Sunday, October 30, 2011

A Case Of Waste In Child Welfare

Here is a classic example of waste in child welfare.

A Hawaii couple’s 3-year-old daughter was taken away from them for 18 hours after they were arrested for forgetting to a pay for two $5 sandwiches.

"This is unreal this could happen to a family like ours," Nicole Leszczynski told Hawaii’s KHON.
The outing-turned-nightmare happened Wednesday while the family was shopping at a local Safeway.
"We walked a long way to the grocery store and I was feeling faint, dizzy, like I needed to eat something so we decided to pick up some sandwiches and eat them while we were shopping," Leszczynski told the news station.


Leszczynski, who is 30-weeks pregnant, her husband, Marcin, and daughter Zophia bought $50 worth of groceries -- but forgot about their two chicken salad sandwiches. Read more


Let us perform a basic cost analysis here.


Portion of propaganda training for manager to call child protective services:  $200


Police intervention in dealing with child (dispatch operator, two officers, transport, desk paperwork): $1000


CPS worker, supervisor, case manager, foster care worker, placement of child and paperwork: $1000


Court (judge, clerks, court officer, attorney for child, prosecutor, paperwork): $2000


Continuing case investigation as woman is pregnant: $5000


Miscellaneous service costs: $800


Estimated waste over $5 dollars: $10,000


Estimated post traumatic expense of child: priceless


And people wonder why the country has a deficit.



No comments: