juvenile Court, said she often saw a flood of children being sent into DCF custody after the agency was hit with past scandals.
“All of a sudden, we would see this flurry of filings in the court, and you’d look at them and say, ‘Whoa. This wouldn’t have been filed two months ago,’ ” Grace said. Some of the orders were warranted, Grace said. But she added: “You can’t let the horror of this particular situation drive bad decisions.”
Unless it is to wage war for world domination and global conquest over energy resources. Then, well, a few lies and obfuscations in pushing the agenda is just fine!
In the past, commissioners at the agency, which was known as the Department of Social Services prior to 2008, have been forced to resign after children died on their watch. Roche could face such calls in the coming days.
We need a scapegoat, and the fate is deserved.
But Marylou Sudders, a former president of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said Roche is well positioned to steer the agency through turmoil.
“What I’m struck with is someone who is dedicated to public service and is committed to child protection,” said Sudders, who has known Roche since the 1990s, when Sudders was the state’s mental health commissioner. “Her deep knowledge of the department will be helpful and will serve her well in this time of crisis.”
Translation: it will help her cover up things.
The union that represents DCF social workers took a vote of no confidence in the previous commissioner, but has not taken that action against Roche. Peter MacKinnon, DCF chapter president of SEIU Local 509, said Roche sincerely believes in trying to protect children from harm, but has been slow to lessen the burden of heavy caseloads.
Is there ever a but when it comes to funding the war machine or serving debt-enslaving banks?
Yeah, we say we mean you kids well and we care so much about you, your safety, your health, your piece of mind…. BUT!
“We found her slow to act when it counts and, especially now, when you’re in a crisis mode, you need someone who is going to be there when it counts,” MacKinnon said.
Those who have watched the agency closely for years say the ability to fix it will not depend on whether Roche is ultimately deemed the right person to lead DCF out of scandal. Grace, the former juvenile court judge, said it will require attention even after the latest wave of public outrage has faded.
My outrage is still burning pretty hot, huh?
“The trouble with child protection agencies is there’s no constituency for them,” Grace said. “There’s nobody fighting for them.”
Poor DCF! Poor government! No one fighting for them. Un-f***ing-believable.
What rank rot and swill from a self-internalized shill.
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Related: Maury Povich Murder in Massachusetts
Figured I would run that repeat since the Globe forgot.
"Missing girl found in North Carolina, mother arrested" by Dan Adams and Jeremy C. Fox | Globe Correspondents, January 11, 2014
FITCHBURG — After a search that took them “up and down the Eastern Seaboard,” authorities have located a 5-year-old Fitchburg girl missing since Wednesday in North Carolina.
Hey, they found one! NSA help you out, or can you not talk about that?
Alize Whipple, 5, was found unharmed Saturday by Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office deputies in a Shelby, N.C., home along with her mother, who is accused of abducting the child after learning the state planned to take custody of her, Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early said during a late-afternoon press conference in Fitchburg.
Yeah, turns out the kid was not in any danger and the parent was going to move there because of the $hitty economy here, but you know, DCF had to show they are on the case and will seize the poor children under threat -- so they can later be lied to and sent off on wars of conquest.
Leeanna Wilson, 50, is being held without bail in North Carolina pending a rendition hearing, Early said. She is expected to return to Massachusetts, where she will face charges of kidnapping and reckless endangerment, he said.
The two were found after Wilson called the state Department of Children and Families from South Carolina Saturday morning, Early said. He did not disclose what Wilson said or why she called, citing the ongoing investigation, but said the call eventually led investigators to a relative’s house in southern North Carolina, not far from the state line. They tipped off local authorities, who made the arrest.
The girl will stay in a North Carolina foster home until arrangements are made to return her to Massachusetts, Early said. It was not immediately clear who would care for her here.
The ordeal began Wednesday, when workers with the state Department of Children and Families visited Wilson’s home to investigate allegations of abuse.
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Early said Wilson had a history with DCF dating back to the 1990s.
Fitchburg’s Sentinel & Enterprise reported Saturday that Wilson called the paper Wednesday afternoon, saying she had information about DCF separating children from their families without cause in the wake of the scandal around Jeremiah Oliver’s disappearance.
That's what the lady at the gas station told me they were doing, and she had personal experience. Pretty damn angry about it, too.
“I have a story for you about DCF taking children they normally would not take, including mine, since this 5-year-old went missing,” Wilson said, referring to Oliver, in a recording of the message posted online by the paper. “They’re taking my daughter today . . . and they’re just out of control.”
Mouthpiece media ain't interested in that, lady. They not interested in bad-mouthing of the benevolent state structure that just loves kids. Makes you wonder why so many are suffering in this paradise of Massachushitts.
Later that afternoon, Wilson took her daughter off a school bus and fled, Early said.
Asked why police waited until Friday to issue a high-profile Amber Alert for the missing girl, Early said authorities initially saw no imminent threat to Alize.
“All the criteria of the Amber Alert were not met until Friday,” Early said. “It kept rising to another level as time went by. . . . Finally, it got to the point where we believed the child was in imminent danger.”
Overnight Friday, police located a 1996 Buick sedan believed to be driven by Wilson, which had been abandoned in Leominster.
Police initially believed Wilson was fleeing with Whipple to Enoree, S.C., where they said she had ties. Enoree is located about one hour south of Shelby by car.
The two traveled south by car, Early said. He would not disclose the route Wilson took, when she left, or how she obtained a vehicle, but said police were investigating whether anyone assisted Wilson in evading law enforcement.
Early said police had received more than 100 tips after issuing the Amber Alert on Friday….
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Also see: Family defends Fitchburg woman in kidnap case
More unwarranted state persecution that we have heard of before?
So good government can't get either end right, can they?
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Patrick backs DCF in custody case
That's a real surprise considering the deplorable DCF will be one of his legacies.
Also see: Marijuana advocates lay groundwork for legalization in Mass.
Different kind of roach.
