Florida's DCF fails again. A baby girl is killed because they did not follow procedure.

[madfloridian]

There was a clear path in this case. The indicators were obvious, and there should not have been a problem. This kind of thing has happened over and over in this state.

Baby Girl Dies When DCF Fails At Job

PORT RICHEY | The mother couldn’t care for her babies because she was in prison. The father was a petty criminal himself with no clue how to care for newborns.

But when Nicholle West gave birth to twin girls Oct. 15 while locked up near Ocala, the people who were supposed to protect them packed them up and sent them to Port Richey with their father, Thomas Ludwig.

In December, authorities said, Ludwig killed one baby, Diella, smashing her skull when she wouldn’t stop crying. The other baby, Shyloh, was placed in state care, and Ludwig was arrested Monday on a charge of first-degree murder.

But according to the DCF review, caseworkers in Marion and Pasco counties didn’t explore whether Ludwig, 24, was actually fit to care for them. This despite misgivings of the babies’ maternal grandmother, who said Ludwig “was not appropriate and seemed not to care” about the children, the report says. He had previous arrests on charges of stealing a car, writing worthless checks and failing to pay child support.

[FLAprogressive]

1. The Department of Colossal Fuckups does it again. nt

[renate]

2. I'm not a caseworker so I can't even guess at the thought processes involved

But I think it's unfair to blame the caseworkers for letting the children stay with their father. They would have to have good solid evidence that he was likely to abuse them in order to take them away from a parent, however enormous a turd that parent was in terms of his criminal history. Also, caseworkers are seriously overwhelmed and underfunded--they would have gotten blamed if the children had been placed with a foster parent who'd abused or killed them--and they can't predict the future. They are altruistic, well-meaning people who are doing, I believe, the best they can, and would love to keep every child safe if they possibly could.

Having defended the caseworkers, I earnestly hope that their father goes to prison for the rest of his life. That poor little baby... :cry:

(Hmmm... I wrote all that before reading the article. Obviously the previous allegations should have been a red flag. However, I still think that caseworkers have an impossible job, they do it with the best of intentions, and that if there were more funding for social services so each one didn't have to follow so many families at once, this might not have happened.)

[madfloridian]

4. I have friends who are DCF caseworkers...very hard job.

DCF has been mismanaged so badly the last few years. Even with Democratic Bob Butterworth in charge the privatization continued.

I did not mean to sound overly critical of the caseworkers, but there were warning signs this time.

I am usually critical of the system overall with its blend of lack of oversight, contracting work out to less than capable companies, and especially those in leadership.

It's harmful when a DCF official is charged with production of porn, using those in the system.

"TAMPA, Fla. — A Department of Children & Families press secretary who was arrested on suspicion of enlisting children to make pornography could face more charges, police said Saturday. Al Zimmerman, 40, was released from a Tampa jail after posting $120,000 bail Saturday afternoon, a day after his arrest on eight felony charges of using a child in a sexual performance."

It's harmful when leaders in the bureau pride themselves on their racism.

"..This review has revealed that harassing conduct does exist at Information Systems, located at the Northwood Centre," says a memo that Pamela Thornton, a DCF civil-rights officer, sent to Carolyn Dudley, the department's assistant staff director for civil rights. "This conduct includes racial slurs, derogatory remarks about particular ethnic groups and comments about cultural habits, which have created an intimidating, hostile and offensive work environment, specifically brought on by managers and supervisors."

It started in June, when employee Barbara Murray complained to the DCF civil-rights office that her supervisor had told her another manager had used what's commonly referred to as "the N-word," along with some variants of that term, at a management meeting.

"She further stated, during the initial complaint and/or subsequent interview, that the terms 'Sand N - - - - -,' 'Chinese Mafia,' 'My Bald Bulgarian' and other comments are used to reference employees in the workplace," said Thornton's memo. It said Murray "described what she feels is a pattern of on-going racial slurs or derogatory comments being made in the workplace by managers and supervisors."

The report said Murray had complained that she was told by her supervisor, Jeffry Wood, that Charlie Mattuski, a participant in a managers' meeting, had used the N-word and was asked by a supervisor "if he had attended civil-rights training. Mattuski responded by stating, 'Would it be better if I had said Niggetts?' Complainant stated that everyone in the office is talking about the comments; however no one will report it for fear of losing their jobs."

[Webster Green]

3. Florida is a third-world shit-hole..

Thanks to Jeb, who ran the place for the Bush Crime Family :wtf: