Citizens Review Panel is too Valuable to Lose

When I went off to college and my youngest siblings were already well into high school, my parents began taking in foster children. As a result, I am blessed with three wonderful siblings that were adopted as part of our family, two of whom's lives were drastically improved from unspeakably dark beginnings. They are living examples of how the system can work.

 

Over the years there were more than a dozen other children who passed through our home, some for as little as a few weeks, others as long as a few years. Through their collective experiences, I also learned that not all foster children had such well-lit paths. Sometimes, coming from another home that ”didn't work out,“ we would learn that their supposed safe havens were no better than the homes they were purportedly being protected from, compounding their hurt, confusion and mistrust.

 

As a family, we learned, sometimes tragically, that the system is far from perfect. The kids are sometimes rushed back into the custody of unfit parents. Some are thrown into homes with equally unfit guardians looking to profit financially from the arrangement – or worse. Even at its best, the system is manned by an overworked and under-resourced group of people. One of my sisters was a caseworker and left to start a daycare, unable to shake what she would witness as a well-meaning participant at the end of each day. As disenchanting as much of the story has been, the lone upshot is that the few successes are that much sweeter – that I kiss my own child goodnight with a little more appreciation for the fact that his innocence remains intact.

 

Earlier this week, Manatee County Citizens Review Panel volunteers received a letter from Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court, R.B. ”Chips“ Shore, informing them that Judge Scott Brownell would not be referring cases to the panel when he resumes the juvenile court bench this January. The volunteer panel members were stunned, as were many members of the local legal community who view the program as a critical success.

 

For the past 14 years, our county's children have fared better in that complicated and imperfect system because of the work of such volunteers. Since 1997, members have been meeting for a half day each month to review the cases of children who have been found to be abused, neglected, or abandoned and placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services.

 

The panel asks questions and hears testimony from the children, parents, foster parents, caseworkers, Guardian ad Litem, and others involved with the particular situation to determine if the children are safely placed, while making sure that their physical, emotional and educational needs are being met, while assessing whether the parents are working to resolve the issues that led to the children's removal. They also hold all parties accountable for performing the tasks approved by the court and make recommendations to the Juvenile Court Judge based on their findings.

 

The panel was established in the wake of the death of Lucas Ciambrone, a 7-year old who died in the care of adoptive parents. While such tragedies have continued to occur throughout the state, none have happened in Manatee County since the Citizen's Review Panel was created. In addition to protecting the children by adding an additional safety valve to the system, the program also helped ease the workload on the overburdened juvenile court judges.

 

Over that time period, volunteers have given over 75,000 hours to Manatee County’s children that are in out-of-home care, and this is after they have undergone extensive training to qualify them for the panel. To call the program a success that has been driven by committed citizens would be a tremendous understatement. It has been a shining beacon of faith that we can do better as a society.

 

Judge Brownell did not return a call requesting a comment as to his reason for effectively squashing the program by informing the clerk that he would not be referring cases to the panel – the only way that it becomes involved in the process and I nor anyone close to the program am able to fathom one. I would only hope that he might reconsider and that perhaps other citizens would voice their concern over the possible demise of this invaluable program.

 

Children are the bedrock of our society and while the cases that come before the panel demonstrate that we can never fully safeguard their precious innocence, the very least that we as a society should aspire is to sincerely and meaningfully follow through on our responsibility to at least offer credible stewardship of the poor souls who have fallen through the cracks. The Citizens Review Panel is a way that we can continue to do just that.

Dennis Maley is a featured columnist and editor for The Bradenton Times. His column appears every Thursday and Sunday on our site and in our free Weekly Recap and Sunday Edition (click here to subscribe). An archive of Dennis' columns is available here. He can be reached at dennis.maley@thebradentontimes.com. You can also follow Dennis on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the badges below.

Dennis Maley