Children's Rights Needs To Rake Massachusetts Over The Coals

New Reports Show Massachusetts Failing to Protect Children in Foster Care

Children’s Rights: Thousands of young lives endangered due to lack of oversight within child welfare agency

Want to know why?  Click here

Do not believe me?  Click here to read how the feds caught Massachusetts in a $47 million Medicaid administrative hustle.

All this happened under the stewardship of Mitt Romney.

(Boston, MA) — A massive review of Massachusetts foster care shows that nearly one in five children who have been in state care for at least two years have suffered confirmed abuse or neglect — all while in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families (DCF), according to one of five reports issued by independent child welfare policy experts and released today by national advocacy group Children’s Rights and local counsel. All rapes and beatings were paid for by tax dollars.

“Far too many children in Massachusetts remain at risk of maltreatment even after they enter the protection of the state’s child welfare system,” said Marcia Robinson Lowry, founder and executive director of Children’s Rights. “These new reports further underscore the critical need to overhaul as it fails to meet its moral and legal duty to keep kids in foster care safe from further harm.”  One would be led to believe that after decades of throwing money into a dysfunctional system which only resulted in an increase of systemic corruption of dysfunctionality, there would be some semblance of common sense to realize what is being witnesses is a classic text book example of the term "sunken costs".

A report that reviewed case files of more than 480 children shows that is failing to meet its own policies and performance targets. The findings are consistent with federal studies that rank Massachusetts among the bottom 10 child welfare systems in the United States when it comes to ensuring children are safe in foster care and have stable placements.

Additional reports issued today examined the day-to-day performance of  These in-depth studies show that the state’s foster care system is harming children as a result of systemic dysfunction in several key areas:

• DCF social workers are not consistently making required monthly visits to children, violating DCF policy and federal standards. 

• DCF workers fail to make more than a quarter of the monthly visits to children required under federal law and  More than 25 percent of approved foster homes do not receive required annual reassessments or license renewals in a timely manner, and nearly 15 percent of new kin placements do not receive timely home studies to assure safety.

• DCF has not developed an adequate contract monitoring system to supervise and assess the performance of private child placement agencies or private institutional living facilities despite the fact the state refers approximately 60 percent of children in foster care to such placements.

• DCF is among the bottom 10 systems in the nation when it comes to keeping children in stable placements; and studies conducted in 2011 reveal that children in state custody are shuffled between foster homes at extremely high rates. Two named plaintiffs had more than 20 placements and three others had between eight and 12 placements.

• The agency falls in the bottom third of foster care systems in the country when it comes to finding permanent homes for children in a timely manner.

• Among a sample of children in care sometime between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010, more than 18 percent who were reunified with their parents reentered DCF care due repeat abuse or neglect.  Pay attention to the time frame of July 1, 2009 and June 39, 2010.  There was another "study" which should be properly referred to as a federal audit uncovering a relatively unsophisticated revenue maximization scheme.  It goes like this:

Massachusetts takes the "reasonable cause" evidentiary standard and revs up the "when in doubt, report it" policy based on a scathing report from Children's Advocacy Institute and First Star, who later collaborate with the imperialistic morality parade called "Every Child Matters", who now seems to be operating as a Political Action Committee.

When mandatory reporting policy was expanded and reinforced there was a shift in funding streams.  Instead of home and community based services, programs and services were cut like family reunification; whereby, extending the length of stay in care and increasing recidivism rates.

• Among a sample of children in care more than two years, more than 50 percent were administered one or more psychotropic medications.  Once a child is in placement Medicaid billing is optimalized because Medicaid pays without asking any questions to the legitimacy of costs or services.  When a child is put on psychotropic medication, the state can bill Title IV-E more for the keep of the child.

“DCF prescribes powerful psychotropic drugs to foster kids while it has not even developed a system to monitor the medical records of children in state care,” said Lowry. “This is just one example of how a lack of oversight within the agency is endangering thousands of young lives while DCF management continues to defend its dysfunctional child welfare system.”  Allow me to take this one a step further.  Massachusetts does not even have a system to monitor its administrative costs in most of its Medicaid programs.  I believe I would be quite safe to wager that Massachusetts does not even have any internal controls for its child welfare contracts.

The five experts who conducted the studies have extensive backgrounds in their respective fields of child welfare policy, social work, organizational management and child and adolescent psychiatry. Their independent reports include:

• DCF operations that finds structural deficiencies across many key areas. The report is authored by Cathy Crabtree, who served for eight years as Assistant Commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services and two and a half years as Associate Commissioner for the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

• A Review of Named Plaintiffs’ Case Files which studies five of the six named plaintiff children and finds that DCF fails to meet minimum practice standards. The report is authored by Lenette Azzi-Lessing,  Ph.D, a professor of social work at Wheelock College. Dr. Azzi-Lessing was a social work practitioner for nearly 30 years in Rhode Island.

• DCF fails to adequately monitor the administration of powerful psychotropic medication to children entrusted to its care. It is authored by Christopher Bellonci, MD, a professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and the senior psychiatric consultant at the Walker Home and School in Massachusetts.

• A Safety Review of the  DCF safety net finding holes in the agency’s performance on special investigations, licensing, contract monitoring and related safety practices and authored by Arburta Jones, former Executive Director of the Division of Central Operations in the New Jersey Department of Children and Families from 2006 to 2008 and Chief of Staff of the New Jersey Office of the Child Advocate from 2003 to 2006.

• DCF fails to meet legal, regulatory, and policy standards across a variety of case practice areas. The study is conducted by the Children’s Research Center, a non-profit social research organization and a division of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

Children’s Rights, with Boston law firm Nutter McClennen & Fish filed the lawsuit known as Connor B. v. Patrick in April 2010, charging  DCF with failing to meet constitutional requirements and its legal duty to ensure the safety and well-being of children in its custody by routinely placing them in dangerous and unstable situations once removed from their parents’ care.

The lawsuit asserts that children in Massachusetts suffer abuse in foster care and bounce from one foster home or institution to another at alarming rates. Also, a high percentage languish in foster care for years, and ultimately age out of the system without permanent families or the skills needed to live as independent adults. The lawsuit links these problems to DCF’s failure to effectively manage its workforce, resources, and practices.

On January 4, 2011, U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor rejected Massachusetts officials’ efforts to block abused and neglected children’s access to federal court by denying a motion to dismiss the federal case. Less than two months later, the judge ruled that the lawsuit may proceed as a class action on behalf of the approximately 7,500 abused and neglected children in state custody. A trial is set for January 21, 2013.

The lawsuit filed in 2010 named six children as plaintiffs to represent the class who at the time ranged in ages from 9 to 15 years old and shared a history of harm in  DCF 

custody. They included:

• Nine-year-old Connor who suffered sexual abuse as DCF shuffled him between seven different foster homes in three years. Connor struggles with severe mental, behavioral, and emotional challenges as a result.

• Adam 15 years old, who was severely beaten in a residential treatment facility. DCF failed to provide him with a permanent family and gave him no preparation for living independently as an adult.

• Camila R., 13 years old, who was separated from her two sisters and returned to her abusive mother, has lived in at least 11 different placements while in foster care. DCF denied her vital educational and mental health services.

• Fifteen-year-old Andre who has been legally free for adoption for over 10 years and spent seven of 12 years in the state’s care in a residential facility rather than a foster placement or relative’s home.

• Seth T. 13 years old, was bounced between five foster placements in his first sixteen months in foster care. DCF has effectively cut Seth’s ties with his family, arranged visits with his brothers only a few times a year and never properly explored the possibility of placing him with relatives.

• Fifteen-year-old Rakeem  was not only immediately separated from his three siblings, but also denied the opportunity to live with relatives who may have been able to care for him. As DCF has moved Rakeem through at least eight different foster and group homes, his education and behavioral health has suffered.

More information about Children’s Rights’ campaign to reform the child welfare system in Massachusetts can be found at www.childrensrights.org/massachusetts/.

I am extremely disappointed with how Children's Rights is handling the Michigan case.  I know in the past I have highlighted how attorney fees are not directly benefiting the children who have been harmed, but now I sincerely hope they rake Massachusetts over the coals and make them a national example for failure to comply.



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DOJ: South Korean National and Hundreds of Others Charged Worldwide in the Takedown of the Largest Darknet Child Pornography Website, Which was Funded by Bitcoin

Typically, the perpetrators were once the victims.

It is generational.

Praise the lord for there is much more to learn what is done to children in the name of the tax exempt god.

Dozens of Minor Victims Who Were Being Actively Abused by the Users of the Site Rescued

Jong Woo Son, 23, a South Korean national, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia for his operation of Welcome To Video, the largest child sexual exploitation market by volume of content.  The nine-count indictment was unsealed today along with a parallel civil forfeiture action.  Son has also been charged and convicted in South Korea and is currently in custody serving his sentence in South Korea.  An additional 337 site users residing in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington State and Washington, D.C. as well as the United Kingdom, South Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Brazil and Australia have been arrested and charged.   

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu for the District of Columbia, Chief Don Fort of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and Acting Executive Associate Director Alysa Erichs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), made the announcement.

“Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile and reprehensible forms of criminal behavior,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.  “This Administration will not allow child predators to use lawless online spaces as a shield.  Today’s announcement demonstrates that the Department of Justice remains firmly committed to working closely with our partners in South Korea and around the world to rescue child victims and bring to justice the perpetrators of these abhorrent crimes.”

“Children around the world are safer because of the actions taken by U.S. and foreign law enforcement to prosecute this case and recover funds for victims,” said U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu.  “We will continue to pursue such criminals on and off the darknet in the United States and abroad, to ensure they receive the punishment their terrible crimes deserve.”

“Through the sophisticated tracing of bitcoin transactions, IRS-CI special agents were able to determine the location of the Darknet server, identify the administrator of the website and ultimately track down the website server’s physical location in South Korea,” said IRS-CI Chief Don Fort.  “This largescale criminal enterprise that endangered the safety of children around the world is no more.  Regardless of the illicit scheme, and whether the proceeds are virtual or tangible, we will continue to work with our federal and international partners to track down these disgusting organizations and bring them to justice.”

“Children are our most vulnerable population, and crimes such as these are unthinkable,” said HSI Acting Executive Associate Director Alysa Erichs.  “Sadly, advances in technology have enabled child predators to hide behind the dark web and cryptocurrency to further their criminal activity.  However, today’s indictment sends a strong message to criminals that no matter how sophisticated the technology or how widespread the network, child exploitation will not be tolerated in the United States. Our entire justice system will stop at nothing to prevent these heinous crimes, safeguard our children, and bring justice to all.”

According to the indictment, on March 5, 2018, agents from the IRS-CI, HSI, National Crime Agency in the United Kingdom, and Korean National Police in South Korea arrested Son and seized the server that he used to operate a Darknet market that exclusively advertised child sexual exploitation videos available for download by members of the site.  The operation resulted in the seizure of approximately eight terabytes of child sexual exploitation videos, which is one of the largest seizures of its kind.  The images, which are currently being analyzed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), contained over 250,000 unique videos, and 45 percent of the videos currently analyzed contain new images that have not been previously known to exist.

Welcome To Video offered these videos for sale using the cryptocurrency bitcoin.  Typically, sites of this kind give users a forum to trade in these depictions.  This Darknet website is among the first of its kind to monetize child exploitation videos using bitcoin.  In fact, the site itself boasted over one million downloads of child exploitation videos by users.  Each user received a unique bitcoin address when the user created an account on the website.  An analysis of the server revealed that the website had more than one million bitcoin addresses, signifying that the website had capacity for at least one million users. 

The agencies have shared data from the seized server with law enforcement around the world to assist in identifying and prosecuting customers of the site.  This has resulted in leads sent to 38 countries and yielded arrests of 337 subjects around the world.  The operation has resulted in searches of residences and businesses of approximately 92 individuals in the United States.  Notably, the operation is responsible for the rescue of at least 23 minor victims residing in the United States, Spain and the United Kingdom, who were being actively abused by the users of the site.

In the Washington, D.C.-metropolitan area, the operation has led to the execution of five search warrants and eight arrests of individuals who both conspired with the administrator of the site and were themselves, users of the website.  Two users of the Darknet market committed suicide subsequent to the execution of search warrants.

Amongst the sites users charged are:

• Charles Wunderlich, 34, of Hot Springs, California, was charged in the District of Columbia with conspiracy to distribute child pornography;
   
• Brian James LaPrath, 34, of San Diego, California, was arrested in the District of Columbia, for international money laundering; and was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release;
   
• Ernest Wagner, 70, of Federal Way, Washington, was arrested and charged in the District of Columbia with conspiracy to distribute child pornography;
   
• Vincent Galarzo, 28, of Glendale, New York, was arrested and charged in the District of Columbia with conspiracy to distribute child pornography;
   
• Michael Ezeagbor, 22, of Pflugerville, Texas, was arrested and charged in the District of Columbia with conspiracy to distribute child pornography;
   
• Nicholas Stengel, 45, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography and money laundering and was sentenced to serve 15 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release;
   
• Eryk Mark Chamberlin, 25, of Worcester, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to possession  of child pornography and is pending sentencing;
   
• Jairo Flores, 30, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in the District of Massachusetts to receipt and possession of child pornography and was sentenced to serve five years in prison followed by five years of supervised release;
   
• Billy Penaloza, 29, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in the District of Massachusetts to possession and receipt of child pornography. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 22, 2019;
   
• Michael Armstrong, 35, of Randolph, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in the District of Massachusetts, to receipt and possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to serve five years in prison followed by five years of supervised release.  Restitution will be determined at a future date;
   
• Al Ramadhanu Soedomo, 28, of Lynn, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and was sentenced in the District of Massachusetts (Boston), to serve 12 months and one day followed by five years of supervised release;
   
• Phillip Sungmin Hong, 24, of Sharon, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in the District of Massachusetts (Boston), to receipt and possession of child pornography and is pending sentencing;
   
• Eliseo Arteaga Jr., 28, of Mesquite, Texas, pleaded guilty in the Northern District of Texas to possession of prepubescent child pornography. He is pending sentencing;
   
• Richard Nikolai Gratkowski, 40, of San Antonio, Texas, a former HSI special agent, was arrested in the Western District of Texas.  Gratkowski pleaded guilty to the indictment charging one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of access with intent to view child pornography.  Gratkowski was sentenced to serve 70 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $35,000 in restitution to seven victims and a $10,000 assessment;
   
• Paul Casey Whipple, 35, of Hondo, Texas, a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, was arrested in the Western District of Texas, on charges of sexual exploitation of children/minors, production, distribution, and possession of child pornography.  Whipple remains in custody awaiting trial in San Antonio;
   
• Michael Lawson, 36, of Midland, Georgia, was arrested in the Middle District of Georgia on charges of attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography.  He was sentenced to serve 121 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release following his plea to a superseding information charging him with one count of receipt of child pornography;
   
• Kevin Christopher Eagan, 39, of Brookhaven, Georgia, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in the Northern District of Georgia;
   
• Casey Santioius Head, 37, of Griffin, Georgia, was indicted in the Northern District of Georgia for distribution, receipt, and possession of child pornography;
   
• Andrew C. Chu, 28, of Garwood, New Jersey, was arrested and charged with receipt of child pornography. Those charges remain pending;
   
• Nader Hamdi Ahmed, 29 of Jersey City, New Jersey, was arrested in the District of New Jersey, for sexual exploitation or other abuse of children.  Ahmed pleaded guilty to an information charging him with one count of distribution of child pornography.  He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 1, 2019;
   
• Jeffrey Lee Harris, 32, of Pickens, South Carolina, pleaded guilty in the District of South Carolina for producing, distributing, and possessing child pornography;
   
• Laine Ormand Clark Jr., 27, of Conway, South Carolina, was arrested and charged in U.S. District Court in South Carolina Division for sexual possession of child pornography;
   
• Jack R. Dove III, 38, of Lakeland, Florida, was arrested in the Middle District of Florida for knowingly receiving and possessing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct;
   
• Michael Matthew White, 39, of Miami Beach, Florida, was arrested in the Southern District of Florida for coercion and enticement;
   
• Nikolas Bennion Bradshaw, 24, of Bountiful, Utah, was arrested in the State of Utah, and charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, and was sentenced to time served with 91 days in jail followed by probation;
   
• Michael Don Gibbs, 37, of Holladay, Utah, was charged in the District of Utah with receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography;
   
• Ammar Atef H. Alahdali, 22, of Arlington, Virginia, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to receipt of child pornography and was sentenced to serve five years in prison and ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution;
   
• Mark Lindsay Rohrer, 38, of West Hartford, Connecticut, pleaded guilty in the District of Connecticut to receipt of child pornography and was sentenced to serve 60 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release;
   
• Eugene Edward Jung, 47, of San Francisco, California, was indicted in the Northern District of California on possession of child pornography and receipt of child pornography;
   
• James Daosaeng, 25, of Springdale, Arkansas, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and was sentenced in the Western District of Arkansas (Fayetteville) to serve 97 months in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release;
   
• Alex Daniel Paxton, 30, of Columbus, Ohio, was arrested and indicted in Franklin County Ohio Court of Common Pleas for pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor;
   
• Don Edward Pannell, 32, of Harvey, Louisiana, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Louisiana for receipt of child pornography. He is pending sentencing;
   
• Ryan Thomas Carver, 29, of Huntsville, Alabama, was arrested and charged under Alabama State Law.  He was charged federally in the Northern District of Alabama with possession of child pornography. His case is pending in Huntsville, Alabama;
   
• Andrew Buckley, 28, of the United Kingdom, pleaded guilty to 10 offences in the UK of possession and distribution of indecent images of children, possession of extreme and prohibited images and possession of a class A drug.  He was sentenced to serve 40 months in prison for the distribution of indecent images and possession of class A drugs. Buckley is also subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order;
   
• Kyle Fox, 26, of the United Kingdom, pleaded guilty to 22 counts including rape, sexual assault, and sharing indecent images, and was sentenced to serve 22 years in prison; and
   
• Mohammed Almaker, 26, of Fort Collins, Colorado, was arrested in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), charged with KSA Law involving the endangerment of children.  He is awaiting judicial proceedings in furtherance of criminal charges.
   

A forfeiture complaint was also unsealed today.  The complaint alleges that law enforcement was able to trace payments of bitcoin to the Darknet site by following the flow of funds on the blockchain.  The virtual currency accounts identified in the complaint were allegedly used by 24 individuals in five countries to fund the website and promote the exploitation of children.  The forfeiture complaint seeks to recover these funds and, ultimately through the restoration process, return the illicit funds to victims of the crime.

The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. 

The international investigations were led by the IRS-CI, HSI and the NCA.  The Korean National Police of the Republic of Korea, the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom and the German Federal Criminal Police (the Bundeskriminalamt), provided assistance and coordinated with their parallel investigations.  The Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs of the Criminal Division provided significant assistance.   

The cases are being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zia M. Faruqui, Lindsay Suttenberg, and Youli Lee, Paralegal Specialists Brian Rickers and Diane Brashears, Legal Assistant Jessica McCormick, and Records Examiner Chad Byron of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney C. Alden Pelker of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.  Additional assistance has been provided by Deputy Chief Keith Becker and Trial Attorney James E. Burke IV of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, and former U.S. Attorney’s Office Paralegal Specialists Toni Anne Donato and Ty Eaton. 

Attachment(s): 

Download Son Indictment

Download Graphic of Seizure Page

Download Screen Shot of Webpage

Download Complaint for Forfeiture

pic.twitter.com/NkUQcHjPlP

— U.S. Attorney DC (@USAO_DC) October 16, 2019

South Korean National and Hundreds of Others Charged Worldwide in the Takedown of the Largest Darknet Child... by Beverly Tran on Scribd Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Would You Be Willingly Put Your Child In Foster Care?

But Massachusetts just denied all these allegations.

Massachusetts Has An Issue Admitting That Children In Foster Care Are Raped & Tortured Via Medicaid Fraud 

Yes, despite the photos, personal testimonies and federal audit, these are all just allegations.

Would you willingly put your child in foster care?

Neither would I.

Enjoy a few pics in the life of a child in human trafficking.

Photos from federal audit show unsafe conditions at Massachusetts group foster homes

A hole in a bedroom wall at a group foster home in Massachusetts was among the safety issues cited in a federal audit released Monday, Dec. 18, 2017.

Office of Inspector General

Multiple group homes for foster children in Massachusetts have broken furniture, overflowing trash cans, foul-smelling bedding and a lack of windows, according to a federal audit released Monday that identified numerous health and safety violations at the homes.

The U.S. Office of the Inspector General made unannounced visits to 30 group homes for foster children. Although the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care had been monitoring those sites, federal inspectors found numerous health and safety violations.

By the numbers

For example, the audit found:

• 27 of the group homes did not comply with at least one state requirement for living units;
• 26 of the group homes did not comply with requirements for buildings and grounds;
• 20 group homes did not comply with requirements for bathroom facilities.

The audit also found that half the group homes did not comply with state requirements regarding the care of residents.

There are 101 foster care group homes in Massachusetts.

State pledges better oversight

The Department of Early Education and Care is responsible for licensing the homes, while the Department of Children and Families enters into contracts with the agencies that run the homes.

According to state officials, all of the problems identified in the audit have been fixed. The Department of Early Education and Care is planning to incorporate unannounced visits into its monitoring of the facilities.

All necessary repairs were completed in advance of the report’s release,” said Kathleen Hart, a spokeswoman for the Department of Early Education and Care. "To ensure the best possible oversight of the contractors’ facilities, EEC will continue to meet regularly with DCF, and will also continue with its efforts to implement new procedures, including the previously planned expansion of unannounced inspections and enhanced background record check processes.”

What auditors found

The federal audit included a number of photographs showing conditions at the homes.

Resident bureaus with broken and missing drawers.

Office of Inspector General

Living Units

State rules require group homes to clean and maintain living units and provide residents with a room that has a bed, clean bedding, a window with a screen and rooms that are free of hazards and broken furniture.

At one group home, bedsheets and blankets were tied together and connected to a metal hook bolted into the wall next to a window. Fifteen group homes had ripped upholstery or broken furniture. Some rooms had no windows.

At one home, mattresses were placed on the floor, not in bed frames.

HHS OIG Audit: SOME MASSACHUSETTS GROUP HOMES FOR CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE DID NOT ALWAYS COMPLY WITH STAT... by Beverly Tran on Scribd

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Massachusetts Has An Issue Admitting That Children In Foster Care Are Raped & Tortured Via Medicaid Fraud

If elected officials can tout that foster care is so great, would these same public officials and public servants allow their own children to be placed under the care of the state?

The following is the list of findings by the Massachusetts Auditor General on the Department of

Children and Families, and it is not pretty.

Basically, it cites just about every trick in the book on Medicaid fraud in child welfare because they do not report the rapes, torture, attempted suicides & suicides, where the data they do report is dirty, to ensure more funding, where nothing is done about it.

There is no referral to any law enforcement entity in Medicaid fraud in child welfare.

It just sounds like Massachusetts is covering up a child trafficking operation, which is exactly what CPS, foster care & adoption is.

• DCF does not effectively identify and investigate all occurrences of serious bodily injury to children in its care.
• DCF should establish policies and procedures that require its staff to routinely monitor data from the Medicaid Management Information System in order to ensure that it can identify, and investigate as necessary, medical occurrences that appear to be critical incidents involving children in its care.
• DCF does not report all critical incidents affecting children in its care to the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA).
• DCF should establish a single consistent standard for defining and reporting critical incidents that matches the General Laws. 2. Based on this standard, DCF should develop policies, procedures, controls, and monitoring activities that allow for adequate oversight of the reporting of critical incidents.
• DCF does not report incidents of abuse, neglect, and/or sexual abuse of children in its care to district attorneys’ (DAs’) offices for investigation whenever it is required to do so.
• DCF should update its policies and procedures to include clear and consistent criteria and reporting standards and should establish monitoring activities over all parties to ensure compliance with these standards. 
• DCF should establish monitoring controls to ensure that its staff complies with its policies and procedures for reporting critical incidents to DAs’ offices. 3. DCF should schedule regular meetings with DAs’ offices to ensure that the incidents it reports are applicable and that the DAs do not need additional information to help with their investigations.
• DCF does not complete its fatality investigation reports and submit them to OCA within the established timeframe.
• DCF should take the measures necessary to ensure that all fatality review reports are completed and submitted to OCA within the established timeframe. Specifically, DCF should evaluate its current processes, identify opportunities to make them more efficient and less complicated, and update its policies to reflect these changes.

Why is it the data on children in care are not volatile?

Each year, every month, the same number of children are in care, with a slight increase in the rates from the previous year?

An increase in the rate of children in care should be taken as an indicator that there are serious issues of validity of a state's child welfare policies and operations.

If there are no children to snatch, there are no jobs to sustain.

You do not have to think about this concept because foreign nationals have been advising on the economics of a baby shortage like Israel who also financially contributes to the political campaigns of election officials to make sure these policies remain in place.

And not one person will be held accountable for the harms of these children under the care of a state.

Massachusetts Department of Children and Families For the period January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2015... by Beverly Tran on Scribd

With the publication of this post, the Massachusetts Attorney General Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has been put on notice, but of course, nothing will be done to admit that children in foster care are raped and tortured via Medicaid fraud in child welfare.

Below, is the 2016 HHS OIG review of Massachusetts Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

HHS OIG found the state was in compliance, but, when robustly challenged in a comparable analysis of state operations found in audit, we have a serious issue admitting Medicaid fraud in child welfare because the HHS regional office, once again, turned a blind eye to the horrors perpetrated upon children in its alleged protective care.

Whenever I see this indicator, I already know people are profiting from human trafficking.

If Massachusetts MFCU cannot report adverse actions in Medicaid fraud, then how do you expect them to selt-report rapes and torture of children in its care?

HHS OIG Massachusetts Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Review 2016 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

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Massachusetts and Romney: Another Story of Why Privatization of Child Welfare Still Sucks

The following article is a classic example of extremely poor child welfare policy making in Massachusetts.

In this case, you would think the state would develop programs with resources and services to prevent opioid usage and addiction, but no.

Instead, the state is going to remain stuck on stupid and keep doing what it has been doing, even when U.S. First Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch upheld the lower U.S. District Court's dismissal of the Children's Rights lawsuit against Massachusetts child welfare system on what I call a procedural technicality, put on the record that its child welfare system sucks and they need to do something about it.

U.S. First Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch

“The plaintiffs have articulated convincing moral arguments that Massachusetts should do better. But they have not established, based on the facts, that there have been constitutional violations as to the class of foster children, so they are not entitled to an injunction or federal court oversight,’’ Lynch wrote in the ruling. “Improvements in the system must come through the normal state political processes. The problems are now for the Governor and legislature of Massachusetts to resolve.”  

Massachusetts Child Welfare Federal Appeal Opinion Upholding Dismissal of Lawsuit

So why is it that Massachusetts will not do anything to help its people?

I know why!

It is part of the state's Medicaid fraud in child welfare privatization revenue maximization scheme for its non-profit contractors because we all know, you cannot audit God, especially when it is all done out of charity, right?

Mitt Romney hoping no one remembers his leadership
made the child welfare system suck even worse,

Increases in children being taken into the system makes it quite obvious that Mitt Romney's state economic and social policies of privatization still do not work.

Common sense would lead any sane leader to try something else.

Romney's 2008 presidential human trafficking campaign slogan:

 "Oh well.  Carry on.  Too much money to be made, oops, I mean, generated off the ills you create!"

At least Romney got his human trafficking of children business model to be adopted by the Republican National Committee.

Concern mounts on opioid crisis’ toll on children

It is the dark backdrop of two of the state’s most prominent cases of child abuse: a powerful addiction to opioids that renders adults unable to function as parents.

In Auburn, a 2-year-old who was taken from a mother because of her heroin addiction died of heat stroke in a foster home.

In Boston, another 2-year-old whose body was found on Deer Island was allegedly the victim of her mother’s boyfriend, a heroin addict.

Those on the front lines — doctors, judges, drug counselors — say they are seeing more and more cases like this, of opioid-addicted parents so focused on their next score that they neglect or abuse the children in their care.

But the state Department of Children and Families says it has no way to document what to many seems obvious: that the opioid crisis that killed 1,256 Massachusetts residents last year is one of the factors driving an increase in the state’s child protection caseload, which has soared to record levels.

The department says its outmoded computer system is simply not capable of tracking such basic information, even though child welfare professionals warn that drug abuse is one of the leading indicators that children are at risk of harm.

“I can’t pull that data currently,” said Marylou Sudders, the state secretary of health and human services, who added that DCF will upgrade its computer system to allow it to track all drug-related cases.

Linda Carlisle, who served until last week as acting head of the Office of the Child Advocate, said it is crucial that DCF know which of the 47,000 children it monitors have parents addicted to opioids.

“That’s something that really has to be addressed,” she said. “There’s no way you can get a sense of the numbers or the scope of the problem without that.”

Yet there is growing evidence that the problem is increasing.

Statewide, the number of children removed from their homes by DCF has jumped 28 percent over the last three years, from 2,655 to 3,383, according to court records.

“We have seen a very significant increase in the number of child abuse and neglect cases, and it is clear that parental opioid addiction is a contributing factor,” said Carol A. Erskine, the first justice of the Worcester Juvenile Court. “And there doesn’t appear to be any indication that those numbers are going to diminish anytime soon.”

At UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center in Worcester, 119 children were admitted after serious physical abuse this year, up from 59 in 2012, while the number of children treated for less serious injuries because of abuse has grown to 336, from 199 in 2012.

A “significant number” of those cases involved children whose parents were addicted to opioids, said Dr. Heather C. Forkey, chief of the hospital’s child protection program.

“When you’re living with a caregiver who is impaired, they are not able to meet your needs as a child,” she said. “Many kids are at significant risk, and while we’d like to leave them at home, DCF — and we as a society — are having trouble doing that safely.”

DCF also received reports of 3,215 infants who were born exposed to drugs between March 2014 and July 2015, according to the department, which started tracking those cases last year.

“There is no question the substance use issue has been a huge problem,” said Rhonda Mann, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

“While we don’t collect hard data other than those regarding substance-exposed newborns, this is a growing concern for our social workers and managers,” Mann said.

Doctors point out that children whose parents abuse them and are addicted to opioids are more likely to become addicts and abuse their own children when they grow up.

Yet many parents are reluctant to seek treatment because they are worried that DCF will take away their children, said Dr. Sarah Wakeman, a specialist in substance abuse treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Right now, there’s an incentive not to talk about the fact you have an addiction because you’re worried you’ll be punished and lose your kids,” Wakeman said. “So we need to create a system where people want to come forward and talk about it so they can get the treatment they need.”

Erskine said the lack of readily available detox programs means that even parents who want to kick their addiction and reunite with their children are unable to, so their children are languishing for longer periods in foster care.

“My view has been that social workers are working very diligently and very hard to get parents into services, but the resources are just not there,” she said.

Doctors said that in addition to suffering from physical abuse, children who live with opioid-addicted parents experience emotional trauma that can have long-lasting effects.

That is the case for one 10-year-old girl whose parents were addicted to heroin and has been raised for the last two years by her grandmother on the South Shore.

The grandmother, who asked that her name not be used, said her granddaughter suffers from night terrors, low self-esteem, and feelings of abandonment after being taken from a home where she was not getting enough food and clothing and was often left alone or locked in her room.

“It’s an epidemic, and we need some big, systemic approach to make sure the kids are being taken care of,” the grandmother said.

DCF said it will begin training its workers to better understand opioid addiction.

Dr. Ruth Potee, an addiction specialist at Valley Medical Group in Greenfield, recently led a training session, telling DCF employees that opioid-

addicted parents who neglect their children are suffering from a disease, not a moral failing.

“If this part of your brain is screaming at you, then it’s all you can think about,” she said. “It’s hard for kids to crowd into that space, so I see more and more often that kids are very appropriately taken away by DCF.”

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Massachusetts Federal Indictments On Public Corruption - Transposing The Detroit "Fat, Dumb & Happy" Model

Just waiting for Detroit.

Dana Pullman, former Massachusetts State Police union head, indicted on federal charges of racketeering, fraud

Dana Pullman

Dana Pullman, the former president of the Massachusetts State Police union, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of racketeering, fraud, obstruction of justice and tax crimes, officials said Thursday.

Pullman, 57 of Worcester, the former President of the State Police Association of Massachusetts, known as SPAM, was indicted along with Anne M. Lynch, 68 of Hull, a former Beacon Hill lobbyist. The two were charged by criminal complaint and arrested on Aug. 22.

Pullman and Lynch will be arraigned in federal court in Boston on a date yet to be determined.

Flowers, caviar and payments toward a $75K Chevy Suburban: What feds say Dana Pullman did with police union funds

Authorities say that Dana Pullman, the former head of the State Police Association of Massachusetts, and lobbyist Anne Lynch stole tens of thousands from troopers.

SPAM consists of more than 1,500 troopers and sergeants from the Massachusetts State Police and is the exclusive bargaining agent between its members and the state.

Pullman was a trooper from 1987 to 2018 and the president of SPAM from 2012 until his resignation on Sept. 28, 2018. Lynch’s lobbying firm represented SPAM during the same time period, in exchange for monthly retainer payments, according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges that from at least 2012 until Pullman’s resignation, Pullman, Lynch and others were involved in a conspiracy to defraud SPAM members and the state.

Federal authorities say the conspiracy included illegal bribes and kickbacks that Pullman allegedly received from Lynch and her firm.

Pullman and Lynch are also charged with trying to obstruct the grand jury’s investigation of the matter by manipulating subpoenaed records, authorities said. Lynch is accused of lying to investigators.

An FBI investigator accuses Pullman of running SPAM like a mob boss, pressuring executive board members to authorize payments they thought were too high and used the SPAM debit card for personal dinners, vacations and flowers without telling board members, according to federal records.

Pullman used the SPAM debit card as his personal ATM, federal investigators said. They estimate he spent about $9,300 on flowers and gift baskets between May 2015 and May 2018. More than $4,400 of those flowers and gifts were for an unnamed woman with whom Pullman, who is married, was having an affair, according to the criminal complaint.

The charges of racketeering conspiracy, racketeering, fraud and fraud conspiracy each provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

In a recent motion filed in federal court, Pullman requested permission to keep in touch with two longtime friends, both of whom are current or former members of the union’s executive board.

Pullman receives an annual pension of $62,974, paid in monthly installments of $5,248 after his retirement, according to state records.


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Massachusetts Abuses and Neglects Children in Foster Care

Here we have it. Another National group, Children's Rights, celebrates National Child Abuse Propaganda Month in the filing of a class action lawsuit to end child abuse in foster care.

Help support National Child Welfare Fraud Prevention Month by encouraging a law firm in your state to file a class action today!

The Boston Globe
Mass. foster care endangers children, lawsuit alleges
State cites gains, disputes data

By David Abel, Globe Staff | April 16, 2010

A national advocacy group filed a lawsuit yesterday in federal court in Springfield, arguing that the state’s foster care system is in dire need of reform because it violates children’s rights by “routinely placing them in dangerous and unstable situations.’’

New York City-based Children’s Rights, which has filed similar lawsuits in more than a dozen states, argues that Massachusetts has one of the highest rates of abuse of children in foster care and that its system is rife with other problems.

The lawsuit, which names six children allegedly harmed by inadequate supervision by the state Department of Children and Families, says children in the foster care system suffer abuse at nearly four times the national standard.

It argues the agency “further traumatizes children’’ by moving them frequently, alleging that one-third of children in state foster care are sent to five or more homes during their time in custody. The suit also says the state has failed to prepare parents for reunions with their children.

“There is absolutely no justification for what Massachusetts is doing to its most vulnerable children,’’ Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of Children’s Rights, said in a statement. “It is robbing them of their right to be protected from abuse and neglect and to grow up in safe and stable homes with loving, permanent families.’’

State officials, while acknowledging the agency’s challenges, disputed the allegations and argued that the DCF has made significant progress in recent years by increasing the number of children cared for safely in their own homes, exceeding national standards for adoption and reunifying families, and improving programs for children who leave foster care as they get older.

They noted the Patrick administration has made changes in the agency, which employees 2,400 caseworkers for about 8,000 children in foster care, though its budget has decreased as state revenues have plummeted.

The governor has sought $760 million for the agency next fiscal year, nearly 10 percent less than two years ago.

“We strongly share this group’s goal that all children are raised in safe and nurturing environments,’’ said Alison R. Goodwin, a DCF spokeswoman. “We regret that their lawsuit will force us to expend already limited resources during this fiscal crisis to defend this suit, instead of investing those resources in efforts to serve children and families.’’

Goodwin said it was unfair for Children’s Rights to compare abuse rates between Massachusetts and other states, because Massachusetts has a lower threshold for reviewing allegations of abuse and neglect.

“It looks like we have a high rate of maltreatment, but it’s how we categorize our reports,’’ she said. She noted Massachusetts is one of eight states that investigates allegations based on a “reasonable cause’’ standard, rather than the higher standards of “credible evidence’’ or “beyond a reasonable doubt’’ used in other states. “We have a low tolerance for risk.’’

At a news conference yesterday at a Boston law firm, Lowry argued the state’s foster care system trails others because DCF caseloads are higher than in other states. She said the average caseworker oversees 28 families, while the national standard is 13 to 18 children per caseworker.

Lowry also argued the state has failed to pay foster parents sufficiently and has repeatedly lost the opportunity to be reimbursed by the federal government because it has not filed applications in a timely way.

“It’s not a well-managed system,’’ Lowry said. “There’s a failure of management.’’

Goodwin said the department has cut the number of children in foster care by about 2,000 over the past two years and the average caseload has dropped below 18 children for every caseworker.

The suit, which names Governor Deval Patrick, Secretary JudyAnn Bigby of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and DCF Commissioner Angelo McClain, was filed on behalf of six children from 9 to 15 years old.

The lawsuit said one child was sexually abused after being sent to seven foster homes over three years, another endured physical and psychological abuse while going through eight foster homes, and another was returned to an abusive mother after 11 placements.

Zevorah Ortega-Bagni, president of the union that represents DCF caseworkers, said she hopes the lawsuit will lead to changes.

“I am very disappointed that matters have come to this stage,’’ she said. “The system has some serious, serious problems. . . . I hope the Department of Children and Families will rectify all the problems that may have contributed to all the harm that children have received while in the foster care system.’’

The suit, for which class-action status is sought, asks the court to bar the state from further violating children’s rights “and order relief via widespread reforms.’’

David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Massachusetts Children's Trust Slush Fund Busted - Happy Foster Care Propaganda Month

It seems Massachusetts has been busted for another child welfare fraud scheme.

This time they found the Social Security Survivor Benefits that are intercepted by the State.

The investigators do not know where the money goes.

I know where the money goes.

https://childrenstrustma.org/

All States have children's trust funds.

They are not incorporated or registered as a business in the U.S. because they are UCCs.

It started with the Michigan Children's Trust which set up shop in Kansas under here:

https://ctfalliance.org/

Then, the money is doled out to other foreign child welfare NGOs===> who then funnel the money to asset management organizations ====>who then invest in U.S. real estate that was subject to other fraud schemes of fake property tax and mortgage foreclosures ====> who then take out fake mortgages through fake LLCs ===>who then get a land bank to fake file quiet titles =====> who then let other fake LLCs to take out federal mortgage loans =====> who then get the land bank to file another quiet title ===> who then get the courts to wipe out the loans ====> then do it over again ====> while bundling the debt to leverage overseas in some artsy fartsy pipeline, drug, weapons project, and more human subject medical research on foster kids ====> by funding predictive modeling crap ====> to hustle their stupid Social Impact Bonds ====> that make people even more poorer ====> to be able to get CPS to snatch more kids to be put into foster care.

For every child that comes in undocumented gets put into a state system, termination of parental rights, and placed under the custody of a private state contractor who is secure foreign corporate parental rights.

Investigates: Foster Children’s Money

Millions of dollars taken from children in Massachusetts. Investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan found some call a secret system. Who is getting their money, and why? 7 Investigates.

Landon’s life was sad as any little life could be. When he was a baby he was put in foster care with his Auntie Kristen. Then when he was two years old he lost his single mother to a drug overdose.

“It breaks my heart,” Kristen told 7 News.

Then Kristen learned something else that would change their lives: Because Landon was in foster care, he’d also lose his survivor benefits: Thousands of dollars he was entitled to because his mom worked and paid into Social Security.

“It makes me so angry,” Kristen said.

The family had hoped to save the money for Landon’s future, but who was actually taking those thousands? The State of Massachusetts.

“And who would get that money,” Investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan asked.

“They would,” Kristen replied.

“Not your nephew,” Hank asked.

“No,” Kristen said.

Foster kids, the ones who’ve lost their parents, and lost their homes, and are sometimes sent to live with strangers. We found the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families is taking millions of dollars from them.

“It just baffles my mind,” Kristen said.

But DCF officials confirmed it. No one would go on camera, but they told us as legal guardians of the foster kids, they can legally take 90 percent of their Social Security Survivor Benefits to reimburse the Commonwealth’s general fund for their care.

That’s even though Mass law requires the state to pay for the care of foster kids. And does not require kids to pay the state back.

Attorneys fighting for change say taking the money hurts those unfortunate kids even more.

“Their sole reason for existing is to serve and protect abused and neglected children is instead using those children as a source of revenue to go after their money and take it from them. And in my mind it’s theft,” Attorney Daniel Hatcher told 7 News.

How much is the state taking from these foster kids? We found in the last three years alone DCF kept 5.6 million. And every time the state takes guardianship of a new child the state can take their benefits, too.

It was only when Kristen was finally named Landon’s legal guardian, two years after his mom died, the benefits started going to him. Now, finally, future checks will go into his savings account.

“There’s got to be another way, not taking from these children as the answer. It’s not the answer,” Kristen said.

Though other states do this too, Maryland recently limited the amount of benefits a child can lose. And in Congress, there’s now a bill in the works requiring all the money be held for the children until they’re adults.

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