Quick update

There's no news - well, no real news - on the family situation. The only thing to report is that the 'referee' passed the case along to the 'real' judge, which moved our court date. Instead of April 9, we're now having to wait until June 20 for Matt to have his day in court.

We've decided that this is a personal issue with Jefferson County DHR instead of a legal one. They apparently decided at the beginning to dislike Matt and like Jessie. Since the Chilton County court awarded custody to Matt (aka "The Bad Guy"), Jefferson Co. seems to think that they need to give custody back to this poor, deprived mother (aka "The Witch") .

Last Thursday while on my way to work, I happened to listen in to a few minutes of "The Attack Machine" on 101.1 FM The Source http://www.thesourcefm.com. The caller was trying to tell the hosts about how bad Jefferson Co. was in regard to child protection. The hosts blew-off the caller with the response, "People makes mistakes." Here's the response I sent - and note that all quotes and ratings can be found on the State DHR website at http://www.dhr.state.al.us.

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To Jackson and Hobbs:

The Attack Machine host on this morning’s broadcast responded to a caller voicing legitimate concerns with DHR with "People make mistakes." I agree; people do make mistakes. However, when children’s lives are damaged and families destroyed by 'mistakes', more needs to be done! They seem to have blown-off the caller and subsequent concerns of other callers, indicating that they were really not on-topic.

Concerning the topic, I agree that it's ludicrous that the government feels like they should intervene with how a company advertises to the public – but they already are intervening. When was the last time you saw nudity in a commercial? What about showing someone consuming alcohol on live TV? The Archbishop of Ireland said, “Law is order in liberty, and without order liberty is social chaos.” We must have some government regulation. Many protest seat-belt laws, public smoking bans, and similar measures, but there does come a point when the government must protect people from themselves in order to prevent harm to the whole.

George Bernard Shaw said that “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” As a society we are responsible for holding those in power accountable. Currently, I see no accountability with regard to Child Protective Services in Jefferson County. In Jefferson County, the lack of tenure on the part of most protective custody workers leads them to make decisions based on personal bias instead of the law and best interest of children. In Jefferson County, recent college graduates and workers with less than one year’s experience are making life-altering decisions concerning children – and carrying up to 25 children in caseloads! This is well beyond the federal recommendation and that set-out in the R.C. consent degree.

Ms. Caro Shanahan, former Director of Jefferson County DHR declared in an affidavit concerning the R.C. case that “We are constantly hiring workers so that we will have new workers ready to step in when other workers leave the agency.” (See Attachment I of the Motion for termination of R.C. Consent Decree) Ms. Shanahan herself had only been with Jefferson County DHR since 2001 and took control of Child Protective Services in 2003. Tricia Moscilino is currently serving as Interim Director of Jefferson County DHR, which leads me to believe that there isn’t much tenure in Jefferson County at any level. Without tenure and the experience that comes with it, workers cannot effectively make decisions and the whole system falls into disrepair!

Of the 67 Counties in Alabama, Autauga, Butler, Coffee, Cullman, Greene, Jefferson, Lawrence, Madison, Marengo, Montgomery, and Pike counties earned a AAA rating, with the South and Bessemer districts in Jefferson earning only a AA; Shelby earned an A rating, and St. Clair wasn’t available. All other counties were rated AAAA, the highest rating Alabama gives. The state has intervened in Shelby County, but serious problems continue in the South and Bessemer districts in Jefferson County.

Who is responsible? How can the public force change? When will a legislator seize the opportunity to impose more strict legislation on these agencies? Most appear to be more concerned about the size of a paycheck rather than the well-being of our state’s children and families.

Alabama should immediately intervene in all counties where the highest ratings are not received. Have they? No. Only in the lowest-rated county, Shelby, have they put state staff in place to correct problems.

The rating system needs review to more accurately identify problem areas. How about raising social workers pay so that experienced workers are retained, instead of watching them flee to private sector jobs to earn more money with fewer responsibilities? Shouldn’t DHR hire additional staff to lower the caseload of individual workers? Why don’t we insist that they put more stringent training requirements in place before allowing new workers to hold any cases?

The worst thing that has happened to DHR is release from the federal court’s guidance through the R.C. consent degree.

Maybe you can address this topic since so many lives are affected by it!