December 19, 1995
DSS CHIEF POINTS TO
PROGRESS DEFENDS AGENCY AT HEARING
Author: Michael Grunwald,
Boston Globe Staff
The state Department of
Social Services commissioner yesterday delivered a strong defense of her
much-maligned agency, telling legislators that a few high-profile tragedies have
overshadowed a host of steady improvements. Testifying on a comprehensive DSS
reform bill, Commissioner Linda K. Carlisle ticked off a list of trends at the
agency during her three-year tenure: fewer child deaths, many more adoptions,
somewhat lighter caseloads for social workers and timelier reviews of foster
homes.20 percent of all foster children move between more than two placements.
The commissioner
acknowledged that DSS has a long way to go, but said the agency has not gotten
credit for the progress it has made in dealing with the commonwealth's most
troubled families. She said that a flurry of bad publicity has chilled
recruitment of new foster parents, and lashed out at a federal official who
recently raised the possibility of receivership for DSS.
"We know we've had some terrible, terrible cases, but painting the whole system
with a broad brush is a huge mistake," Carlisle said. "We've turned the corner.
We've got this agency moving in the right direction."
Although some of Carlisle's critics disputed her facts and figures, most of them
agreed that DSS is in better shape than it was in December 1992, when she was
appointed commissioner. At the time, a blue-ribbon commission had just released
a report describing the agency as totally dysfunctional. Yesterday, Carlisle
accepted responsibility for errors that DSS made in losing track of two children
killed last month in Lawrence.
"DSS is improving, no question about it," said David Chamberlain, president of
the DSS social workers union. "But historically, it's been a disaster, so I
wouldn't get too excited."
In an appearance before the Joint Committee on Human Services and Elderly
Affairs, Carlisle painted a statistical portrait of an agency making a valiant
effort to deal with deepening social problems. DSS received more than 97,000
reports of abuse and neglect in 1994, double the 1985 figure. Carlisle said that
of 22,000 families in the DSS system now, 70 percent have substance abuse issues
and 60 percent have had domestic violence in the home. Nearly half the women in
the system first became mothers when they were teen-agers, she said.
There have been several deaths of children in the DSS system in recent years,
such as Michelle Walton, a 9-year-old girl who was brutally raped and killed in
her Mattapan foster home, and Manny Santiago, a 3-month-old baby who suffocated
when his Medway foster mother left him in the back of a car on a muggy day. US
Health and Human Services regional administrator Phillip Johnston hinted last
week that receivership may be necessary if things do not change at DSS.
But Carlisle said Johnston's superiors have apologized to her and said deaths in
the system are rarer than they were when Johnston was state human services
secretary. Overall, she said the number of deaths from all causes has fallen
from 84 in 1989 to 51 this year. Deaths attributed to maltreatment have also
fallen; there were 40 from 1990 through 1992 vs. 18 in the last three years.
The commissioner also touted her push to increase adoptions of children in state
care. The number hovered between 550 and 600 from 1989 through 1992, but has
skyrocketed to 1,102 since Carlisle arrived. She said 46 percent of the children
adopted in the last year were minorities vs. 18 percent in 1992.
Carlisle also defended the commonwealth's foster care system, which she has
described in the past as dangerously overburdened. She said the median stay for
a child in out-of-home care dropped from 1.5 years to 1.3 years from 1992 to
1994. She said there are only 79 foster homes with more than eight children,
although she conceded that 79 is too many. She also said that fewer than 2,000
of the 10,900 DSS foster children have changed placements more than twice,
although DSS records show 226 of them have changed eight or more times.
Carlisle said the average caseload of DSS social workers has dropped from 20 to
18, a key demand of the 1992 blue-ribbon commission. This slight improvement has
eased the burden on the people responsible for deciding whether to leave
children with their families or take them away. But many believe the caseloads
are still much too high.
"This is a step in the right direction," said Miriam Stein, director of
governmental affairs for the National Association of Social Workers. "But there
are many steps to go."
The relationship between Carlisle and the Legislature has clearly improved, and
there were bipartisan calls yesterday for a renewed commitment to DSS. But there
is still deep skepticism about the commissioner's numbers and about the progress
she says DSS has made.
"I'm not sure things are any better," said Rep. Carol Donovan (D- Woburn), vice
chairman of the committee. "I'll tell you this: Kids are still dying."
December 19, 1995
No room at the inn
DSS gives teen moms holiday evictions
by: CONNIE PAIGE, Boston Herald
DSS gives teen moms
holiday evictions
In a move officials of some social service agencies say is a "big mistake," a
state agency is using the Christmas season to evict mothers and young children
from scarce housing in part to implement a new welfare reform law.
Augusta Odiah was one of
those who recently received a curt holiday message from the state's child
welfare agency. The 19-year-old Chelsea mother of two was told to vacate her
apartment by New Year's Day.
Odiah and her toddlers are among many homeless families statewide being evicted
by the Department of Social Services because of the need for housing for others
under the new welfare reform law.
"I wasn't even expecting it," Odiah said yesterday. "I'm looking for an
apartment, but it's not, like, going very well. I don't know what I'm going to
do."
Social service agency directors around the state confirmed they were notified
without warning in October that many of their programs for the homeless would
end Jan. 1. The notices gave no explanation for the abrupt halt to a program
that has provided up to 18 months of "transitional" housing and other related
services.
Some directors said they were told by DSS that the "focus" of programs was
shifting from the homeless to unwed teen mothers and battered women.
DSS officials did not respond yesterday to requests for comment.
At least part of the change is in line with the state's sweeping new welfare
reform law, which requires unwed teen parents to live at home or in a structured
group setting.
But, the welfare law applies only to teens 17 and under, so some agencies found
themselves evicting slightly older teens like Odiah to make room for the younger
ones.
"I think they're making a big mistake," said Cecilia Frometa of Community Action
Programs Inter-City Inc., which has been helping Odiah. "People need the
individual attention these case managers are able to give them."
Gordon Hargrove of Friendly House Inc. in Worcester, said his agency has been
forced to switch its resources to the younger teens, but that hasn't meant the
older ones no longer need them.
"There's just so many. Just because the `focus' is in one area does not mean the
problem in the other area has gone away," said Hargrove.
Sister Linda O'Rourke, director of North Region Catholic Charities, is concerned
about finding a place for the older, displaced teens to go.
"The state offered to help us transition the current residents out so we could
move younger kids in, but there's no place to transition them to," she said.
O'Rourke also fears existing resources aren't really appropriate for the younger
teens.
"My concern is that young teens are not suitable to be in apartments by
themselves," she said."That's not adequate supervision for young kids."
The social service agency directors are negotiating for extra time for their
clients beyond the New Year's deadline.
Meanwhile, bureaucrats continued to wrangle over how to reform DSS.
DSS Commissioner Linda Carlisle blasted a regional federal administrator for
threatening last week to ask intervention of a federal judge if the agency's
problems were not resolved soon.
Carlisle said she wanted an apology from regional U.S. Health and Human Services
director Philip Johnston, who made the threat after another death of a child in
the system and a logjam that has kept the Legislature from approving more needed
funding. Johnston could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Odiah was told only last month by her social worker that she would
have to vacate the apartment she had been promised she could keep until next
August.
Odiah said she is trying to stash away her meager savings to prepare for the
future.
"I can't afford Christmas," she said. "All the money I have I'm saving for an
apartment."
December 19, 1995
'Foster Kid Caucus' paved
way for reform
Author: JOHN O'CONNELL,Union-News (Springfield,
MA)
STAFFUNION-NEWS
(Springfield, Mass.)
State Sen. Stanley C.
Rosenberg, a caucus member, says reforms to the foster care program will protect
children from the tragedy of child abuse.
BOSTON - He is happy that
state government is now engaged in the reform of its foster care program, but
Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg knows that children have paid a terrible price to get
that attention.
In Lawrence, a lapse in case management may have contributed to the recent
deaths of two children. In Springfield, police said a 13-month-old boy was
scalded to death in July by his foster brother. A Belchertown man was charged
with raping his 7-year-old foster daughter.
Fresh stories arrive with sickening regularity of foster children injured or
killed while under the care of the state Department of Social Services and of
children who should have been placed in foster care before their parents abused
them.
"It's tragic," Rosenberg, D-Amherst, said yesterday. "These children are
basically the foot soldiers in this little war.
"But the consolation, if there can be one, is going to be that things will be
improved and other children will be spared the pain and more."
Rosenberg knows something about the pain of foster children because he was one.
The 46-year-old lawmaker grew up in a foster family living in Boston's northern
suburbs. He doesn't like to talk about the experience but it has driven his
work, with two other members of the "Foster Kid Caucus," to reform the system.
Yesterday the Legislative Committee on Foster Care, which includes Rosenberg and
Rep. Marie Parente, D-Milford, and Rep. Gloria Fox, D-Roxbury, also foster
children, announced agreements with DSS on significant issues such as mandatory
licensing of foster parents and social workers.
Committee members also testified in favor of their bill to make broad changes in
foster care, while DSS Commissioner Linda Carlisle fought off suggestions that a
federal court should take charge of the system.
Rosenberg said he believes under-funding and poor management at DSS has
compounded a problem that reflects a national disintegration of the family and
social order.
"Foster kids basically come from very rough beginnings," he added. "That's a
traumatic experience, being removed from your family and not knowing whether
you'll return to your family and not understanding why all these things are
happening."
According to DSS, 13,574 children in the state have been taken from their
families, and 3,539 of those children are from families in Hampden, Hampshire,
Franklin and Berkshire counties.
The Foster Kid Caucus was formed in 1988, when Rosenberg was in the House and
four members, including then-Rep. Larry Giordano, found they had a common
background.
The group started out as role models, to show foster children that they could
aspire to higher goals despite the "marginalized" status that society can place
on them.
But horror stories about DSS quickly changed the group's focus and led to
establishment of the special commission in 1992 and the reform proposals
unveiled yesterday.
"It was the people in that group that just kept pushing this forward and making
people pay attention," Rosenberg said.
December 19, 1995
DSS CHIEF LASHES OUT AT
FEDERAL CRITIC \ JOHNSTON ALLEGEDLY HAS
Author: Edward T. McHugh; Telegram & Gazette Boston Bureau
BOSTON - A federal
official reviewing the deaths of several Massachusetts foster care children is
playing on "tragedy for political purposes," state Department of Social Services
Commissioner Linda K. Carlisle said yesterday.
"There was no question that this action, which I felt was politically motivated
and which the facts just don't bear out, was really, truly unfortunate, and has
left a scar on us in the agency," Carlisle said of the review announced last
week by Philip Johnston, regional administrator of the federal Department of
Health and Human Services.
Johnston last week
threatened to seek federal court intervention unless DSS improved its
performance in the wake of the most recent child deaths.
FIVE HAVE DIED
At least five children under DSS care have died this year, including a
3-month-old boy who suffocated in the back seat of a car this summer after his
foster mother forgot to take him inside. Also, a 24-year-old Boston man was
accused of raping one of the foster children in his home and the agency lost
track of the mother of two young sons found buried in Lawrence, with her
boyfriend charged with killing one.
Johnston is viewed as a possible candidate next year for the 10th Congressional
District seat in the U.S. House being vacated by the retirement of Rep. Gerry E.
Studds, D-Provincetown.
DEATHS HAVE DROPPED
At a news conference on a bill sponsored by a legislative subcommittee on foster
care, Carlisle pointed out that during Johnston's last two years as state
secretary of human services in the administration of Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, 29
Bay State children died of child abuse.
The "maltreatment" deaths of 13 children were reported to federal officials in
1989 and 16 in 1990, when Johnston last was responsible for overseeing the
operations of DSS, she said.
During the last two years, eight "maltreatment" deaths have been reported, the
DSS commissioner said, three in 1994 and five this year.
APOLOGIES
Johnston would not respond to Carlisle's comments, according to his assistant,
Maureen Osolnik. She said the department's Washington office would issue a
written response, but she did not know when that would be because of the federal
government shutdown, brought on by the budget impasse between President Clinton
and Republicans in Congress.
Carlisle said Johnston's superiors had apologized to her and Gerald Whitburn,
state secretary of health and human services, for Johnston's comments. As for
Johnston, she said: "He has called me; I have not talked to him. I think I'm
owed an apology."
"Children are going to die, no matter what we do," Carlisle told reporters. "We
try to minimize it."
Carlisle's defense of her agency drew rebukes from state Rep. Paul Kollios,
D-Millbury, and state Sen. Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, who co-chair the
Legislature's joint Human Services Committee.
"I can't believe you come in here telling us everything is rosy," Kollios told
Carlisle. "It's not. It's bad."
COURT CASE UNLIKELY
Rep. Marie J. Parente, chairwoman of the foster care subcommittee, said taking
DSS to court would be "a logical conclusion if he (Johnston) didn't get
answers." But the Milford Democrat said it was unlikely.
"We have not been up to par on case management and monitoring, and that kind of
review will reveal the deficiencies that we need to improve on," Parente said.
"That's the outside intervention that I'm looking for."
"There will be action, and there will be no necessity" to take DSS to court, she
said.
December 18, 1995
LICENSING FOSTER PARENTS
CONSIDERED
Worcester Telegram &
Gazette (MA)
The Associated Press
BOSTON - The Department of Social Services, which has been plagued by a series
of foster-child deaths, may soon license social workers and foster parents as
part of an agency overhaul, according to a legislator.
The Legislative Committee on Foster Care will hold hearings today on a bill
mandating sweeping changes in the troubled agency. Committee chairwoman Rep.
Marie J. Parente, D-Milford, said the agency has agreed to many of the
conditions contained in the bill.
"The recent deaths tell
us it's imperative that we change," Parente said. "It's obvious that what we're
doing is not working."
Although DSS Commissioner Linda Carlisle stopped short of endorsing any specific
policies, she said she would join the committee today at a news conference to
discuss "common ground."
Carlisle will testify about DSS before the Health and Human Services Committee
following the press conference.
Since October 1994, at least seven children with DSS case files have died under
suspicious circumstances. Four of those children were in foster homes at the
times of their deaths.
Parente said the issues discussed by both sides included:
Mandatory licensing and more intense training of all social workers. Only 15
percent of the 1,700 DSS case workers are licensed social workers in
Massachusetts.
Mandatory licensing and more intense training and screening of all foster
parents. A related goal is to find parents who do not rely on foster children as
a primary income source.
More cooperation with law enforcement on child abuse cases.
Improved representation of children in court proceedings.
CORRECTION
Boston Globe
December 17, 1995
CORRECTION: Because of a
reporting error, Eileen McNamara's column in yesterday's Metro/Region section
incorrectly stated the timing of the deaths of three children while under
supervision of the state Dept. of Social Services. Jennifer Gallison, Diane
DeVanna and Brandy Mallet all died under DSS supervision, but not while Philip
Johnston was secretary of human services.
December 17, 1995
DSS HEAD AGREES ON
REFORMS BROADER LICENSING AMONG ISSUES RAISED BY PANEL
Author: Michael Grunwald, Globe Staff
The Massachusetts
Department of Social Services and some of its staunchest legislative critics
have reached a consensus of sorts on several reforms and goals for the
tragedy-prone agency, including the licensing of all social workers and foster
parents. The chairwoman of the Legislative Committee on Foster Care yesterday
asserted that after years of bad blood, the agency has agreed to carry out many
of the committee's proposals.
Although DSS Commissioner
Linda K. Carlisle stopped short of endorsing any specific policies, she
confirmed that she will join the committee tomorrow at a news conference to
discuss "common ground."
"There's definitely a bipartisan effort here, and we're making a lot of
progress," said Carlisle, who will testify about DSS before the Health and Human
Services Committee following the press conference. "I think it's premature to
talk about specifics, but we definitely agree in concept about how to improve
this child-welfare agency."
DSS officials have been meeting with the committee for about six months to
discuss the problems plaguing foster care in the state.
Chairwoman Rep. Marie Parente (D-Milford) said both sides now agree on many
issues raised by her Legislative Committee on Foster Care's comprehensive bill
to overhaul DSS. Some issues she cited include:
- Mandatory licensing, and more intense training, of all social workers. Only 15
percent of the 1,700 DSS case workers are licensed social workers in
Massachusetts, although many others meet licensing standards. And many of the
case workers who do have licenses are in the central DSS office or are
supervisors.
"We need the best people in the field," Parente said. "We can't have these
22-year-old art students making decisions about children's lives."
- Mandatory licensing as well as more intense training and screening of all
foster parents. This would include wide-ranging background checks and more
frequent criminal records checks of everyone living in a foster home. Foster
parents would be required to take courses in family systems, kinship systems and
cultural differences, and to have annual physical exams.
A related goal is to find parents who do not rely on foster children as a
primary income source; right now, more than 600 foster families in the state are
on welfare. And more than 1,100 are single parents who have never had children
themselves.
- More cooperation with law enforcement on child abuse cases. Only a tiny
fraction of abuse reports result in prosecution.
- Improved representation of children in court proceedings.
- A preference for relatives when deciding where to place children removed from
their parents.
- Increased focus on family preservation. This includes drug counseling, job
training, services for battered women, help finding housing, and other
assistance designed to help non-abusive parents who are having trouble providing
for their children.
Carlisle said she agreed with the committee in theory on many of those issues,
but said she will not endorse specific policies until her agency completes a
review of every foster home in the system.
She said she is working closely with that committee as well as with the Senate
Post Audit Committee, which recently released a scathing report finding that
children in the DSS system were often better off with their troubled families.
As for the licensing of social workers and foster parents, Carlisle called it a
question of semantics. She suggested that accepting only licensed social workers
would place an even greater burden on an overloaded system, but said the
committee's proposals "definitely warrant further study."
"We're coming up with a lot of common ground, but it's premature to talk about
any legislation," she said. "I mean, we'll look at anything that would improve
the quality of foster parents. We're taking these proposals very seriously."
There has been a host of high-profile tragedies at DSS this year, especially in
the foster care system.
A 24-year-old unemployed bachelor was accused of raping one of the children in
his overloaded Dorchester foster home.
A 3-month-old baby suffocated in the back seat of a car after his Medway foster
mother forgot to bring him inside on a hot summer day. The rape and murder of
Michelle Walton in a Mattapan foster home remains shrouded in mystery.
Gov. William F. Weld has asked for an additional $14 million for DSS, much of it
to help overburdened foster parents and hire new social workers.
The Senate Post Audit Committee has called for the creation of a new, more
independent, child welfare agency. And the federal government has begun a review
of child deaths at the agency, with regional administrator Philip Johnston
already making threatening noises about receivership for DSS.
But Parente and Carlisle agree that receivership is not the solution to the
agency's woes. They agree also that the solution will not come overnight.
Anyone interested in becoming a foster parent in Massachusetts should call
1-800-KIDS508.
December 16, 1995
WHAT A SHAME JOHNSTON
FORGOT
Author: Eileen McNamara,
Boston Globe Staff
Remember Jennifer
Gallison, Diane DeVanna, Brandy Mallet, Michelle Pimental, Arron Johnson, Henry
Gallop, Jared Hall, Kytisha Cooper, Hanif Sutton, Jonathan Robinson? No?
Apparently, Phil Johnston doesn't either.
They all died of abuse or
neglect while under the supervision of the state child welfare agency when
Johnston was Gov. Michael Dukakis' human services secretary.
Surely, Johnston must have forgotten. How else to explain his self- righteous
threat this week to ask a federal judge to seize control of the perpetually
beleaguered state Department of Social Services.
Johnston is now the regional director for the US Department of Health and Human
Services. It seems the job of child protection looks a lot easier from his new
office than it did from his old one.
"I believe very strongly if there's no action, within a relatively short period
of time, to help the social workers in DSS, a court will and should move to
direct the state to provide the resources that are necessary," Johnston warned
this week in what a cynic might have seen as the opening salvo in a campaign for
the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Gerry Studds, the Cohasset
Democrat.
To finger the administration of Gov. William F. Weld for the disaster that is
DSS -- as tempting as it might be politically -- is fundamentally dishonest, and
Johnston knows it.
The problems at DSS are legion and none of them began with Weld. Ever since the
agency was created in 1980, carved out of the Department of Public Welfare, it
has failed in its mission to protect the most vulnerable children among us.
DSS consistently has been underfunded, understaffed and undermined by shifting
social science theories and changing attitudes toward the poor.
While the DSS mission to protect children sounds simple enough, finding a
balance between protecting families against unwarranted state intervention and
providing safeguards for children has never been easy. The goal of family
preservation sounds honorable enough until one confronts a level of dysfunction
unimaginable a few short years ago: drug use among pregnant women, pediatric
AIDS cases, gun violence, physical and sexual abuse, homelessness.
The only place DSS is seen unambiguously is on streets, where its social workers
are feared and reviled as agents determined to take your children away.
The suspicious deaths of at least seven children with DSS case files in the last
14 months are a horror. But are DSS Commissioner Linda Carlisle's excuses for
systemic failure any more lame than Johnston's once were? In 1985 when
14-year-old Michelle Pimental was raped and killed by her stepfather, Johnston
insisted DSS had exercised "good judgment" in its handling of the case.
Johnston's hint at federal receivership was prompted by the deaths of two
stepbrothers in Lawrence, both unearthed from shallow graves. The father of one
of the boys is charged; DSS claims it lost track of the mother when she moved
from Dorchester to Lawrence.
We pay lip service to children, but we also blame the poor for their
circumstances. When one of their children dies, some secretly think he's better
off. We weep for those boys, but we also make DSS fight for table scraps in
every budget cycle.
Since the buck stopped at Phil Johnston's desk, there has been a dramatic rise
in the DSS caseload and no corresponding increase in staff. Approximately 13,000
children are under supervision now compared to 7,200 in 1988; the staff has
risen from 2,800 to only 2,896. Weld wants kudos when he asks for a paltry $5
million to supplement a $450 million annual DSS budget that some legislative
leaders think is at least $50 million too small to do the job.
Johnston may have forgotten this, too, but in 1990, Boston Mayor Ray Flynn
called on him and Dukakis to investigate the rising number of suspicious deaths
of DSS children.
"I think the problem is very clear," Johnston said back then. "We have
insufficient resources at this time to provide adequate protection for children
who are at risk in this state. That's a tragedy. But it is also a reality. And
unless and until the Legislature acts to provide not only DSS but also other
human service agencies with the help that we think is necessary, then children
will continue to be at risk in this state."
If the problem was resources then and now, why didn't we hear Johnston calling
for federal receivership when he was in charge? There isn't a political point
worth making that has to be scored on the grave of a dead child.
December 15, 1995
Editorial:
No federal dictator for DSS
Boston Herald
No federal dictator for
DSS
The very last thing the troubled Department of Social Services needs is a
federal judge trying to run it.
The local federal welfare
satrap, Philip Johnston, has threatened to seek just such a regime in addition
to an investigation.
An investigation could be most helpful. But autocratic rule like that of U.S.
District Judge Arthur Garrity, who micro-managed the Boston schools for nearly
two decades down to the level of how many basketballs to buy, would be
disastrous.
The federal agency which Johnston serves as regional director, the Department of
Health and Human Services, provides about half of the $450 million DSS annual
budget. It's entirely appropriate that HHS investigators check on the use of
that money.
Heaven knows the violent deaths of six children in 14 months is a damning
indictment of DSS.
But overall, the current record is better than it was when Johnston himself was
in charge of DSS for the Dukakis administration. The death rate (from all
causes) of kids in foster care is 40 percent below what it was in 1989.
Caseloads have almost doubled since 1988, but DSS staff has increased by only
3.4 percent.
DSS certainly needs more staff. More than that, the agency needs a new vision of
what it should be doing. It is clear, for example, that the "keep the family
together" policy (followed throughout the social work profession) is a failure
and has endangered many, many helpless children. It is also clear the agency's
judgment on foster parents has on occasion been abysmal, but there are many
talented and devoted foster parents.
Why can't these successful parents be enlisted to run more small-scale group
homes for children, perhaps sponsored by churches? It's appalling the
Legislature didn't approve $9 million in supplemental appropriations this year
to expand the modest existing program.
Call them orphanages or call them boarding schools, by any name they will be
infinitely more nurturing than the cruel, crack-addicted mothers and fathers the
innocent have had to endure.
Bringing in a black-robed dictator brings out the worst in any agency. While the
judge forces through his own notion of enlightened policy and orders spending
right and left, the managers settle down into an obnoxious "there's nothing I
can do" attitude. Decisions get bucked up to the top.
Massachusetts is not the only place with a troubled child welfare agency. But
our state could pioneer solutions. After all, it does know something about
receiverships - it created one for Chelsea and another, still operating, for
Chelsea's schools.
The governor and the Legislature should take the opportunity of the January
budget submission to install their own receiver, with extraordinary powers, to
accelerate reform at DSS.
December 14, 1995
DSS may land in fed hands
Six child deaths spark investigation
Author: Connie Paige and Bill Hutchinson,Boston Herald
Six child deaths spark
investigation
A top federal official said he'll ask a federal court judge to take control of
the state's problem-riddled child-welfare agency unless changes are made
quickly.
The official, Philip
Johnston, said he was concerned about the six mysterious deaths in the last 14
months of children in the custody of the agency, the Department of Social
Services.
Johnston, regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, said he was spurred to action by the recent tragic deaths of two young
stepbrothers in Lawrence - one deliberately exposed to rat poison and then
smothered to death.
"I believe very strongly if there's no action, then within a relatively short
period of time to help the social workers in DSS, a court will and should move
to direct the state to provide the resources that are necessary," Johnston said.
Johnston, human services chief under former Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, also said
he will soon undertake a review of the suspicious deaths of children under DSS
care.
Gov. William F. Weld said yesterday he would object strongly to a federal
takeover.
"The last thing we need is to have federal judges taking over the
micro-management of the day-to-day operation of the most sensitive functions of
government," Weld said.
At least seven children with DSS case files have died under suspicious
circumstances since October 1994 - four of them while in foster homes.
Just last week, Akeem Nathanial Cintron, 2, who the DSS had lost track of after
his mother had a child abuse complaint filed against her in 1994, was found dead
in a makeshift Lawrence grave. His 9-month-old half-brother, Manuel David Alicea
III, was found in a nearby grave.
Other cases include a 3-year-old found strangled in his Dorchester foster home
and a 3-month-old who died in August after being left in a sunbaked car for
three hours in Medway.
Johnston said he is concerned the deaths may be related to the skyrocketing
number of children in state custody not being matched with more social workers.
As of July 1995, the agency had about 13,000 children in its care - up from
7,200 in July 1988, according to Jim Hearns, senior policy analyst for the
Senate Post Audit Bureau.
During the same period, the number of DSS staff rose from 2,800 to only 2,896,
Hearns said.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Therese Murray said she received a commitment from the
Weld administration to work cooperatively to resolve the DSS problems.
"None of us can live with the fact that we're losing these children," said
Murray (D-Plymouth).
"If we let it go too much longer, we run the risk of desensitizing ourselves,"
she added.
Murray and Sen. Thomas C. Norton (D-Fall River), who conducted hearings last
summer on problems with DSS, predicted the agency may need as much as $40
million to $50 million more than the current $450 million annual budget to
correct problems.
Earlier this year, Weld filed two supplemental budgets to bolster funding for
the besieged agency.
The Legislature has approved an additional $5 million, enough to hire 126 more
social workers. Action is pending on another $8 million request.
Murray said she'd prefer to wait until the full scope of the need is clear
before considering that second request.
She said she believes she can make a cost-benefit argument that spending money
on troubled children now, saves future costs.
Murray said Johnston's threat of federal court receivership could prompt
lawmakers and the administration to come up with a plan to save the agency,
although she could not give a target date.
"We've been talking about the possibility of ending up in receivership for the
past six months," she said. "None of us really wanted that to happen."
December 14, 1995
AGENCY THREATENS COURT
RULE OF DSS \ 48 CHILD DEATHS PROMPT
Worcester Telegram &
Gazette (MA)
BOSTON - The regional
head of the federal human services agency plans to review the deaths of several
children under the care of the state Department of Social Services - and may
push for a court takeover.
Gov. William F. Weld said yesterday that court oversight would be a disaster.
"I think the last thing
we need is to have federal judges taking over the micromanagement of the
day-to-day operations of the most sensitive functions of government at the state
level," Weld said.
Philip Johnston, regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, told The Enterprise of Brockton that he has become increasingly
alarmed in the past year by the deaths of children being monitored by DSS.
"Despite all of the clamor, these tragedies are falling on deaf ears," said
Johnston, a former Dukakis administration official.
"We will be making some very strong public recommendations, and if there isn't
progress quickly, and I mean in weeks, the federal courts will move to take over
the department. ... That's an option for (Health and Human Services), and I
would recommend to my boss that we go to court," he said.
48 DEATHS
According to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, 48 children in
DSS care had died this year - 12 were in foster care - as of Dec. 6. Several
cases of child abuse have made headlines.
Last week, the bodies of a 2-year-old boy and a 9-month-old boy were discovered
secretly buried in a Lawrence cemetery. The boyfriend of the boys' mother,
Gloria Pena, has been charged with killing one of the boys.
Last year, DSS investigated Pena for possible neglect of the oldest son, but
lost track of her when she moved from Boston to Lawrence. Prosecutors say Pena
and her boyfriend, David Alicea, were afraid to report the first death because
they were afraid DSS would take away the other child.
Johnston - who is mulling a run in the 10th Congressional District, the seat
being vacated by Rep. Gerry Studds - said he warned the incoming Weld
administration to avoid cutting social workers when they took over, but they
ignored that warning and laid off 235 social workers.
SOME HIRINGS
Earlier this year, after several child-abuse deaths made headlines, Weld and the
Legislature passed a supplemental budget including $5.1 million for DSS. The
money allowed the agency to hire 127 new social workers, administration
spokeswoman Ilene Hoffer said.
Another Weld request for DSS, for $8 million, was not passed.
Last year, the Legislature appropriated enough money to hire another 59 social
workers.
Johnston, however, said DSS remains "dramatically understaffed," and $40 million
more is needed to address problems.
The number of foster families, which require DSS oversight, has swelled from
9,000 to 13,000 since 1991, and Johnston said the problems in troubled homes are
more serious now due to drug abuse and other factors.
MORE RESOURCES
"The federal government needs to move in," Johnston said. "DSS social workers do
wonderful work, but I'm alarmed. They need resources from the Legislature and
the governor."
But Weld said that while he didn't mind a review of DSS, federal intervention
was not the answer.
"I generally say the more the merrier if people want to have auditors or
investigators or prosecutors look at the operation of any level of government
that I'm in charge of ... but I do think (DSS) Commissioner (Linda) Carlisle
knows what has to be done and is headed in that direction, and we just have to
make sure we get adequate funding from the Legislature," Weld said.
