New Jersey's Department of Social Services fails again.

[Ronn_Bman]

Social workers went to this house 38 times in the last two years. 38 visits in the last two years which resulted, time and time again, in a positive evaluation while failing to notice that the 19 year old male weighed only 45lbs, that the 14 year old male weighed 40lbs, and the 9 and 10 year old males only weighed in the 20-30lbs range.

I think their should be criminal charges against more than just the adoptive parents.

Courtesy of CNN CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) -- A couple whose adopted teenage sons weighed less than 50 pounds have been arrested on charges of starving four boys they adopted through the state Division of Youth and Family Services, New Jersey's troubled child welfare agency. Vanessa Jackson, 48, and Raymond Jackson, 50, were arrested Friday and charged with four counts each of aggravated assault and 14 counts of child endangerment, Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi said. Each was jailed Saturday on $100,000 bail. An investigation into the family began October 10 after neighbors in the Philadelphia suburb of Collingswood called police to report someone rummaging through their trash. Officers then found the oldest adopted child, now 19. The young man, who was adopted in 1995, measured 4 feet and weighed 45 pounds when he was discovered. He is now in the hospital receiving specialized care for apparent heart irregularities. The three other boys, ages 14, 10, and 9, also were removed from the home and hospitalized. They were treated and released into other foster placements, authorities said. The 14-year-old weighed 40 pounds and stood 4 feet tall. The other boys also were dramatically underweight, according to the prosecutor's office. Two adopted girls, ages 5 and 12, also were living in the Jacksons' home. They were placed in foster care, along with a 10-year-old girl who was in the Jacksons' home pending adoption. The girls' physical condition "appeared to be within normal range," the prosecutor said. The state Department of Human Services suspended five employees, including caseworkers, a manager, and supervisors, pending the outcome of the investigation, said Micah Rasmussen, a spokesman for Gov. James E. McGreevey. Rasmussen said McGreevey was "angered and shocked" by another discovery of neglected children under DYFS oversight. The governor called on Kevin Ryan, his newly appointed state child advocate, to assess the case. "There appears to be no explanation other than negligence, indifference, incompetence, or a combination of all three," Colleen Maguire, deputy commissioner for the Human Services Department and the person charged with spearheading reform at DYFS, said in a statement Saturday. Maguire said a caseworker assigned to the girl living with the Jacksons while awaiting adoption by the couple apparently failed to note the boys' condition, despite conducting a safety assessment of the home. The Jacksons adopted the boys through DYFS and were receiving a stipend from the state, which peaked at about $28,000 a year before the oldest child turned 18 last year, according to Camden County Prosecutor's Office. Sarubbi said locks apparently were used to keep the boys from the kitchen and that the children were fed uncooked pancake batter, cereals and peanut butter and jelly. The parents apparently explained the boys' condition by saying they had an eating disorder, said Bill Shralow, a spokesman for the prosecutor. The discovery of the children follows several high-profile abuse cases that revealed lapses in state oversight, including a 7-year-old who died after his case was closed by the child welfare agency.

[Skunk]

19 years old and just 20.5 kg???

How on eath could they have missed that - he would have had the body of a pencil!

[Ronn_Bman]

And only 4 ft tall!!!!!!

Even though they were there to check on the 10 year old girl, how could they have missed those 4 severly malnourished boys 38 times.

And beyond that, the "it fell through the cracks" excuses were ridiculous 6 months ago. How could their workers not be hyper vigilant now with all the scrutany they're under because of previous screw ups.

[ 10-27-2003, 06:02 PM: Message edited by: Ronn_Bman ]

[Night Stalker]

This is truely tragic. It's also < 5 miles away.

And S Jersey is NOT a suburb of Philly!! [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] It's Collingswood NJ not Collingswood, Philadelphia or Collingswood, PA!

Sorry for the small [img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img] on this terrible story, but the FedGov a few years ago proposed counting NJ as suburbs of Philly and NY for census data. It's a sore point with us. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Chewbacca]

Terrible! Heads should roll!

[Azred]

The simplest explanation as to why case investigators is that there was some money changing hands under the table. The Jacksons were receiving a $28,000 stipend each year; certainly some of this money could find its way into a brown envelope that just somehow found its way into the caseworker's briefcase.

The other problem is that almost no one wants to adopt older children or teenagers. Thus, anyone who even halfway qualifies for adoption is given a green light, especially for older children. *sigh*

[Sir Kenyth]

It's enough to turn your stomach that such people would be put in charge of orphaned children. It also turns your stomach to know how many must have seen the emanciated state of the children and done nothing about it. Even scarier, one wonders if no one noticed at all?

[Ronn_Bman]

What's weird is that they've been showing a family portrait that the couple actually had taken with all the boys and girls. The boys look like 6 or younger despite their actual ages because of their size.

They also said the 45lb 19 year old has gained 8lbs since being saved. [img]smile.gif[/img]