This report first came in Sunday afternoon through some commentary that some avid readers and contributors to this site were discussing about. We also took some additional commentary on the radio about government workers falsifying government forms as well. The consensus is that audits should be done across the country to flush out other areas of “comfortable bureaucracy” that could be contributing to the abuse, neglect, and possibly death of children that are under the “care of” state foster care and child protective programs.
The Associated Press released an article titled Report: child-welfare workers falsified data claiming an astounding “More than 70 Florida child-welfare workers falsified records in the last two years, leaving 14 children in unsafe homes and causing the state Department of Children and Families to temporarily lose track of at least six other children, a newspaper reported Sunday.” (Orlando Sentinel; Report: Fla. Child-Welfare Workers Falsified Data; July 12, 2009) The report was not named, although we are looking into further information to see the extent of the information that was not reported in the mainstream about this case.
The connection in last month’s coverage involving a 7-year old’s alleged suicide while in foster care was not referenced in the current article. The newspare referenced some apparent sections in the report discussing some of the issues it had discovered, including one reference “Police discovered four foster children living in tents in a yard of a Wildwood house with no running water, food or clean clothing, the day after a caseworker reported she had inspected the home.”
Often times if a potential litigant is signs their name to a falsified government document they can be prosecuted for some serious crimes. In some cases of ommissions or falsification it can lead to serious indictments, like on a bankruptcy petition under Title 18, U.S.C. 152(3). Nearly every official document, a citizen can be held guilty of perjury or other crimes.
The Orlando Sentinel did not go into great detail as to what happened to the offending government bureaucrats, but they generally stated “Half the caseworkers who falsified records in 2007 and 2008 were DCF employees, while the others worked for private contractors hired by the agency to supervise child-safety cases. Nearly half were prosecuted, according to state and court records. Almost all were fired or quit.”
We questioned one attorney on their thoughts of government falsification of documents and he indicated that similar to police officers that are offending in various degrees it can collectively affect cases involving criminal actions and generally indicated that the issues should be brought to the media for public consumption and scrutiny.
In the case at hand, we applaud the limited coverage in the Orlando Sentinel, and hope that they elaborate to the public to ensure that none of the offenders are under government or tax-payer employ again.
We are looking forward to other reports across the nation to reflect similar findings and will be sure to report them as updates to this and upcoming stories.
