Authors:Ashley Albert, Amy Mulzer Abstract: Five years ago, co-author Ashley Albert surrendered her parental rights to her two youngest children to the State of Washington. She shares her story of ostensibly "voluntary" surrender, which was anything but voluntary. This Article goes on to address the practice of permanently severing the legal bonds between a parent and a child, then the State's "replacement" of those bonds with new ones via formalized adoption. It informs readers of the historical background behind modern adoption, argues that adoption must be addressed separately from the family regulation system, and describes the specific harms caused by adoption today. PubDate: 2022-07-12 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9947 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Melody Webb Abstract: It is time for policemakers to reimagine and dismantle the child welfare system. This Article provides background on disparities in the child welfare system and argues that policymakers have used the child welfare system to police poverty and regulate Black families. It asserts that poverty presents a significant risk factor for neglect of children, that poverty should be the focus of policymakers, and discusses economic empowerment through Mother's Outreach Network. PubDate: 2022-07-12 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9944 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Carla Laroche Abstract: Presently, the state does not enable counsel to effectively protect the parental rights of mothers who are incarcerated. While parents are incarcerated and their children are in the family regulation system, the New Jim Crow and New Jane Crow intersect to separate and destroy families. This Article adds to existing literature demonstrating how the New Jim Crow and New Jane Crow impose too many obstacles for parents' lawyers and shines a new light on the latent defects in the state's provision of access to appointed counsel. PubDate: 2022-07-12 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9946 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Michael Wald Abstract: The United States is ready for major child welfare reform. Building on more than fifty years of work on reforming the child protection system, this Article proposes that a new approach will better help parents and protect children. PubDate: 2022-07-12 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9945 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Tina Lee Abstract: This Foreword reflects on the Strengthened Bonds: Abolishing the Child Welfare System and Re-Envisioning Child Well-Being Symposium held in 2021. It draws connections between the panels at the Symposium and the Articles in this issue, describes the emerging themes of activists for child welfare, and directs future research by summarizing concrete steps that can be taken to abolish the child removal system. PubDate: 2022-07-04 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9932 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Kristen Weber, Bill Bettencourt Abstract: For the last fifteen years, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (“CSSP”) partnered with local agencies to use an Institutional Analysis (“IA”), a method that identifies how local child welfare institutions are not working for families. We have particularly focused on the experiences of Black families. Through a comprehensive and varied qualitative data analyses, each IA strives to make the invisible and detrimental workings of systems more visible, that is, each IA reveals specific institutional features that contribute to poor outcomes for Black families. Findings from IAs have identified problematic policies, practices, protocols, resource distribution, and other features at the local, regional, state, and federal levels. From the twenty IAs conducted to date, we have substantial evidence of the insidious, pervasive, and mutating structural and institutional racism ingrained in child welfare systems. While the IAs have unique findings in each jurisdiction, there are also common findings, including: lack of meaningful and reasonable efforts to keep families together; policies that undermine existing networks of Black families; lack of due process and poor advocacy for Black families; inaccessible, inappropriate, and ineffective resources offered to families; coercive and punitive interventions; hyper surveillance of Black families; workforce fear of Black families, particularly Black fathers; and ineffective mechanisms of accountability that result in blaming families for the failures of workers, providers, and larger societal ills (lack of housing, lack of livable wages, etc.). This Piece presents evidence compiled over the years which leads us to conclude that reforms within the current system will only go so far and that radical investment in community supports and anti-poverty efforts are necessary. PubDate: 2022-07-04 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9930 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Marcía Hopkins, Kara Finck, Alexis Andino, British Christopher, Duane Price, Anthony Simpson, Ishale Watson Abstract: A group of youth advocates were tasked with discussing their experiences in the child welfare system as children and their perspectives on reforming the system. Informed by their experiences in foster care and work with the Juvenile Law Center, the youth advocates addressed issues of racism, reform, abolition, and child well-being. They concluded that meaningful reform of the child welfare system mandates a radical realignment of power to provide full participation, collaboration, and shared decision-making authority to families impacted by the child welfare system. PubDate: 2022-07-04 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9929 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Kele Stewart Abstract: The family regulation system's policing, disruption, and restructuring of Black families and communities spills over into other systems also marked by stark racial inequities - the education and juvenile justice systems. This Article unpacks how that spillage magnifies the harm to Black children; by exploring the structural mechanisms through which these systems work together to compound disparity and perpetuate inequity, this Article provides further evidence of the family regulation system's failings. PubDate: 2022-06-30 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9925 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Melissa Carter, Christopher Church, Vivek Sankaran Abstract: This Article argues that juvenile court judges can safely reduce the number of children entering foster care by faithfully and rigorously applying the law. Judges often fail to perform this core functon when a state child welfare agency separates a child from their family. Judges must perform their role as impartial gatekeeper despite the temptation to be "omnipotent moral busybodies". PubDate: 2022-06-30 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9923 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Rise Staff Abstract: Rise is an advocacy organization in New York City dedicated to building the power of parents affected by the family policing system. Rise envisions communities free from injustice, family policing, and separation. Its mission is to support parents' leadership to dismantle the current family policing system by eliminating cycles of harm, surveillance, and punishment. Rise aims to create communities that invest in families and offer collective care, healing, and support. This Article shares the work Rise has performed to build an organizational culture that empowers parents and a political vision centered around parents' expertise. PubDate: 2022-06-30 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9921 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Sarah Lorr, L. Frunel Abstract: The public family regulation system fails to live up to its underlying laws and policies that purport to value family reunification as their primary goal. Despite the premise of equitable treatment of parents and families involved in the system, parents are often mislabeled, maltreated, and untrusted by actors within the system. This Article explores how ableism operates in the family regulation system to create an ongoing pathology of parents with disabilities and of parents who have been labeled as disabled by the system. PubDate: 2022-06-30 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9924 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Caitlyn Garcia, Cynthia Godsoe Abstract: Mutual aid may solve the harms arising out of the family policing system. Families need housing, food, and childcare rather than state surveillance and punishment. Giving agency and support to families will transform the way society protects its youngest and most vulnerable members. This Article proposes a community-based, empowering, mutual aid model and advocates for divestment from punitive state interactions. Instead, society must invest in supports for children and families, fund communities, and intervene at the grassroots levels. PubDate: 2022-06-30 DOI: 10.52214/cjrl.v12i1.9922 Issue No:Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022)
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