Legislative Document No. 1788, An Act to Establish the Office of the Inspector General of Child Protection, creates that office to investigate cases of death, serious injury and abuse or neglect of children in state custody or receiving child welfare or juvenile justice services.
I fully support the proposal to require an independent investigation into Child Protection Services operations. It is urgent that CPS accept culpability for continually failing to protect Maine’s children from abuse and death, and to immediately stop using “confidentiality” disclaimers to try to cover up its failures.
Full transparency is called for here. The Department of Health and Human Services needs to willingly explain how specific failures and missed opportunities occurred in each case, as well as detail what corrective measures have been put in place to prevent them from happening to other children in the future.
Currently, we kinship and foster families can only report issues to the DHHS/CPS. How many bureaucrats truly want to examine themselves and admit culpability if there is a failure?
The core issue beneath too many foreseeable, preventable tragedies is the lack of accountability required of DHHS/CPS. It is are not required to follow its own rules, and if its steps away from them, there is no one to hold the employees accountable.
Matthew Agren, Lewiston
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