Random state control update

I try, I really try, to keep politics out of this blog. I mean that. The majority of my colleagues who defend parents in dependency cases are what we would call politically liberal. The majority of my colleagues who work for the state, both attorneys and case workers and their web of supervisors (and by the way, DCF attorneys in Florida are now required to announce themselves as "attorney for the State" in all proceedings) are what we would call politically liberal.

Cool.

So please excuse me if I mention this:

"Our practice is when someone is thrust quickly into the public spotlight, we often take a look" at them, Jones-Kelley said"

It speaks for itself. Or at least, it ought to. Do I have this right? If a government official in charge of whether or not you get to keep your kids happens to hear your name somewhere, she by normal practice "takes a look" at you?

Scary.

Hey, how about this? Imagine you are a parent of a teen. Your teen is at school, and there is a sudden evacuation because there may be something lethal, something dangerous to life and limb, something frightening going on. Or maybe not. Your teen, standing outside the school and classroom and not especially being asked to participate in anything you might call learning, calls you on a cell phone to tell you that just in case you are worrying, she is o.k.

She gets suspended for violating the zero tolerance policy on involving parents in events that are 100% under the control of government, thank you very much.

I want to make a speech here, but I won't. Both of those links speak for themselves, and you and I (we dependency experts on both sides of the courtroom) know full well that "government", when it comes to deciding what is best for you and your children, is not some hyper-competent monolithic apparatus, but is usually instead a collection of scared young workers who will do anything but admit being wrong now and then.

More money to go to the removal side of the equation

This looks good on the surface, but underneath is a bad idea.

4th Regional Counsel seems heading for a crash

First, and let me get this out of the way: this is not gloating. I've never particularly wanted to see the OCCCRCs fail; I just don't see anything to disabuse me of the notion that failure is inevitable.

I've seen plenty of news articles over the past year stating that the offices are "up and running". I've not, until today, seen a news source take a closer look at how the offices are doing. This is from today's Daily Business Review. Some excerpts:

In a foundering economy with tight employment prospects, a new West Palm Beach-based state agency created as a backup public defender’s office is having problems retaining lawyers, suffering massive turnover in its first year.

At least 26 attorneys and staffers have left the office — including many who were forced out. That is almost a third of the 79 employees hired since September 2007, according to records obtained by the Daily Business Review.[snip]...A number of the people have been fired, and others left when faced with dismissal, according to sources familiar with the office who spoke on condition of anonymity. Others who quit of their own accord cited bad management, heavy workloads, poor working conditions and inadequate pay. Some said they left because they were forced to take cases above their experience level.[snip]...Complaints from former staffers have prompted several officials to take a closer look at the office.

Chief Palm Beach Circuit Judge Kathleen Kroll said she plans to review the office’s representation. Citing the chief judge’s responsibility to monitor capital cases, she said she recently pulled the files of the two Palm Beach Circuit death penalty cases assigned to Massa’s office to see how they are progressing.

“There’s been some concerns raised, and we’re not sure if it’s just disgruntled employees or legitimate concerns about the office,” Kroll said. She wants to meet with Massa.

The Broward and Palm Beach public defenders plan to meet with each other to discuss the conflict counsel office....

OK, you get the point. You should read the entire story. Here's a couple more interesting things. Remember, the 4th RC's budget began in 2007 was reported as "around $5 million":

Critics claim the conflict counsel offices were woefully underfunded from the start. The 2008 state budget provided for a total of $7.1 million for the 4th DCA office and its allotted 63 positions. According to records obtained by the Review, more than 15 percent of these positions are open. The Legislature gave Massa a raise in July from $80,000 to $100,000. One of his chiefs, Jennifer Hixson, got a $17,000 raise to take her salary to $77,000. Some of the other employees also saw increases in salary.

I've been predicting all along that within a couple of years, the budget for the OCCCRCs will exceed the amount formerly paid to private (rotation) attorneys. And that leads me to what really caught my eye in the article:

“It gave me pause as to whether poor people were receiving the quality of representation and treatment that they’re entitled to,” Finkelstein said in an interview. “I don’t know whether or not the rumors are true, but it has certainly raised at least a warning that gives rise to questions that need to be posed.”

He said he plans to speak to Palm Beach Public Defender Carey Haughwout about concerns and potential problems about the office.

Haughwout said high turnover makes for “very unstable representation.” When told what the Review found, she said that’s much higher turnover than in her office.[snip]...Attorney Omar Ghaffar, who worked in the Fort Lauderdale office from May to September, said he was hired as a civil attorney, and his managers assigned him to criminal cases.

“I told them straight out that I’m not feeling comfortable doing these murder cases,” the former Broward assistant public defender said. He said he was assigned to cases he was barred from taking as a private attorney under the registry system that was in effect before the conflict counsel’s creation.

And there's the real issue. Even we forgotten few in dependency defense have to exhibit a certain level of proficiency before our local ISC will put us on the list. The ABA has model qualifications for private dependency defense lawyers (and criminal defense lawyers as well, of course). It appears from reports similar to those in the quoted article that, other than a bar card, there are no standards for experience before one is sent out on the job as an assistant regional counsel.

Hideous

Just a reminder that termination of parental rights is not always the best way to protect children.