Bring Back the Orphanage
Forer, Lois G.
Bring Back the Orphanage by Lois G. Forer An answer for today's abused children April sat on the witness chair clutching a Cabbage Patch doll. Her blue eyes blazed with hostility. In clear,...
...Whether foster placement is or is not preferable to institutions, it must be recognized that there are simply not enough foster parents to care for all the infants and children who need homes...
...The director pocketed the children's wages...
...He urged me not to incarcerate the man...
...If this is to be the decade of the child, we cannot ignore those in the greatest need, abused and abandoned children...
...Many of its graduates became leading citizens, prominent in industry, government, and the arts...
...This trial lasted four days...
...No child needs to leave the Village until he or she has reached adulthood...
...But I am keeping the family together," he indignantly replied...
...No one knows the identity of her natural father...
...Some are brilliant, others mildly retarded...
...Where can I put him...
...I saw a different example of the failings of the foster care system when Edward came before my court...
...It was a noisy, impersonal household...
...I have had many cases involving physical abuse, incest, and other crimes against children in which the conventional wisdom dictates: "Keep the family together...
...We did not wonder where we would eat or sleep, because the orphanage was our home...
...He was caught and placed in the detention center again...
...Though he was only 16, Family Court decided he was incorrigible and he was transferred to be tried as an adult...
...Somehow Edward did learn to read...
...These deaths and thousands of cases of continuing abuse occur not because social workers are uncaring (although some are) and not because judges fail to treat child abuse as a serious crime (although some do) but because there are no places for these children to live...
...She said that her maternal grandfather had tried to kill her stepfather but his shotgun misfired...
...Institutionalization was their first resort, not their last...
...When the theft charges came up for trial the neighbor did not appear...
...Once when a judge was about to commit a child to juvenile jail even though the youngster had not committed a crime, I protested...
...In nineteenth-century America, almost every community had publicly supported orphanages resembling what we now call group homes...
...When Elizabeth Steinberg of New York City was beaten to death by her adoptive father, or Matthew Eli Creekmore died in Seattle despite repeated intervention by state workers, these deaths were headline news...
...The money we save on their early care will be spent on "correctional institutions" later...
...It was heartbreaking and distasteful...
...I suggest that it is time for us to demand that government provide permanent, well-run orphanages for the more than two million abused children who are de facto orphans...
...A new profession arose to implement this goal, namely, family therapists...
...In Illinois, there was a 32 percent increase in the number of children entering care from 1986 to 1987...
...Karl, what the devil can I do with this boy...
...Huot was placed in the couple's care (his parents separated and his grandfather could no longer care for him) despite the fact that the foster father, 26-year-old Walter Hairston, had pleaded guilty seven years earlier to rape, aggravated assault, and burglary...
...With this record, it was even more difficult to find a foster home for Edward...
...But what will become of her in the important remaining years of her childhood and adolescence if she lives with her retarded mother and drunken grandfather...
...I was told it was impossible...
...Thirty states reported increases of more than 50 percent in child abuse between 1980 and 1985...
...Often the diagnosis of a child will change to meet the admission requirements of the institutions, not the needs of the child...
...Girard College in Philadelphia was established in the 1800s as an orphanage...
...Caring foster parents rarely make the headlines...
...Moreover, it is the policy of both governmental and private agencies to keep families together...
...Undoubtedly, 1988 will see an even greater number of mistreated children as teenage pregnancies, drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness, and economic and housing problems escalate...
...On the street he ate from garbage cans and stole...
...But it's a solution that's never proven adequate...
...There is really no way of knowing...
...He ran away, earning a second delinquency charge...
...livo more charges of delinquency...
...They can be inspected regularly by public officials...
...Before I went on the bench, I prosecuted the director of a church-sponsored orphanage where obildren were physically and sexually abused and another privately operated rural orphanage where children were hired out to work on farms like indentured serfs...
...They will be shifted from hospital to hospital, wherever a bed is available...
...Whether Robert was in prison or not, Tyrone would have to live with his mother, who had testified that Robert was a good and loving husband and father and Tyrone was incorrigible...
...And there is no assurance that foster placement will provide even a modicum of care, security, or permanence for the child...
...He ran away from the center and was caught while attempting to steal a candy bar...
...They want good pay, reasonable hours, and good working conditions...
...Order therapy...
...Anne Whitt Thompson of Gaithersburg, Maryland, wrote a letter to The New York Times in 1987 stating in part, "I lived in two orphanages and three foster homes growing up in North Carolina, and I can say nothing but good about my life in orphanages...
...Of course, not all orphanages were like these...
...It will be costly...
...Neither of his parents was arrested...
...S., his first foster mother, had two children of her own...
...The only schooling he had was a few months while he lived with the first foster family and an occasional hour or two in the detention center...
...After the public outcry about the death of little Matthew Eli Creekmore, who was kicked to death by his father in Seattle despite repeated intervention by state workers, more than 5,000 children were removed from abusive homes in the state of Washington...
...Though Huot family members began reporting their suspicions of child abuse in November—after spotting bruises on the child's back—doctors said they did not suspect abuse, and state social workers ruled the family's claim unfounded...
...It is unlikely that any of these children will be adopted...
...And few are more than temporary shelters...
...Robert is not a criminal," his lawyer argued...
...it had failed him...
...Unfortunately, this is not a local problem but a national epidemic...
...In an influential book published in 1973, Beyond the Best Interests of the Child, authors Joseph Goldstein, Albert J. Solnit, and Anna Freud wrote: "How, the question becomes, can the law assure for each child a chance to become a member of a family where he feels wanted and where he will have the opportunity on a continuing basis not only to receive and return affection but also to express anger and learn to manage his aggression...
...These foster placements keep jailing and ditching the children so often:' There are now 16 Villages in Kansas and Indiana...
...The court psychiatrist's report stated: "Edward grieves for his father...
...These two unhappy little girls were failing in school...
...There was a shortage of foster homes and insufficient funds...
...We can do better...
...This was obviously an impossible goal...
...Most communities do not have a children's Village...
...As she explained, the guidance counselor at school and the family therapist to whom the stepfather had taken her told her to obey her father, that he knew what was best for her...
...Although he was examined and evaluated three times by court psychiatrists who all recommended therapy, he never received any...
...The children who live there have been neglected, abused, or abandoned...
...The mother tells Tony his father will kill him, his stepfather, and his half-brother...
...He told me that the mother refused to have sex with her husband but that the therapist was getting her to change her attitude...
...Leslie Thomas, who grew up in an orphanage established in the nineteenthcentury by an English reformer, wrote a wellknown memoir about his life there, This Time Next Week: The Autobiography of a Happy Orphan...
...Some 1,000 children from newborn to two years old in New York City are in hospitals as "boarder babies" Many have been abandoned...
...Two more charges: runaway and theft...
...Bring back the orphanage...
...In the 1970s, the promise of quick cures for behavioral problems through psychogenic drugs, the spiraling costs of institutions, and a belated concern for patients' rights sparked the movement for deinstitutionalization...
...Such cases tear the hearts of Americans...
...In addition to Edward she had three other foster children...
...It's my duty to protect the girls," I told him...
...For at least the past quarter-century Americans have been captivated by two concepts that have become accepted public policy: deinstitutionalization and preservation of the family...
...The orphanage option There is an alternative to this deplorable situation: group homes for abused and abandoned children—orphanages...
...Some are former school teachers and social workers who call themselves family therapists...
...After sentencing, I began a long, fruitless quest to have April placed in a Lois G. Forer, a former judge, recently retired from the state Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia...
...When called to the witness stand, the grandfather, an old wino, mumbled incoherently...
...In 1964, Dr...
...A young man who had spent his adolescence in the Village came back to his "home" to be married...
...The pay for foster parents is attractive only to those who have no other options...
...Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, established the first Village for homeless children...
...There have been real evils in orphanages, but abuse and mismanagement are not peculiar to them, nor are such conditions inevitable...
...They say, 'All right, we're gonna help you But then they go against you...
...He attended public school where he was prepared for his career as a writer...
...Tony wrote: "Dear God, Please help me...
...This was a wealthy, well-run institution...
...The National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse reports that in 1986 at least 1,300 children in the United States died from neglect or abuse...
...S. did not abuse Edward...
...However, we are spending billions in futile efforts to prevent child abuse, to find adoptive and foster parents, and to pay them for the temporary, uncertain, and largely unsupervised care of helpless children in foster placement...
...We cling to the notion that institutions for children are Dickensian places of evil and cruelty...
...April has an IQ of 146...
...Neither are all foster parents good or bad...
...Many mental institutions had become warehouses offering little therapy and less chance of release...
...He needs a warm, supportive home and intensive counseling ." Edward remained in juvenile detention for more than six months while efforts were made to find him a foster home...
...I could not convict him of rape because April had not resisted...
...Compare this experience with the life of Bill, who has been in foster care in New York City for five years and has had to move ten times...
...The child cannot be found guilty because there is no evidence...
...On the whole, it is a profitable occupation...
...This resulted in families on welfare being held to unreasonably high standards of parenting...
...Tony has no scars...
...Delinquency charges were filed against Edward and he was back in the detention center...
...The father then was before me in criminal court charged with statutory rape of his ten-year-old daughter...
...those who kill and abuse do...
...He is failing in school although he is a brighter than average child...
...The prosecutor, the court psychiatrist, and, of course, defense counsel all urged probation with family therapy for the father...
...But no amount of counseling will increase the mother's intelligence or alter her promiscuous habits...
...S. told the social worker that a neighbor had accused Edward of stealing her pocketbook...
...After the death of his parents, Thomas spent ten years in this orphanage...
...In response to this undesirable practice, theory changed, and it is now established policy to keep families together no matter how undesirable the family situation is...
...and Mrs...
...A doctor at the hospital where Tyrone was treated testified in court...
...Although extensive and expensive public relations programs to recruit foster families have been in effect for several years, they have not produced enough foster families to meet the need...
...Tony twitches and stammers...
...The mother, who has an IQ of 72, was unable to say more than "yes" or "nope" or "I dunno" in response to questions...
...Will you take him to your home...
...They fed him and gave him a bed in a room with two other boys who complained that Edward cried at night...
...In clear, precise language, accurately relating dates, times, and places, this ten-year-old girl described the repeated acts of sexual abuse to which she was subjected by her stepfather for two years...
...In one case, the family had been "in treatment" with a family therapist for more than a year after the father had been convicted (before another judge) of having sex with his 12-year-old daughter...
...Menninger explains, a judge asked him, "Dr...
...There is a high statistical probability that many of these abused children will become delinquent teenagers and adult criminals...
...Committees of private citizens can act as overseers and keep a careful eye on the operations of such orphanages...
...As Dr...
...He was just reprimanding his son ." The prosecuting attorney recommended family counseling and probation rather than prison...
...I implored every public and private agency involved in child welfare to find her a suitable home...
...They came to court voluntarily in a custody battle...
...In New York City the demand for foster care placements jumped 29 percent from 1985 to 1986, according to the Children's Defense Fund...
...Both are worthy goals pursued to unworthy ends...
...The father tells Tony his mother is a whore, an evil woman...
...He has attempted suicide twice...
...Commitment procedures were lax...
...Who wants to take in a thief even if he is only ten years old...
...all families are not good...
...But authorities could find foster homes for only 3,800...
...safe and suitable environment...
...It is difficult and expensive for social workers to inspect at frequent intervals all foster homes...
...Foster failures Of course there is a middle ground between institutions and families: foster homes...
...He is now nine...
...Some cities have a few group homes, but not nearly enough to meet the need...
...In 1986, 2.2 million cases of child abuse were reported nationally...
...An audit of the New York State Division of Youth by the state comptroller disclosed that children have been placed with foster parents who were emotionally unstable, suicidal, violent, and financially unable to provide the youths with a clean place to live and necessities such as drinking water...
...The child's caseworkers assured me that April's mother was receiving counseling...
...In addition to deinstitutionalization, another belief that took hold in the mid-twentieth century was that mental health professionals and social workers should decide the adequacy of parents...
...They were divorced when Tony was four years old...
...Public institutions are answerable to the public...
...What they have in common is that all desperately need a safe, permanent home...
...The Family Court then sought a "secure facility," that is, a jail, for Edward...
...How can such things happen in a civilized country...
...All institutions are not bad...
...Tyrone's evil conduct was wetting the bed...
...He has done no crime, he has no disease, but he doesn't have dependable parents and he is on my hands...
...But in order to give the child the benefit of juvenile court supervision, the court does not dismiss the charges...
...Schools, courts, and hospitals refer troubled families to such persons for treatment...
...Judges who see abused, neglected, and abandoned children often have no option but a temporary detention center in which delinquents are also housed...
...I convicted the stepfather of statutory rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sentenced him to 19 to 38 years, the maximum the law allowed...
...people ask...
...Police said Hairston falsified his application with Catholic Social Services, deleting his criminal record...
...Many are not...
...The rights of the family cannot be violated...
...They look back on their days there as happy, secure, and fulfilling...
...Well-meaning psychiatrists and psychologists saw their role as determining the proper environment for a child...
...The result has been an enormous increase in the number of street people, in the arrest and imprisonment of former inmates who are unable to function in society, and an overload on available resources...
...They range in age from newborn to 16 and 17 years...
...Others are individuals with no formal training and little experience who set themselves up in business as family therapists...
...With the consent of the parties, I met with the family therapist who had been treating them...
...The court entered an order: "determined," a concept peculiar to some juvenile courts...
...However, even in Victorian times there were good orphanages...
...In my opinion, this was not a family that should be kept together...
...Many families were glad to be rid of problem members, such as spouses who drank, forgetful elderly parents, and rebellious, nonconforming teenagers...
...There is no place that will take him...
...The incidents occurred in the presence of her mother...
...For nine years Edward had been under the control and supervision of the juvenile court and the welfare system...
...Again, no agency would even attempt to find placement for Tyrone...
...In 1987, Judge Daniel D. Leddy of New York Family Court told The New York Times, "It's gotten to the point where we're sending kids home to bad circumstances because foster care is such a terrible alternative?' Tivo-year-old Joseph Huot died of brain injuries in January, two months after being placed in the foster care of a convicted rapist...
...He described several deep, bloody wounds on the eight-year-old boy and presented X-rays of healed fractures and a diagram of the youngster's body showing the location of more than 70 scars of old and recent beatings...
...Even with time off for good behavior and the eagerness of the parole board to make room for new convicts, the stepfather will probably remain in prison until April is 18 and, I hope, can protect herself...
...He replied, "The parents won't keep him...
...I have seen many children who have been diagnosed at different times as retarded, emotionally disturbed, and "predelinquent" in order to find a bed somewhere for a homeless youngster...
...Mrs...
...Finally it was decided that Edward was beyond the rehabilitative powers of the juvenile court system and that he should be treated as an adult offender...
...The family should be kept together...
...The impetus came from a judge...
...It is likely that ten times that many occurred but were not reported, although every state has a law requiring doctors, hospitals, and others who suspect child abuse to report it and protects them for doing so...
...Philadelphia police have arrested the foster parents and charged them with murder...
...Some family therapists are licensed psychiatrists and psychologists...
...Few sensible persons will agree to take care of a strange child 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for pay of less than $5,000 with no vacation or sick leave and no fringe benefits...
...He misses his mother...
...When I was running a law office for indigent children funded by the Office for Economic Opportunity in the 1960s, we encountered this situation daily...
...In 1987, the American Public Welfare Association reported that 33 states paid only between $200 and $300 a month per child for basic foster care...
...Edward's juvenile court file consisted of two thick volumes...
...My experiences are not peculiar to Philadelphia...
...Mental health experts embraced their mission of treating allegedly mentally ill persons with unbounded optimism, often against the patient's will and with little regard for their rights...
...He repeatedly struck Tyrone with a doubled-over electric cord...
...But professional hubris led many to believe that psychoanalytic theory could provide the correct answer to child placement...
...If the man had molested a girl who was not his daughter, no one would have objected to a prison sentence...
...Bill told a reporter for The New York Times, "I've had so many social workers I can't remember them...
...I gave Tony a paper and pencil and asked him to write a story while he was waiting in the anteroom during my conference with his parents...
...The Hairstons received $18.55 a day to care for Huot, who doctors said died of "shaken baby syndrome," which occurs when the brain strikes against the skull...
...But fewer than 800 of the planned 2,000 community treatment centers were established...
...Tyrone was beaten so severely by his father, Robert W., that the neighbors called the police...
...These are but a few of the thousands of abused, neglected, and homeless children I have seen during my 16 years on the trial bench in Philadelphia and when I was a practicing lawyer...
...Robert is a prize-fighter trainer...
...But the number of licensed foster homes in Illinois dropped from 3,597 in June 1984 to 2,790 three years later...
...These children are white, black, and Hispanic...
...Therapy for rapists At mid-century deinstitutionalization and the preservation of the family were appropriate responses to real evils...
...So far as I could see Edward had not failed the juvenile court system...
...Robert testified that he was just "disciplining" a bad boy...
...They're always on your back...
...The school teacher reported that Edward did not pay attention in class...
...With the exception of a small number of saintly souls, foster parents are like all other people who work for a living...
...But the aftermath was frustrating and appalling...
...His problems had first landed him in court when he was seven, when his father was murdered and his mother, a drug addict, disappeared...
...The principle of deinstitutionalization ex-tended to the field of child care, where it is a given that institutions are bad and that private homes are good...
...When I visited one of the Villages in Topeka, they were having a wedding...
...Between 1963 and 1980, almost 400,000 persons were released from mental institutions in the naive expectation that "community-based care" would adequately provide for them...
...It's like Rambo against the Vietcong...
...The second foster mother also made a living out of this occupation...
...When Edward complained, she beat him...
...Neither parent will consent to his hospitalization and no psychiatrist would give a professional opinion that Tony's mental health was endangered by remaining with his mother and stepfather...
...Children lived there and attended the local public schools until they reached adulthood...
...She increased her meager profits by scrimping on the food and clothing she provided for the children and pocketing some of the allotment, a not uncommon practice...
...We are also paying for inadequate shelters for tens of thousands who spend their childhood in a limbo of uncertainty, waiting in vain for a home...
...Without such evidence, I could not order the institutionalization of Tony...
...Others have drug-addicted mothers...
...Many poor children were removed from imperfect but not abusive parents and institutionalized...
Vol. 20 • April 1988 • No. 3
