CONYERS: Judiciary Policing Strategies Working Group Visits Houston & Holds Press Conference

 Washington, D.C. -- Several members of the bipartisan Policing Strategies Working Group traveled to Houston, Texas to meet with local community leaders and law enforcement to discuss police accountability, aggression towards law enforcement, and public safety concerns related to these issues.

Members of the working group held a press conference on Thursday, April 20 at 12:15 p.m. CT. Details can be found below.

WHO:  Members of Congress

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.)

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)

Representative Doug Collins (R-Ga.)

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)

Representative Cedric Richmond (D-La.)

WHAT:  Press conference following the conclusion of the bipartisan Policing Strategies Working Group roundtable with community leaders.

WHEN:  Thursday, April 20, 2017 at 12:15 p.m. Media with video equipment can begin setup at 11:45 a.m.

WHERE:   Mickey Leland Federal Building
                    1919 Smith Street

Background on the Working Group: In July 2016, Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking Member John Conyers  announced the establishment of a working group to examine police accountability, aggression towards law enforcement, and public safety concerns related to these issues. The bipartisan working group is in the process of holding a series of roundtables to candidly discuss the issues fueling excessive force used by law enforcement and attacks against police officers. Read Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers’ op-ed on the working group in The Hill here.

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CONYERS: Members Hold Forum On Civil Rights Under The Trump Administration

Washington, D.C. – Today, April 6, 2017 at 10:30AM, Members of the U.S. House of Representatives held a forum entitled, “Civil Rights Under the Trump Administration-The First 100 Days.” 

The 2016 presidential campaign was the most polarizing and divisive in memory, particularly from a civil rights perspective.  Though the Obama administration made notable legislative and enforcement gains in civil rights, with the rise in hate violence, police shootings and legislative backlash at the state and local level, minority communities have been justifiably concerned about the continuing role of the Federal government in protecting their civil rights.  This forum will examine the appointments, polices and orders undertaken in the first 100 days of the Trump administration in order to help foster an agenda for the protection of civil rights.   

WHO:            Members of Congress

·         House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI)

·         House Committee on Education and the Workforce Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA)

·         Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus

·         House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)

·         Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-NC)

·         Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)

·         Rep. Hank Johnson Jr. (D-GA)

·         Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-RI)

·         Rep. Donald McEachin (D-VA)

·         Additional Members of Congress

Panelists

·         Gavin Grimm, plaintiff in transgender rights case,G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board

·         Chief Hassan Aden, Steering Committee, Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration and former Chief of Police of the Greenville Police Department

·         Catherine Lhamon, Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, former Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education

·         Ron Davis, former director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services at the Department of Justice

·         Chiraag Bains, Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School Criminal Justice Policy Program, former Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights

·         Roy Austin, former director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs, Justice, and Opportunity

·         Joe Rich, Co-Director, Fair Housing & Community Development Project, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

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CONYERS Remarks at “NFL Players Speak Up: First-Hand Experiences Building Community Trust”

Watch Here *

Representing Detroit on and off the field. It was a pleasure to hear
Anquan Boldin thoughts on how we can bridge the
gap between minority communities and police; and reform the
criminal justice system - as he testified on Capitol Hill.
I hope his activism will encourage others to make their voice heard.

For the better part of two decades, the relationship between African-American communities and their police departments across the nation have hovered in a state of volatility, awaiting a single incident to combust.  These tensions have grown as allegations of bias-based policing by law enforcement agents, sometimes supported by data collection efforts and video evidence, have increased in number and frequency.

While the current wave of national attention was triggered by the controversial shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014, the sensibilities of the nation have also been shocked by other high-profile police-involved shootings of more than 30 unarmed African-American and Latino men.  Overall more than 250 African-American men were killed in police incidents in 2016.

Against this backdrop, these same communities have been ground zero in the so-called War on Drugs.  There is bipartisan agreement that our nation has a crisis of over-incarceration, with 2.2 million people imprisoned in this country.  One of the main reasons for this catastrophic level of incarceration is the use of mandatory minimum sentencing, which often imposes sentences that are not appropriate for the facts and culpability of individual cases. 

Once released, these people face the prison-after-prison, where they can experience both housing and employment discrimination due to their criminal records.  These burden can be so great that over half are re-incarcerated within three years of their release.  All of this disproportionately impacts African Americans and is a major factor impacting the quality of life in our families and communities. 

The rise of activism triggered by the racial disparities in our criminal justice system has touched diverse parts of our communities.  Harkening back to the civil rights era of the 1960's, people have taken to the streets to proclaim that black lives matter and to seek justice for those who have died.

Today we are joined by members of the National Football League.  This is the second Hill visit by NFL players and we look forward to building further links with the NFL Players Association to raise awareness around our Justice Agenda.  As we recognize the price that some of your colleagues are paying for their activism, we note that your appearance here is meaningful – and not without risk to your livelihood.  Ultimately, I believe that your activism will inspire other to raise their voices for justice.  Let no one make the mistake of believing that the search of for justice in America is anything less than an act of patriotism.

* As soon as C-SPAN corrects the issues on my account, I will update with clips to his statement.

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CONYERS: “NFL Players Speak Up: First-Hand Experiences and Building Trust Between Communities and Police”

RVSP Here

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

What:            Congressional forum to hear from NFL players about their own experiences and how they hope to improve relationships with minority  communities and the police while supporting programs to help inmates successfully re-enter their communities.

Hosts:             Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member

                       House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

                      Rep. John Conyers Jr., Ranking Member

                      House Committee on the Judiciary

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Ranking Member

                      Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee

Rep. Cedric Richmond, Chair

Congressional Black Caucus

When:            11am on Thursday, March 30, 2017

Where:           2154 Rayburn House Office Building

Who:             Anquan Boldin, Detroit Lions

Malcolm Jenkins, Philadelphia Eagles

                      Phillip Atiba Goff, PhD, Cofounder and President, Center for Policing Equity

[Additional NFL players may accompany Mr. Boldin and Mr. Jenkins.]

RSVP:          Media interested in attending should RSVP toShadawn.reddick-smith@mail.house.gov.

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Day 76 - Where is Eric Braverman? Who Killed Monica Petersen?

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Newsmakers with Representatives Bob Goodlatte and John Conyers: Community Policing

House Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI) discussed their bipartisan working group examining the use of force by police, aggression toward law enforcement, and public safety concerns. Their policing strategies working group began during the summer of 2016 to address police-community relations and look more widely at police shootings in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and other communities and at police killings of black citizens in Ferguson, Charleston, Baltimore and other communities. The Judiciary Committee officials participated by remote video from Capitol Hill. After the interview, the reporters in the studio discussed their responses with the host.

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The Private Juvenile Prison Preparatory System

If you think private prisons are bad, you should see what goes on in private juvenile detention facilities and residential institutions in child welfare.

In the child welfare system, there are no civil rights which means there is no escape, no message in the bottle grievance, no magical guardian ad litem who will carry a youth's cries for the salvation of freedom and liberty.

This video is an instructional parody, because mocking seems to be the only way to get the powers to be to listen to what people have been calling the "schools-to-prison pipeline".

This is what the majority of youth who age-out of foster care expect.

The Multi-billion Dollar Industry of Warehousing Children

So, if you are appalled in the reality of the financial and administrative operations of the private prison system, you are more than likely not going to be able to stomach what goes on in the private juvenile prison preparatory system.

Children are treated the same as adult prisoners.

So far, we know "The Elected Ones" will not touch juvenile justice reform.

DEBTORS’ PRISON FOR KIDS? The High Cost of Fines and Fees in the Juvenile Justice System by Beverly Tran on Scribd

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Ohio Local Police Launch Foster Care Fraud Investigation Of A Non-Profit

To the deliciously wonderful, breathtakingly beautiful Charles Phelps, Chief of the Troy, Ohio Police Department, I wish to declare my love to your brave initiation to stand up and take on the pervasive defalcation of the nation's child welfare system due to the legislative constraints of the Internal Revenue Service in dealing with the secrecy of nonprofits, the blatant dismissive ambiance of the State Attorney General in its contemporaneous conflict of interests in advising and advocating these contracted entities, and the out-cold, callousness of our elected officials who are promulgating their own self-serving, revenue maximization schemes of social programming.

If it takes a local law enforcement unit to do the task of ending fraud in child welfare, then I believe we need to diffuse this model across the country until there are some major changes in how we, as a nation, deal with privatization and human trafficking of children in poverty.

If the report of "theft" came in at $100,000, I am going to let you know that you must look at the billing because it is going to be extremely likely that there were much more egregious and fraudulent activities to stack up that much money to steal in the first place.

Check political campaign funding activities, while you are at it.

This is what community policing should look like.

If you are ever in need of advise and consultation, I am here, my dearest, free, at your humble disposal.

Get 'em, baby, and I truly hope someone launches legislation for your Department to receive a percentage of the bounty in the recovery and costs of the investigation.

Troy police investigating foster care facility for theft of $100,000

TROY, Ohio (WRGT) -- A Troy foster care facility, under investigation.

Troy Police are trying to figure out who stole more than $100,000.

The investigation into the missing money started about two weeks ago. Police say it started with a tip from an employee at Isaiah's Place.

"We're looking into a misappropriation of funds of theft from the agency or within the agency," Troy Police Capt. Joe Long said.

Long was on scene this afternoon, as officers served a search warrant.

"Right now, we believe that the misappropriation of funds or theft could reach over $100,000," said Captain Long.

Police are investigating the theft from a facility that places kids in foster homes.

"The foster care system is bad enough as it is to be taking funds from it when they really need it, makes it even worse," said Nicole.

Nicole didn't want to show her face because she was part of the state's foster care system when she was a teenager.

"I got really lucky. I had a really good foster family so it was actually really nice. But a couple of my foster brothers and sisters had come from another home that was really, really bad. Very abusive.

Very neglectful," said Nicole.

According to its website, Isaiah's Place is a private non-profit facility, taking donations and, police say, public funding.

"I believe they receive federal, state and county funding to operate," Long said.

Isaiah's Place serves 11 counties.

"To take from them is just horrible, especially when they have nothing to begin with," said Nicole.

Now, Nicole said she hopes everyone gets what they have coming to them.

"That the kids get the money that they deserve. To be taken care of properly and that the people that did what they did get punished for it," said Nicole.

We reached out to Isaiah's Place. They hung up on us the first time, and we called back and left a message for its executive director, but have not heard back.

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Policing Strategies Working Group Visits Atlanta

Washington, D.C. – Members of the bipartisan Policing Strategies Working Group traveled to Atlanta, Georgia on November 17-18, 2016 to meet with local community leaders and law enforcement to discuss police accountability, aggression towards law enforcement, and public safety concerns related to these issues. Members who traveled to Atlanta are House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.), Representative Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Representative David Reichert (R-Wa.), and Representative Hank Johnson (D-Ga.).

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

Ranking Member Conyers and Chairman Goodlatte made the following statement on the trip to Atlanta: “Members of the Policing Strategies Working Group had a productive trip to Atlanta. We heard from local law enforcement and community leaders on how they’ve addressed the challenges of the use of excessive force by police and attacks on police, as well as what issues remain. Tragically during our time in Atlanta, Deputy Commander Pat Carothers of the U.S. Marshals Service was killed in the line of duty while serving a warrant to a fugitive in Georgia. We are saddened by this loss of life in the law enforcement community and stand shoulder to shoulder with them. We are reminded that law enforcement officers face danger every day while on duty and remain committed to finding solutions to these and other issues.”

Congressman Doug Collins, who helped coordinate the visit, said the following: “As a lifelong Georgian, I was proud to have the Policing Strategies Working Group visit Atlanta to learn some of the best practices our city and state have in place. Over the course of the trip, we had the privilege of hearing from law enforcement and community leaders and gathered information that will drive forward the conversation on policing and communities.”

Below are five pictures from the trip.

On Thursday, November 17, Emory University School of Law hosted a reception for Members of Congress, local law enforcement, and community leaders.

Congressional delegation with reception guests.

On Friday, November 18, the Members of Congress toured the United States Penitentiary (USP), Atlanta – a medium security federal prison housing over 2,200 inmates. During the tour, Warden Darlene Drew explained USP Atlanta’s reentry services for federal inmates, including those with serious mental illness.

Congressional delegation with Bureau of Prisons staff outside of USP Atlanta.

Following the prison tour, the Members participated in a law enforcement simulator at Georgia State University College of Law. During the simulator, members faced tense situations and had to determine whether or not to use force. 

Afterwards, the Members held a private roundtable with Atlanta Police Chief George Turner, Deputy Chief of Police Joseph Spillane, U.S. Attorney John Horn, Apostle Roderick Hughey of The Community Church of Gainesville, Georgia State University College of Law Associate Professor Nirej Sekhon, and Morehouse College Student Body President Johnathan Hill. Members discussed the challenges law enforcement faces and mistrust among the law enforcement and African-American community.

Group photo before the start of the roundtable.

Johnathan Hill addresses the roundtable.

Following the roundtable, the members held a press conference. Watch the press conference on the Majority’s Facebook page.

Rep. Collins gives remarks to the press.

Background on the Working Group: In July 2016, Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking Member John Conyers announced the establishment of a working group to examine police accountability, aggression towards law enforcement, and public safety concerns related to these issues. The bipartisan working group is in the process of holding a series of roundtables to candidly discuss the issues fueling excessive force used by law enforcement and attacks against police officers. Read Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers’ op-ed on the working group in The Hill here.

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Members of the bipartisan Policing Strategies Working Group held a meeting with local community leaders and law enforcement in Atlanta, GA

Looks like they ignored child welfare again...

Police accountability, aggression towards law enforcement, and public safety concerns. Members of the bipartisan Policing Strategies Working Group held a meeting with local community leaders and law enforcement in Atlanta, GA to discuss this and more.

Members of Congress

·         House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)

·         Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.)

·         Representative Doug Collins (R-Ga.)

·         Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)

·         Representative David Reichert (R-Wa.)

·         Representative Hank Johnson (D-Ga.)

Roundtable Participants

·         George Turner, Chief of Police, Atlanta Police Department

·         John Horn, United States Attorney, Northern District of Georgia

·         Joseph P. Spillane, Chief of Police, Georgia State University

·         Roderick Hughey, Sr., Pastor, Voices of Faith North

·         Nirej Sekhon, Associate Professor of Law, Georgia State University – College of Law

·         Johnathan Hill, Student Body President, Morehouse University

Learn more: BEVERLY TRAN: Media Advisory: Policing Strategies Working Group to Visit Atlanta & Hold Press Conference http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/2016/11/media-advisory-policing-strategies.html#ixzz4QUbRcfxo
Stop Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare 

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Media Advisory: Policing Strategies Working Group to Visit Atlanta & Hold Press Conference

Washington, D.C. – Several members of the bipartisan Policing Strategies Working Group will be traveling to Atlanta, Georgia to meet with local community leaders and law enforcement to discuss police accountability, aggression towards law enforcement, and public safety concerns related to these issues. Members of the working group plan to hold a press conference following their private roundtable with community leaders on Friday, November 18 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Details can be found below.

WHO:
Members of Congress

·         House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)

·         Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.)

·         Representative Doug Collins (R-Ga.)

·         Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)

·         Representative David Reichert (R-Wa.)

·         Representative Hank Johnson (D-Ga.)

Roundtable Participants

·         George Turner, Chief of Police, Atlanta Police Department

·         John Horn, United States Attorney, Northern District of Georgia

·         Joseph P. Spillane, Chief of Police, Georgia State University

·         Roderick Hughey, Sr., Pastor, Voices of Faith North

·         Nirej Sekhon, Associate Professor of Law, Georgia State University – College of Law

·         Johnathan Hill, Student Body President, Morehouse University

WHAT:  Press conference following the conclusion of the bipartisan Policing Strategies Working Group roundtable with community leaders. 

WHEN:  Friday, November 18, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. Media with video equipment can begin setup at 1:30 p.m. The press conference will also be streamed live on the House Judiciary CommitteeMajority’s Facebook page.

WHERE:       Georgia State University – College of Law

                        85 Park Place NE

Room 242

                        Atlanta, GA 30303

RSVP:  Members of the media who wish to attend must RSVP with Jessica Collins atJessica.Collins@mail.house.gov and Shadawn Reddick-Smith at Shadawn.Reddick-Smith@mail.house.gov by Thursday, November 17.

Background on the Working Group: In July 2016, Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking Member John Conyers announced the establishment of a working group to examine police accountability, aggression towards law enforcement, and public safety concerns related to these issues. The bipartisan working group is in the process of holding a series of roundtables to candidly discuss the issues fueling excessive force used by law enforcement and attacks against police officers. Read Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers’ op-ed on the working group, below:

Examining police-community issues with bipartisan working group

By John Conyers, Jr. and Bob Goodlatte

One does not need a public opinion poll to know that fear and frustration is rampant in many communities across our Nation. Our newsfeeds and TV screens are filled with reports of deadly attacks on police officers and excessive use of force by law enforcement officers. These tragic events have strained race relations and heightened tensions as well as further added to feelings of mistrust between communities and law enforcement. When African-American men and women are pulled over for routine traffic stops, many fear that officers will cause undue harm. And as the men and women in blue head out on their daily patrols, many worry that it may be their last.

It seems as though there are two factions forming: one pro-police and one pro-racial justice. As Members of Congress, we strongly reject this notion of division. The senseless deaths that have occurred over the last several weeks are unconscionable. These incidents must not become the new normal for our communities.

Just days before his murder, Montrell Jackson, an African-American  police officer, summed up these issues  in a Facebook post: “In uniform I get nasty hateful looks and out of uniform some consider me a threat…These are trying times.” He further called on his fellow citizens: “Please don’t let hate infect your heart.”

As a Nation, we must heed Officer Jackson’s call and come together to address these tensions so that we can overcome all unjustified acts of violence. Every layer of civil society – neighbors, community leaders, churches, and state and local governments – must confront this matter of vital national importance.

As Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, we recently established a bipartisan working group to examine the use of force by law enforcement, aggression towards law enforcement, and public safety concerns related to these issues. We are not naïve enough to believe that we can fix this problem by ourselves. However, we can and must devote urgent Congressional attention to these serious problems that must be addressed, and determine what can be done at the federal level to set an appropriate tone. In addition, we need to work with state and local communities to help find the tools they need to do the hard work of improving the relationships between their law enforcement agencies and residents.

Before Congress adjourned, we and the 10 other members of the working group met for the first time to candidly discuss the issues fueling the current state of distrust between some of the public and law enforcement. Each of us comes from different walks of life and different parts of the country and can learn from one another and our constituents. We plan to hold more meetings when we return to Washington, D.C. in September, but in the meantime, we intend to take action to learn more about the problem and potential solutions from the individuals, law enforcement agencies, and community leaders in our state and local communities.

We plan to listen and talk with a variety of people in our districts who are impacted by this problem: law enforcement, religious and other community leaders, area youth, and mothers and fathers who have lost children to violent crime. We want to hear about people’s own experiences so that we can understand the fears and frustrations of those impacted most by the ongoing tension.

The issues driving the wedge between law enforcement and the public will not be solved overnight and they won’t be solved by the federal government alone. Much of the hard work needs to happen in local communities, but we in Congress acknowledge the gravity of this problem and are committed to finding solutions. There is room for compassion for all the victims of violence on our streets.  We must work together as fellow Americans on this issue so that we live up to our nation’s values of liberty and justice for all. 

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CONYERS Applauds DOJ Decision To Collect Data On Use Of Force

Detroit, MI – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) today released the following statement after the U.S. Department of Justice announced plans to collect data on the use of force by law enforcement officers:

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“As a longtime proponent of policing reform, I understand the importance that data collection plays as a tool for law enforcement accountability. Data collection is the foundation for accountability management and will help ensure that law enforcement officers can implement best practices to address accountability issues that have been at the center of protests for the past several years. This is a major step in the right direction, but there is more we need to do at the federal level to ensure comprehensive nationwide data collection as we seek to reform our current system of policing. I look forward to building upon the Department of Justice’s efforts as we work in a bipartisan fashion to strengthen a version of the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act which is currently pending before the Committee.”

Ranking Member Conyers introduced both the End Racial Profiling Act and the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act to help build trust and strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve.  Conyers and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) are currently negotiating a version of the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act. In July 2016, Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers announced a bipartisan working group to examine the use of excessive force by police, aggression towards law enforcement, and public safety concerns related to these issues.

Summary of the End Racial Profiling Act of 2015 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

LAW ENFORCEMENT TRUST AND INTEGRITY ACT SUMMARY by Beverly Tran on Scribd

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Child Welfare Reform Comes To A Political Hault

"How am I going to tell the House Judiciary Community Policing
Strategies Working Group that they have to deal with
child welfare, too?"

People fail to understand that there is too much money involved in child welfare.

This proposal would disrupt major child welfare organizational structures.  They would actually have to start an entirely new propaganda campaign to "maximize revenue".

The Bill still has no compliance mechanism to prevent fraud, waste and abuse.

The Bill does not contain any civil rights provisions nor does it address record keeping of data.

It does not even address interstate jurisdictional issues.

It completely ignores due process in the child welfare legal arena (because it actually does not exist).

The U.S, House Judiciary Community Policing Strategies Working Group refuses to even admit there are major systemic issues in dealing with Child Protective Services when they proved they are sequestered from reality by naming the working group "CPS".

This is a major election cycle where congress has, once again, kicked the budget can down the road until December, and, with current leadership, there is no way any funding decisions of this magnitude are going to go through during the political battle for control of both chambers in November and committee chairs in January.

There is much work to do as the election approaches.

Rumor has it the Bill will be reintroduced in the 115th  Congress.  We shall wait and see.

Family First Act, Proposed Overhaul of IV-E, Dies as Senate Adjourns

The U.S. Senate adjourned this afternoon, and in doing so ended any chance for the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016, a bill that would have dramatically altered the federal IV-E entitlement, the largest conduit of funds to states for child welfare services.

Family First was conceived of by Senate Finance Committee leaders Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and paired two legislative objectives: increasing federal investment in services aimed at preventing the need for foster care, and curbing federal spending on congregate care.

Wyden and Hatch negotiated a bill with House Ways and Means leadership that used a delay in new federal spending on adoption assistance to make the act a cost-neutral proposition. Ways and Means marked Family First up in June, and it passed in the House the next week.

The hope was to “hotline” Family First in the Senate before the summer recess, but the bill started to meet opposition from state and county leadership in California, New York and Washington.

Ultimately, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) placed holds on the bill.

The Senate will return for a lame duck session after the election, but it will be too late for Family First. When the new fiscal year begins on Saturday, it will wipe away the $500 million offset provided to the bill through the delay on adoption assistance funding.

So what comes next in terms of federal child welfare policy? The Congressional focus in fiscal year 2017 will likely be on the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, which was established as part of the Affordable Care Act and needs an extension. Two other big youth- and family-related items up for reauthorization: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

You might see movement on some more modest pieces of legislation, like the proposal to add foster youth to a federal work tax credit started for veterans. But as far as broad finance reform, the guess from Youth Services Insider is that it could be awhile.

Youth Services Insider could see both of Family First Act’s architects, Wyden and Hatch, continuing to pursue reforms on their own. Before Family First came together, Wyden was pushing a much more expensive bill that provided a much wider array of time-limited services to help families at imminent risk of entering foster care, the same standard that found its way into Family First.

Hatch’s priority is curbing congregate care funding. As far back as 2013, he has previously introduced legislation that would forbid states to use federal money in the placement of a youth under age 13 into congregate care, while setting a one-year limit on funds for older youths.

“Chairman Hatch remains committed” to ensuring that “the provisions in the Families First Prevention Services Act – particularly those that would reduce reliance on unsafe and inappropriate group homes – are able to become law,” said Senate Finance Committee Spokesman Aaron Forbes, in a statement provided to YSI today.

Opponents of Family First in California and New York offered several criticisms of the bill, many of which boiled down to a central problem. Child welfare leaders in both states felt their states had already recalibrated their systems around prevention-oriented systems and less congregate care, and a massive shift in federal support would threaten the new ecosystem.

Leadership on the bill sought to assure critics that much could be worked out in cleanup legislation and federal program guidelines. But with a new administration on the way, and the potential for turnover in Congress, that overture was never taken seriously.

The most recent round of federal waivers on IV-E funds expire in fiscal 2019, which is the year that Family First provisions would have taken effect. It seems unlikely now that another major reform will come along until that date is a little closer on the horizon.

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Debtors' Prison For Kids: The Residuals Of The Peculiar Institution

Now that the U.S. House Judiciary Committee has held its first Community Policing Strategies Working Group in Detroit, where the Community was not invited to participate, let us examine a few issues I have identified.

To begin, ya might not want to refer to this Community Policing Strategies as "CPS" as "CPS" stands for Child Protective Services, the biggest elephant in the room in dealing with community policing strategies.

People fear CPS.

Even though it is not a law enforcement agency, it possesses those super special ultra vires powers where they can enter your home without warrant, remove children from the home without a court order, or just a rubber stamped order, proceed to prosecution without the ability to face one's accuser, where one is considered "guilty until proven innocent".

Oh, and the parent, where the criteria to enter the child welfare system are based on the Title IV-A poverty means test, must pay for the child in the system, where the system bills Title IV-E (called double jackets) and/or Medicaid, and keeps collects child support, while collecting Title IV-D.

Then there is the nomenclature of child welfare.  Let us begin with "targeted populations".  What the hell do you think a targeted population is?  It is prey and there is a bounty.

In a nutshell, the juvenile justice system was designed for children to linger to "maximize revenue" and God forbid, the system is a non-profit because we all know, you cannot audit God.

And yes, my fine friends on the Hill, you must speak upon child welfare if you are to engage in reforming the justice system because CPS is the first call police will make if a parent is being arrested.

Many of these kids who go to debtors' prison hail from the child welfare system where many are in need of mental and physical health care.

As for the fraud which runs rampant, I can only state that this pervasive issue in the juvenile justice system can no longer be ignored.

Just keep in mind, it takes a judicial determination to turn the funding spigot in child welfare.

This report focuses on families in poverty but there are many, many youth who have no family or support system.

So, without further adieu, allow me to present to you what you have ignored for...well since the inception of the child welfare system, the residuals of that peculiar institution.

DEBTORS’ PRISON FOR KIDS? The High Cost of Fines and Fees in the Juvenile Justice System by Beverly Tran on Scribd

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