The New Child Abuse and Neglect Task Force

At the City of Hamtramck inauguration of the its newly elected officials, I approached one of the officials, a mayoral appointment to the city's recently created Child Abuse and Neglect Task Force, Darla Swint.

In casual, superficial conversation, I asked her about the activities of her Child Abuse and Neglect Task Force. I wanted to know when and how often were the meetings convened. I wanted to review the agenda, and publish it, being a public document. Basically, I wanted to know if this Task Force was going to continue pumping the same garbage all the Task Forces do. I should have known.

With a scowled face, followed by the dismissive snatch of the head and rolling of the eyes, Darla Swint had the audacity, or rather ignorance, to ask me why I wanted to know. Shocked and dismayed, it was obvious she knew nothing of what she was doing.

Patiently and simplistically, I explained that child welfare policy was my area of recognized expertise. Madame Swint began to swell at the chest and challenge me by informing me that she had worked as a Wayne County child welfare worker for years.

Then, I asked if she was focusing on the fraud, waste and abuse in child welfare.

Well, I was put in my place! Madame Swint emphatically stated, "Everyone knows about the fraud. It has been going on for years. So what." [sic].

I responded, "Why did you never report it?" I was met with instructions to email her. I sent my Quo Warranto. That was the last I heard from her.

I share this story to open the door into the world of self-sustainability. Child Abuse and Neglect Task Forces (CANTF) have done nothing but justify its own existences by securing public and private funding to ensure current policies never change. Members of CANTFs participate to further failing political careers, for lack of any other abilities to pad their resumes.

The purpose of a CANTF, came from Child Abuse Prevention Treatment Act amendments to examine the rise in the phenomena of child abuse and neglect. States and local governments began to coordinate these consorita of foster care lobbying entities and and child placing agencies to "solve the problems of abuse and neglect and to improve the quality and scope of child protective services."

Never once did anyone think that the problem and scope is the fraud. When I say fraud, I mean:

*improper removals of children
*unnecessary removals of children
*improper payments
*fraudulent documentation
*fictitious court cases
*kiddy kickbacks
*phantom services
*phantom children
*double-billing
*murder
*billing for deceased children
*over-medicating children
*physical and sexual abuse
*defalcation
*embezzlement

In Michigan, the Children's Trust Fund, is one of the funding sources for the County CANTFs in the state. In 2005, Wayne County Commissioners had created a CANTF. With around about $10,000, County Commissioner Laura Cox, seen here, got together with her colleagues and created the a Wayne County CANTF in response to the horrific death of the boy Ricky Holland.

There were a few phone calls made and that was it.

There was no possible way the Wayne County CANTF would even attempt to touch anything dealing with child abuse and neglect because, in Wayne County you see, the State Attorney General is the only one with prosecutorial power in child abuse and neglect proceedings. That would mean Laura Cox would be held accountable to her husband, Mike Cox. That would mean the Attorney General would have to hold itself accountable to its own Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave.

With that said, I shall calmly await for the first unproductive report from the Hamtramck CANTF to continue the tradition of doing absolutely nothing but perpetuating the fraud.

A more progressive potential of these CANTFs would be to take the collaborative example of Federal Interagency Workgroup on Child Abuse & Neglect (FIWCAN) and create joint local initiatives with local law enforcement and H.E.A.T. to stop Medicaid fraud in child welfare and establish accountability and transparency, while generating a substantial source of community funding by becoming relators in filing their own FCAs. There may even be opportunity to access ARRA funds.

But, what do I know about child welfare policy? Nothing according to Darla Swint.