The issue of my concern is the overdue need for Family Court reforms; the need for reforms in Child Protection and Family Placement Agencies within the DSS and the repeal of the Mondale Act/CAPTA. 

It is unacceptable and intolerable that the constitution of the United States of America is not upheld in Family and Juvenile Courts, especially the fourteenth amendment which guarantees the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, including the right to raise our children with out government interference. The Supreme Court also states that the state should not interfere with the right of a fit parent to raise their child in the Supreme Court case of Troxel Vs Granville. Child protective workers go beyond their power and override the constitutional rights of their victims.  Victims of the system, a bad system that doesn't even protect those that it was designed to protect. 

Government abuse to children is rampant and performed with the perverse notion that it is 'in the best interests of the child'. We need reform now to save our families. Judges who rely solely on the testimony of DSS and who never hear the parents even when they are allowed to speak are committing the worse atrocities in our society and denying the very freedom and justice that they are sworn to uphold. 

And all for what you may ask? For the money that is provided to the counties by the state and federal government under the Mondale Act/CAPTA for the numbers of children that are stolen from their families. 

This is a black stain on our country and our advanced society. For how can we call ourselves a world leader and point to human rights abuses in other countries when this happens in our own country. We need to clean up the corruption in our own system of Child Protection and make this agency accountable for their actions before we can hope to protect the children of the world. 

I am asking for congressional hearings into these matters.  I, for one am ready to be heard.  Many others are willing and ready as well.  We implore you for a hearing.  This is an opportunity for your office to perform a great service to the people of this country.  Please don't turn your back on the children of this country.  Thank you,

I am forwarding this message to you since it is of utmost importance and needs attention in Washington DC. This is part of the larger issues we, VOCAL NY, communicated to you at our meeting on June 9th of 2003 or May of 2002. As we discussed, the problem is nation wide. Please share these with the Senator or Congressman at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your time. www.vocalinfo.org

To:Senate Committee on Children and Families Members

Dear Senator Saland ;

I have had conversations with Bettina Marlow as a point of contact with the Senate's Committee on Children and Families. Hello, I am the Vice  President of VOCAL NY(Victims Of Child Abuse Laws). We are a non profit organization composed of parents, children, and others who provide support, advocacy, lobbying efforts, and information to families who have been negatively impacted by the child abuse laws and are involved with the family court system. VOCAL stands for 'Victims of Child Abuse Laws'.

 We wish to see children protected from all forms of abuse, including that which is being inflicted upon them as a result of poor judgment made by child protective agencies. We want to see due process accorded to all. We wish to see preservation of the family unit made a priority in the handling of suspected child abuse cases. Families afford a key source of emotional stability in a child's life.  VOCAL NY recognizes a real problem in our current family court system and DSS Agencies. Constitutional rights are not afforded and in most cases they are trampled. Guilt is assumed until innocence can be proven. Our website is www.vocalinfo.org  With that said, I would like to point you to an important article that was > posted by the Buffalo News in Buffalo,NY

;http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030824/1030107.asp 

The article is entitled 'Failing the children' and reports the death of two children in foster care and one in parental care supervised by CPS.

The article quotes the District Attorney saying, "The message is getting out that the monitoring we're doing here, maybe we can improve upon," said Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark. "When you have three in one year - one you can understand. Two is bad luck. Three - that's sending a message out."

The article goes on to say, "Details of the county's Child Protective Services investigations into the three cases are unknown because county officials have declined to comment on them, citing confidentiality laws."

"Deborah Merrifield, county social services commissioner Merrifield would not comment on the specifics of Child Protective Services investigations into cases involving the three dead children."

Why are we not privy to the details. This outrages me even more. Does this department owe an explanation to the people or not? I want to know and others do as well. 

One person from an Albany advocacy group was quoted as saying, "What we can all say is this is too many deaths in the system. This is not OK.  Something's really wrong in Erie County," said Elie Ward, executive director of Statewide Youth Advocacy, which monitors coverage of child abuse and other issues. "I'm not understanding why the community is not up in arms. This is not normal."

There also was a child who died in foster care three weeks ago in Buffalo, and the papers have reported nothing on this case as yet. I spoke with the grandmother last week at a meeting.

Why aren't these people outraged?  I am. We the people have given this agency money and power to seize children and still children die. In too many cases they remove children needlessly;  'When in doubt take the children out' is the philosophy and still children die. Families are destroyed and children psychologically damaged because of this agency. Are we as a society really improving things for our children and families or are we just making this agency wealthy, powerful, and perpetuating jobs for people in a system that is doing more harm than good! Check the statistics. Do more kids die in foster care or at the hands of their parents?

NCCANS Statistics show that children are ten times more likely to be abused in foster care than at the hands of their natural parents. Yet, across the United States, we place more and more children in foster care every year.  I for one am appalled at the District Attorney, Frank Clark's remark that 'in one year, one you can understand'. If it was your child, or grandchild, or sibling could you understand it? When children are removed and placed in foster care for 'the best interest of the child' are any deaths expected? If so, no child should ever be removed. The medical society's ethic of 'if you can not do any good, then do no harm' should apply here as well. It is not just Erie County. This is a nation wide problem.

Please, do the research and serve the people and make them aware of what is going on. Reform is needed and has been needed for many years.  Repeal CAPTA, reform the family court system and make CPS workers accountable for their actions. This system needs to be policed. Throwing more money and case workers at the problem, will that really do it or cause more chaos?

What is needed is stricter guidelines for defining abuse, less children in foster care, and more concentration and better efforts on the real abuse cases. Take abuse cases out of family courts. Child abuse is a crime and should be tried as such in a criminal court of law ensuring constitutional rights and protections to the accused and due process of law.

If Deborah Merrifield is not commenting on the specifics of Child Protective Services investigations into these deaths, why? The public is entitled to know! We demand to know! It is about time we know!  Bettina Marlow has written me the following: "As far as constitutional issues, I think we've had this conversation before... I suggest you are taking much too literally certain legal concepts. Family Court is not a criminal court and has its own due process requirements which have been found constitutional. So, when convicting the court system with a broad sweep, you have to know what the due processes are and then determine whether you were availed of them. I don't wish to write about this - it's too time consuming, but suffice to say when a judge must decide whether or not to remove a child from a home, the judge has to consider the risks involved and sometimes it is less risky to remove a child to be on the safe side. None the less, the parent and  the child have certain rights."

My response to this is the same response I have to the tragedy of deaths in the CPS and family court system in the Buffalo News article:  Concerning the due process afforded; both you and Senator Saland have said  this before, 'due process is in there', but no one has enumerated the due process requirements or pointed us in the direction of where we can find  the due process afforded to us under the constitution in a family court of law. I hate to bother you for more information but this one is key to our  rights as citizens. 

You said, "sometimes it is less risky to remove a child to be on the safe  side." But doesn't it constitute child abuse to take a child out of a loving home needlessly? 'When in doubt take them out' philosophy can put a child at risk when the statistics show that children are ten times more likely to be abused while in foster care than in their own homes. Mathew Keen has lost both his children in foster care, both died while in foster care. This is just one case I know of personally and there are others I have read about. When trying to do the best for children and families isn't this important to consider? Shouldn't you, as a parent reserve the right to decide what is best for your children unless you are proven unfit in a court of law? Then and only then can your right to parent be taken away from you by the court who then defaults to decide what is best for the child. The supreme court did state this in one of it's land mark decisions. Is not this the basis of our democratic republic or is what we have today the basis for another form of government? 

We fight child abuse in all it's forms. We need your help. We need to work together. We would like a meeting to address these issues. Thank you for your time.

Mary Jo Marceau-Hawthorne, Vice President VOCAL NY