doctor disease redux

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

At 10:03 AM 5/25/01 -0400, Gordon wrote:
>
>Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema:
>> In New York State the child protective agency may remove a child
perceived to be
>> in "imminent danger," but must petition the  Family Court at the earliest
>> possible opportunity. When the agency removes the child, the parent must
receive
>> formal notice in the form of a document that informs him/her of the
location of
>> the Family Court, the right to oppose the removal, and the right to legal
>> representation.
>
>But the removal has already occurred.  When I lived in the
>Lower East Side, this almost happened to a woman whose children
>got out on a (second-floor) fire escape and were reported by
>a hostile neighbor.  Some sort of persons in uniform were
>already at the door when I happened by and breathed the
>upper-middle-class word "lawyer" whereupon they instantly
>evaporated.  God knows where the children would have been

That is a very good point, Gordon.  My source, who has extensive experience
in child abuse prevention, says that while by far most of the child abuse
interventions are warranted, the system is really biased against low-income
parents who lack the skill of representing themselves before a bureucracy
and do not have the resources to hire a lawyer.  As it is now, the child
protection agency is represented by a lawyer, the child gets a
court-appointed 'advocate' (a lawyer), but parents usually have no legal
representation.  My source witnessed instances of low-income (often
immigrant) parents being virtually "grilled" by lawyers representing the
agency and the child.  My source says that this does not mean that innocent
people are routinely framed, most cases are legitimate, and the typical
unfairness - if it occurs - is the lawyer spin making things look worse
than they really are and the parent inability to defend themselves against
that spin.  

But the fact remains that if you are poor, uneducated, or got off the boat
recently - the system is heavily biased against you.  But that is also true
of the entire justice system in this country.

wojtek