Judges: Kids damaged too much
April 22, 2007
BY JACK KRESNAK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Mark Jansen is proud of his votes nearly 10 years ago as a state representative
for a package of 10 bills designed to shorten the time Michigan children spend
in foster care.
The legislation -- named after then-Lt. Gov. Connie Binsfeld and approved
without a single no vote -- made it easier for judges to terminate the rights of
abusive or neglectful parents so their kids could have a better chance of being
adopted. The bills were signed into law in December 1997.
While adoption rates have risen since then, Jansen, now a Republican state
senator from Grand Rapids who chairs the Senate's Families and Human Services
Committee, and other lawmakers are learning about the unintended consequences of
the stricter laws.
The number of so-called legal orphans -- children who have no parents and little
hope of ever being adopted -- also is rising. That number has more than doubled
-- from 788 in 1996 to 1,624 in 2005. The number was even higher in 2004, when
1,725 children fell into that category.
Many ultimately age out of the system without a family or support network to
start their adult lives.
State Department of Human Services spokeswoman Maureen Sorbet said that in 2006,
536 foster children aged out of Michigan's system without being adopted, up from
462 in 2005.
While the state Department of Human Services and private agencies markedly
increased adoptions, they have been unable to keep up with the influx of
children considered unadoptable because of age, behavior or medical problems or
who are part of large sibling groups.
Studies of the nation's foster care
systems have concluded that these children are more likely to drop out of
school, be unemployed and commit crimes.
Jansen, whose committee heard a presentation on the problem last week from
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan and Wexford County Probate Court
Judge Kenneth Tacoma, said the state may have gone too far in the name of
protecting children.
"It made sense back then," Jansen said of the Binsfeld laws. "I
think we're saying now, 'Hey, we overdid it.' There are some ramifications
now."
Tacoma, who first sounded an alarm about the problem in an April 2006 article in
the Michigan Family Law Journal, said many
of these children end up with nothing after years of foster care.
"They're aging out, and they've got
nobody," Tacoma said. "Most of them are ending up in some kind of
institution and many of them graduate immediately to jail."
After Corrigan saw Tacoma's article, she formed a group to study the laws. The
group's proposals would scale back provisions of the Binsfeld laws.
"We've got this whole pool of kids that are just being pushed through the
system," Corrigan said. "We can undo this self-inflicted wound
to our state and to the children of our state by making some changes." (The
greatest delusion. There is NO "undoing" the damage to a
generation of children who have been made incompetent, untrainable, and with a
sense of entitlement.)
Corrigan, Tacoma and Chief Oakland County Family Court Judge James Alexander
recommended that judges be given more discretion, particularly in cases where
children are older and for whom there is little hope of adoption. (But
if they are 5 or less, bright with blonde hair and blue eyes, they haven't got a
chance of going back home).
They also want the law to require judges to consult with children -- in
age-appropriate manners -- before deciding whether to end parental rights.
Typically, family court judges rely on lawyers appointed to represent kids to
determine what is in their best interest. Tacoma argues that judges should be
able to talk directly to kids.
Jim Hennessey, director of children's services for the state DHS, said the
agency helped Corrigan's group agrees with many of its recommendations.
The proposals "link very well to our child welfare improvement plan,"
Hennessey said. "Our plan also contains a provision for guardianship
subsidy which, if enacted, would greatly increase the number of children who can
achieve permanency through guardianship."
Permanent guardianships would mean that children would grow up outside of their
parents' home but retain a legal connection in order to preserve their rights of
inheritance or to maintain emotional connections to their parents.
Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child
Protection Reform and a critic of Michigan's child protection system, called the
proposals "small steps in the right direction."
"It is the first public acknowledgment that the Binsfeld laws were a
horrible mistake," Wexler said. "But even these revisions don't
address the worst legacy of Binsfeld: The take-the-child-and-run mentality,
which still dominates Michigan child welfare, causing the state to take
thousands of children from their homes needlessly every year, often in
cases where family poverty is confused with neglect."
One problem is that in terminating parental rights, judges often cut off the
children's connection to other relatives, including grandparents, aunts and
uncles, even siblings. Legal orphans also miss out on any inheritances or Social
Security benefits they might be eligible for if they kept a legal connection to
their biological families.
Stacee Baker of Allen Park lost permanent custody of her five children in June
2006 after her husband molested one of her twin stepdaughters. Baker said she
was accused of failing to protect her children because, on her lawyer's advice,
she allowed her husband to live in the home after the police began
investigating.
Baker said the abused girl, now 12, has been in a series of mental hospitals and
no one from her family is allowed to visit her. Because Baker's adolescent
daughter is institutionalized with mental problems, there is little
prospect that anyone would want to adopt her.
"The system locks out grandparents, aunts, uncles and the rest of the
children's family," Baker said. "I
thought our laws state that family is first but not in any case I know.
"Someone out there has got to be the voice of these children and put an
end to this messed-up system."
Contact JACK KRESNAK at 313-223-4544 or
jkresnak@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
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