San Jose Mercury - Broken Families, Broken Courts

Last week the San Jose Mercury News highlighted how the court system is failing the parents and children who fall into the system. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you'll know that it was not new news to me. It is getting to a point that I am starting to get jealous of myself.

That series was then followed by a story of the legal dependency service run by Gary Proctor resigning, deciding to not apply to renew his contract with the county. Per the SJ Merc, he had established an operating policy to basically 'cooperate' with Social Services and the District Attorney Office (who represent the children) instead of zealously defending the rights of parents. This resulted in numerous injustices over the years - children being wrongfully taken from parents and destroying families instead of doing everything possible to keep them together.

I remember a meeting I went to that included all the court partners in a, "what the heck are you doing?" meeting. Everyone there was cooperative and sincerely wanted to fix the problems but the person representing the legal dependency service was the only one who felt insulted that I would be so presumptuous as to tell them how to do their job. Of course, I was equally insulted that I felt I needed to tell them how to do their job that he/they were being so handsomely recompensed for. He, to his credit, and with a lump in his throat, admitted that there have been grave injustices.

As mentioned a few weeks ago right here in Adventures in Human Rights, in a conversation I had with someone from Social Services, I was told that the contract with Proctor is being reviewed and HOW representation of the parents is being done was also being reviewed, so the problem was known about and something was being done about it, even if it was just thinking about it.

While the investigative story by the San Jose Mercury News was excellent, it really just covered the surface manifestations of the problem. The old, 'follow the money' adage was not completely tracked down, and until that is done, the real solutions will not be allowed to be implemented. How's that for a teaser?!

Preview: My next posting will cover how in Santa Cruz, a 25-year veteran Psychologist with a wall full of Degrees was stripped of all civil rights in defending her husband due to false reports by a Psychiatrist, and its' devastating results. She reports to me, "Psychiatry has sold its soul to the Big Pharma."