Arizona Goes Broke Prosecuting Child Poverty

Poverty is the crime of child abuse and neglect.

Therefore, as child poverty increases, there is a direct correlation to child abuse and neglect cases.

As the States cuts assistance to families to save money, it spends even more taking kids and prosecuting parents.

It is a simple math question yet no one can figure out that the system does not work.

Why does an attorney general have to prosecute an individual and traumatize a chlid just because they are poor when they could be prosecuting the corporations who profit from the prosecutions?

It is cheaper and more beneficial just to help the family.

Basic economics.

  Twenty-six percent of Arizona children live in poverty, according to a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. That's 421,000 kids. The national average is 22 percent (16.1 million).

Arizona attorney general wants $10M for child welfare cases

PHOENIX (AP) - The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is requesting $1 million to help pay for a surge in child welfare cases as well as an additional $9 million for fiscal-year 2017.

Attorneys are leaving the Child and Family Protection Division, citing factors such as poor wages and extreme caseloads, Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s spokesman Ryan Anderson told the Arizona Capitol Times (http://bit.ly/1iH4mty ).

Anderson says each attorney oversees an average of 146 cases, more than double what the American Bar Association recommends for child welfare attorneys.

The attorneys represent the state Department of Child Safety whenever the agency removes a child from a home. The lack of attorneys could back up the child welfare system and cause greater delays in finding permanent homes for children, said Beth Rosenberg, director of Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice for the nonprofit advocacy group Children’s Action Alliance.

“What you get is delays in court hearings because the attorneys can’t be in the courtroom when they need to be in the courtroom - you get delays in filing petitions for severing parental rights,” Rosenberg said.

Brnovich requested the additional money as part of an effort to carve out a budget for 2017.

While attorneys are leaving, neglect and abuse reports are increasing and more children are entering the foster care system. More than 17,000 children are in the system, the highest number in more than a decade.

“Kids are coming in, but they’re not leaving,” said Rosenberg.

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