Alex Hill was only two years old when she was murdered by the foster care system in July of 2013, and the little bit of time she spent on this planet does not make her any less worthy of Justice.
While one of Hill's foster care parents, Sherill Small was found guilty of murder and is currently serving a Life sentence without parole, it is unclear if the CPS caseworker, Trina Fowler, and the Mentor executives allegedly responsible for removing Alexandria from her loving biological home into much more adverse environments, resulting in her tragic death, ever received any disciplinary action whatsoever.
The BuzzFeed Investigative Article by Aram Roston & Jeremy Singer-Vine, (http://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/fostering-profits#.ucL3jmKpnL) describes National Mentor Holdings as a for-profit foster care provider. "The company trades on the New York Stock Exchange as Civitas Solutions LLC, and markets itself as The Mentor Network. It is controlled by New York-based private equity fund Vestar Capital Partners." The article goes on to say that at least six healthy children, including Hill, have died in Mentor custody since 2005, "and in nearly all these cases there have been allegations that negligence by Mentor contributed to the deaths. Other children have been sexually or physically abused, sometimes after clear warning signs."
A landmark 1978 case, Monell v. Dept. of Social Services of the City of New York, assigned liability to local governments for constitutional violations by their employees. Under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the Justice Department may sue for declaratory and equitable relief if any governmental authority or person acting on behalf of any governmental authority engages in "a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers...that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States." Both Child Protective Services and Mentor's policies and practices of deliberate indifference have been documented for well over two decades.
In April of 2015, the Senate Finance Committee began an inquiry into all fifty states' privatized foster care contracting practices, sending Mentor a six-page letter requesting detailed information about the firm’s business practices and treatment of the thousands of children in its care, on June 17. In Aram Roston's follow-up article in BuzzFeed dated June 24, 2015 (http://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/senate-probing-mentor#.ji0AqJm2r8) he notes, "Sarah Magazine, the company spokesperson, said there was no relationship between the Senate’s questions to Mentor and the timing of the announcement that the firm was pulling out of foster care in five states. It also said that BuzzFeed News’ reporting did not influence its decision".
Please leave a comment on the Change.org #JudicialImmunityIsALemon petition In Memory of Alexandria Hill and any children that have fallen victim to the very system entrusted with their care, asking the Senate & House Judiciary Committees to Please Investigate documented abuses of Judicial Immunity rampant within Child Protective Services and their private contractors acting under Color of Law, at http://www.change.org/p/judicial-immunity-is-a-lemon
No comments:
Post a Comment