• Child “Protection” is BIG Business!2008-05-15 16:01:10

    According to new studies cited by staff writer Deborah Circelli in the Daytona Beach News Journal of January 30, 2008, the average yearly cost for children alleged to be victims of child abuse is $66,775. For the 464 children taken into custody from the YFZ community, this would mean a total cost of $30,983,600 a year. She makes the point that billions of dollars each year could be saved by making a greater effort to keep families together.


  • Children Fare Better with Families Than in Foster Care2008-05-15 15:31:19

    We have discussed in other articles some of the evidence showing that the FLDS children taken in last month’s raid on the YFZ community come from stable, loving families and are not abused verbally, physically, sexually, or in any other way. Since these children have been scattered in shelters and foster-care facilities throughout the state, it also would be well to consider the evidence of just how safe they are likely to be in their new “homes.”


  • An Open Letter to The Honorable Governor Rick Perry and The Honorable Judge Barbara Walthers2008-05-14 20:45:28

    I am eighty years old. I’ve lived in Texas for almost a year and have been a member of the FLDS Church for fifty-six years. My purpose in writing this letter is to counter the false propaganda that has spewed forth from the Texas authorities.


  • FLDS Human Rights Violations are Fraud Reminiscient of KGB2008-05-13 17:50:23

    The following article appeared April 20, 2008, in Frank Staheli’s blogspot Simple Utah Mormon Politics. He has generously given us permission to post it on our Website.


  • Mental Health Workers Report FLDS Women Good Mothers2008-05-13 17:44:47

    these are loving mothers with well-behaved and well-adjusted children


  • Letter to President George W. Bush2008-05-11 12:58:29

    On May 10, 2008, Willie Jessop hand delivered the following letter at President George W. Bush’s Ranch in Crawford, Texas


  • Broken Bones or Broken Hearts?2008-05-11 12:48:30

    On April 30 Carey Cockerell, commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, reported that among the 464 children taken into custody from the YFZ community near Eldorado, Texas, at least 41 children, some of them very young, showed


  • Hello, America!2008-05-11 11:40:48

    So, you want to hear from the FLDS women, huh?


  • Brainwashed Women?2008-05-11 11:08:21

    There seems to be a common misperception regarding FLDS women that has played well into the media ever since Texas authorities raided the YFZ Ranch community near Eldorado, Texas. This is the stereotyped view that these women are brainwashed, mindless zo


Child “Protection” is BIG Business!

By Donald Richter

 

According to new studies cited by staff writer Deborah Circelli in the Daytona Beach News Journal of January 30, 2008, the average yearly cost for children alleged to be victims of child abuse is $66,775. For the 464 children taken into custody from the YFZ community, this would mean a total cost of $30,983,600 a year. She makes the point that billions of dollars each year could be saved by making a greater effort to keep families together.
 
            But under the present system, keeping families together seems to be the last thing that CPS is interested in doing. CPS workers and officials claim to be professionals at taking children away from their parents. The Web is full of accounts from grief-stricken parents of how CPS has ripped their families apart and ruined their lives. Many of them charge that much of the reason for the determination of the CPS to retain children in state custody is financial. Among those making this charge is Nancy Schaefer, state senator from Georgia, who is conducting a vigorous campaign for CPS reform.
 
            In her November 16, 2007, report The Corrupt Business of Child Protective Services, she charges that “parents are victimized by ‘the system’ that makes a profit for holding children longer and ‘bonuses’ for not returning children.” 
 
“Look who is being paid!” she says. “There are state employees, lawyers, court investigators, court personnel, and judges. There are psychologists, and psychiatrists, counselors, caseworkers, therapists, foster parents, adoptive parents, and on and on. All are looking to the children in state custody to provide job security.”
 
She points out that under the Title IV federal funding made available by President Bill Clinton’s 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act, states are offered cash bonuses for every child adopted out of foster care: $4,000 for a healthy child and an additional $2,000 for a “special needs” child, funds which are then divided among those who enabled the adoption process to be completed. Senator Schaefer laments the fact that “there are no financial resources and no real drive to unite a family and help keep them together.”