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20 years later, NYC heeds lessons of Vachss case |
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Thursday, 22 May 2008 19:00 |
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Millions are spent every year in the U.S. on "child abuse prevention," with outcomes that are nearly impossible to measure. But two decades ago, Andrew Vachss -- one of PROTECT's founders -- dramatically advanced real prevention with one groundbreaking legal case.
Vachss fought to protect a newborn baby from predictable abuse... before it happened.
The case, Unborn Baby B., involved a New York woman with a
history of mental illness and drug abuse who lost seven children to the
State after abusing and neglecting them. Vachss had fought successfully
to secure protection for her other children, so when he learned that
Deborah B. was expecting an eighth (saying, "I want to do good with
another baby"), he didn't wait for the inevitable. Vachss convinced the
court to remove the child at birth.
"Once you've made a prima-facie case proving a pattern of abuse, the
burden shifts to the mother," said Vachss, "because without that
shifting, you'd have to let her abuse each child, one after the other,
before intervening."
Now, twenty years later, New York City's child protection system is
catching up. "New York City has enacted a tough new policy that allows
the authorities to remove newborns from their parents' homes in all but
an 'extraordinary instance' if the parents had children taken from
their custody and their case is still open," reports the New York Times.
The new policy comes in the wake of the beating death of 11-week old
Pablo Paez, who was handed over to his 23-year old drug-addicted mother
a year after the State removed his older sibling from the home.
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