Mug shots of Lynn and Lindsey Maxwell
I have been arguing for years that because Child Protective Services spends so much time investigating false allegations and taking children from innocent parents, they don't have time to investigate serious abuse cases. Nowhere is that more evident than in the case of Erin Maxwell of Palermo, New York, whose parents, Lynn and Lindsey Maxwell, were found guilty Saturday of four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
For those of you not familiar with Erin Maxwell, the eleven year old daughter of Lynn and Lindsey Maxwell, she was murdered on August 29, 2008. She had also been sexually molested. The police arrested her half-brother, Alan Jones, on murder charges, and he goes to trial next month.
So why were the Maxwells arrested? Because there were 70 cats in the house, cat feces on the floor and Erin's bedroom had locks on the outside of the door, which could not be opened from the inside. A state trooper testified that their were 20 kittens in a freezer as well as caged birds in the house. The prosecutor said that people who knew the family couldn't bear to go into the house because of the stench.
The Maxwells could spend up to two years each in the Oswego County Jail. Whether or not the Maxwells should go to jail is not the point of my commentary. Rather why is it that children like Erin Maxwell keep slipping through the cracks in the system and ending up dead, and what are we going to do about it?
If Erin Maxwell was living in such appalling conditions, then why didn't someone call the child abuse hotline? The truth is that someone did. Social Services Commissioner, Fran Lanigan, admits it. Some people have said that the Maxwells were reported twice. In any event one wonders how Erin Maxwell could have been allowed to remain in the house she was living in if the conditions CPS found in 2006 were anywhere near what they were in 2008 when she died.
While Lynn and Lindsey Maxwell may spend up to two years in prison and well they should, Child Protective Services workers have been let off the hook. Calls for Commissioner Lanigan to be fired have been ignored. In fact Oswego County Child Protective Services has been exonerated and rewarded for their lack of involvement in Erin's life. A report commissioned by Oswego County and released by Cornell University places most of the blame of Erin's death on the lack of Child Protective Services investigators in the county.
The New York State Office of Child and Family Services apparently agreed with the Cornell report. Almost one third of the 1.7 million dollars that the New York State Office of Child and Family Services recently allocated to hire more CPS workers went to Oswego County. Oswego County received $500,000. The second highest award was to Nassau County which received $225,000, not even half of what Oswego County received. When you consider that Nassau County has a population of 1,351,625 while Oswego County has a population of only 121,395 people, then Oswego County received more than twenty times the amount of money that Nassau County did.
But more money to hire more workers will not stop child fatalities unless laws are changed that make it possible for Child Protective Services to spend their time going after real child abusers and not innocent parents and caretakers. Child Protective Services in New York State needs reform. I have detailed some of those reforms in an earlier article. Furthermore, people who deliberately make false reports of abuse need to be arrested and prosecuted.
The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta says that two out of every three reports of child abuse and neglect are false, nevertheless Child Protective Services must spend time and money investigating them. Until reforms are made that cut down on the amount of time and money CPS has to spend investigating false child abuse reports, children will continue to die from real neglect and abuse.
For more info: Read more articles by this writer on child abuse and child protective services.
Comments
Back 3 years ago a child in a daycare center I directed ran out of the building and was found close to the road. The teachers and myself where found guilty of neglect. The child was in the care of the 2 teachers but because i was the Director the State found me guilty also. I did hire a lawyer and all charges where dropped. My issue and arguement is:
DSS had no reason to charging me with anything. But due do to the fact that the DSS working investigating the incident didn't care for me, she convincienced the State to continue the charges. She had the final say due to being the lead investigator. I wrote the state many letter trying to have the charges dropped with out hiring a lawyer but they did nothing to help me. The lead teacher in charge had all the charges dropped against her, by writing letters to the State, due to lack of evidence. The 2yrs wasted on me that could of been used to help little Erin. Her parents DSS case release 3 times due to lack of evidence. Our state at work!
My theory is that CPS doesn't really mind these cases, because they know that - while there is a possibility a few heads will roll at the lower level - it generates great publicity for their real goals: more reports to CPS, more laws, more power, more money, and more CPS employees. It can't be a coincidence that so many innocent parents have their children essentially kidnapped, while at the same time, cases such as this show CPS ignores real abuse cases.
CPS knowingly leaves children in homes where real abuse, danger and neglect is present knowing those children are likely to die if not removed.
Once they children do die, a big splash of the stories hit the media and then business booms for CPS with calls coming in if children have a splinter.
Thereafter, CPS enjoys a field day of removing huge numbers of children from the home on trumped up charges and making a fortune on it.
D2
I think the cps should of done something for Erin.If they didn't turn there head she would of been still alive.I can't see having a child eatting out of the garbage just to get a meal. And being lock up like a prisioner ,she is a child.For the animals they should of leave the cats outside at least it better to live in..The child should have been remove along time ago. So the cps should of done something Erin would of been still alive.I blame the parents ,cps. People all the talk about is the house what about the rope that was around that poor girl neck! It got to come down to this, who at fault. Alot of people in that town are very upset and I don't blame them for what they feel I should know it, my town for 21 years.It's a town were everybody knows everyone..I hope there is justice for Erin so the town can rest after this mess is done and over with.. I blame the parnets i hope justice is serve..
I think cps doesn't have the time to be bother.Cause it going to cost them more money yea are tax payer money or state funding what ever it is.They should look in Erin maxwell case more.No they were too LAZY to doing something now look she gone.. What happens if this happens to someone else is a child cry for help going to be ingore cause they don't want to be bother. They should of remove her.She had to live in a dirty house,dirty clothes on her back, no baths,not good eating habits,being up lock up like an animal and so on. There alot of loving parnets that would help a child in this way, to give them the needs that a child wants LOVE,UNDERSTANDING,CARING!!!!! I blame all of them !!!
The flutter following the death of a child "known to the system" engenders huge anti abuse and neglect sentiment by the public. The states publicity machines begin to roll, and they take full advantage of the situations. The increase in reported child "abuse and neglect" cases spiral and the system of legal kidnapping continues for minor and unsubstantiated reports. Will this cycle ever end and the Erins of the world be saved?
CPS & DHS & JDC ALL WORK FOR EACH OTHER I have 10 children and im dam-ed if i do and dam-ed if i dont if i punish my kids and try to make them mind i have dhs on me if i dont then i have to worry about them going to JDC i have been investegated so many times but they never find anything no allegation are true but they still want to bother me and my family and they can come out on all their calls but they cant tell you who calls in on you
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