In the United States they have a webpage like "The case for the foster care system is written in Stone"
They then list a number of cases where children have been molested, in some cases even killed while they were inside the foster care system. Having a lower number of citizens and therefore fewer kids in our foster care system, the number of children who have lost their lives is fewer.
Also the number of cases where the children have been exposed of abuse is fewer. Take for instance the number of children who have been raped or exposed of other kind of sexual molestation. Only one case every 14 days according to numbers from 2009!
But our system has of course the same kind of problems as the foster care system in the United States. Here children also are aging out the system to be kicked out on to the streets unless they are so lucky that they can go back to their original family and avoid a life as homeless on the streets.
We do also have our educational consultants but in this case not helping the parents by rather the social services finding placements for children. Often these people paid by the social services are the only one who can explain why they recommend a specific place for a child and they don’t like to be asked. We as ordinary citizens don’t like to ask how the money train functions and perhaps this is an error.
About 14,000 children enter the Danish foster care system every year. As long as the local department of social services could get some kind of refund from the state they didn’t really care. Often they waited until a child took the wrong track for too long, so the police and court came to. From that point on the state took over until recently. Now the bill is sent back to the local departments of social services and this change got the employees into gear, so suddenly they are able to fix the children and more importantly the parents in time. Because we all know that it is rarely the children which are the problem. It rest with their parents.
But how are the group homes? We don’t really know. Our parliament has a team which should be able to visit any kind of residential facility unannounced. They have only tried that once with a juvenile group home. When they did try to visit Solhaven – one of our group homes in a remote part of Jutland where local goon – former fishermen ruined by the European Union – has created their own local boot camp using muscle force to put back on the right track, the counselor came at our politicians and forced them to drive back to Copenhagen or face arrest by the local biased sheriff. Since none have care about how the children did at the groups not at the present or in the past.
Until…
A report about an old group home called Godhavn were published this month. The report covered a period from WWII to 1975 and it did show rape, corporal punishment (outlawed In group homes since 1937 – today it is called restraints or positive peer control), rape and convicted child offenders having free access to the campus.
The children from then are grown men today. Many are suffering from PTSD, others have committed suicide and almost everyone carries some kind of emotional scar as result of their stay in the group home. Also discovered but little mentioned that much were the medical trials conducted without parental or other kind of consent. The cost of these trials which the boys had to endure was dearly paid but they benefit children with mental issues today.
It is been 3 decades since this period stopped when they honored the director of the campus before he left so people would start talking about his dirty work. It would be easy to say as present politician that we are sorry because the people who were elected back then didn’t do their job, but No.
They won’t say that they are sorry!
Why? Properly because we are only talking troubled children from dysfunction families which are a burden on the society.
We are talking about the politician saying: “Sorry. It is your problem that you were born into that family”
Is that fair?
I don’t believe so, but people in general have a lack of empathy when it comes to troubled children – worldwide!!
Denmark had a broken foster care system back then!
We still have a broken foster care system!
Last year the department of social services in Broenderslev did send a blind social worker who had caught a cold out to such a dysfunctional family. She didn’t notice the clothes of the children falling apart. She didn’t notice diapers not changed for 14 days and old stool integrated in the skin on the legs of the children - All things which neighbors, school and everyone else had seen. This social worker was set up. She has become the fall guy for a dysfunction system. This family had been living in 3 different towns. In every town people had reported them to the social services. Everybody just hoped that they would continue to move on, so they didn’t have to pay for housing these kids to foster care system!
When they then entered the foster care system, the authorities spilt them so they couldn’t start talking with each other and approach them media. So now several kids are alone in the foster system - a system where they could be the unlucky child who will be exposed to sexual abuse every 14 day. Now they cannot even cover for each other!
It is not fair, but we are talking about a system we don’t really want to know anything about.
When Denmarks Radio showed how they worked at Schuberts Minde – another group home in Ringkoebing where a quick search on the internet tell a story about suicide attempts and numerous runways every year, one large newspaper wrote that they shouldn’t have broadcasted it at all.
The appeal system has published a report showing there are errors in 64 percent of the cases where children are removed from their families. Perhaps too many are in the system, so there is not enough time to deal with every single case as much as it matters for the child. Perhaps the money flow demands that a certain number of children just have to be in the system so the social workers can continue to justify their paycheck. I don’t know.
But I do know that the boys from Godhavn should receive an apology. They were failed back then, like so many children are failed today by the same system.
We have to start somewhere to clean up this mesh. An apology to the boys from Godhavn is a good place to start.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Juvenile offenders are punished harder in Denmark than adults
Our Supreme court is reviewing the sentence system for juvenile offenders, because something is wrong with our system.
In a number of cases there have been teens and adults charged with the same crime.
Those who were over 18 then got away with a couple of months while the underaged offenders were given a two year youth sanction. Considering the fact that all may have served time in detention up to the trial the adults could just go free after the trial with time served.
The youth sanction consist of three phases:
There is a lot difference between being locked up for over a year before returning to the local community and then being able to walk right home after the trial.
Fact is that it should be totally opposite. All research states that the brains by teenagers are not fully developed. They are not able to plan long-term like adults. Their crimes are impulse driven.
A country like Denmark should be in the frontline when it comes to both crime prevention and punishing people where it would work.
Warehousing young people for that amount of time in secure detention centers and group homes is not only wrong. It could actually worsen the situation for the teenagers because the teenager may end up being both institutionalized and learning from the other offenders. It is no secret that the Danish penal system is a recruiting base for the gangs responsible for the majority of the armed crime spree which have hit the Danish streets in recent years.
Being tough on crime is not a question of how long we can lock these young people away. It is a matter of stepping in with short but efficient sanctions for anti-social behavior and let the department of social services deal with the long-term treatment in the local community. Warnings don't work. Scared straight don't work. Boot camps don't work. Cooperation between courts and department of social services where the focus is restorative justice is the only path with proven results.
I hope that the state loses in court so the youth sanction can go away and we can start helping the juvenile offenders so the number of victims will be lowered too.
All too often the teenagers who have been through this sanction ends up in adult prison and then the road to recovery will be expensive, hard and long.
Sources:
Højesteret får første sag med 14-årige - Denmarks Radio (In Danish)
Restorative justice - Wikipedia
Examining the Research on Juvenile Programs - Juvenile Justice Bulletin
In a number of cases there have been teens and adults charged with the same crime.
Those who were over 18 then got away with a couple of months while the underaged offenders were given a two year youth sanction. Considering the fact that all may have served time in detention up to the trial the adults could just go free after the trial with time served.
The youth sanction consist of three phases:
- About 2 month in a secure detention center
- 12 months in a open residential treatment center or in a group home based on the economy at the local department of social services
- 10 months with supervision from the local department of social services
There is a lot difference between being locked up for over a year before returning to the local community and then being able to walk right home after the trial.
Fact is that it should be totally opposite. All research states that the brains by teenagers are not fully developed. They are not able to plan long-term like adults. Their crimes are impulse driven.
A country like Denmark should be in the frontline when it comes to both crime prevention and punishing people where it would work.
Warehousing young people for that amount of time in secure detention centers and group homes is not only wrong. It could actually worsen the situation for the teenagers because the teenager may end up being both institutionalized and learning from the other offenders. It is no secret that the Danish penal system is a recruiting base for the gangs responsible for the majority of the armed crime spree which have hit the Danish streets in recent years.
Being tough on crime is not a question of how long we can lock these young people away. It is a matter of stepping in with short but efficient sanctions for anti-social behavior and let the department of social services deal with the long-term treatment in the local community. Warnings don't work. Scared straight don't work. Boot camps don't work. Cooperation between courts and department of social services where the focus is restorative justice is the only path with proven results.
I hope that the state loses in court so the youth sanction can go away and we can start helping the juvenile offenders so the number of victims will be lowered too.
All too often the teenagers who have been through this sanction ends up in adult prison and then the road to recovery will be expensive, hard and long.
Sources:
Højesteret får første sag med 14-årige - Denmarks Radio (In Danish)
Restorative justice - Wikipedia
Examining the Research on Juvenile Programs - Juvenile Justice Bulletin
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Karl Dahl - a little boy denied empathy towards his father
The now 14 year old boy Karl Dahl is a hero. He is a not a troubled teen, but just a boy who used some of his time caring for his father who lost one of his legs.
Although the Danish law allows public funded wheelchairs the city did rather want to remove the boy into foster care where he would face an uncertain future.
The public reacted with an outcry and a wheelchair was delivered to the father so the son could focus on his schooling.
It was two years ago. The department of social services did held held a grudge and waited until the newspapers found other stories to write about. So now they are out hunting for the boy again.
This boy doesn't drink alcohol.
He doesn't do drugs.
His fault is that he cares for his next of kind.
It is a crime in Denmark and for his actions he now have to languishing in foster care until he becomes adult and can be reunited with his father if he is a alive at that time.
Karl Dahl (photos)
Karl tvangsfjernet fra handicappet far (Article in Danish)
Although the Danish law allows public funded wheelchairs the city did rather want to remove the boy into foster care where he would face an uncertain future.
The public reacted with an outcry and a wheelchair was delivered to the father so the son could focus on his schooling.
It was two years ago. The department of social services did held held a grudge and waited until the newspapers found other stories to write about. So now they are out hunting for the boy again.
This boy doesn't drink alcohol.
He doesn't do drugs.
His fault is that he cares for his next of kind.
It is a crime in Denmark and for his actions he now have to languishing in foster care until he becomes adult and can be reunited with his father if he is a alive at that time.
Karl Dahl (photos)
Karl tvangsfjernet fra handicappet far (Article in Danish)
Friday, February 11, 2011
Denmark - victim by so-called professionals?
This blog-entry was first published on our webpage January 13, 2011:
Right now the authorities are looking on every case where they have removed a child from their parents only to place them in foster care or at group homes.
Denmark are known for using over-priced solutions compared with the rest of the Nordic countries. In fact numbers from 2010 did show that most group homes cost about 25 percent more compared with group homes in Sweden and Norway.
But are they better?
No. The number of placements a child removed from the parents at an early age live to reside in is high. Some have been placed in more than 10 places before the reach the age of adulthood.
Also a steady number of scandals hit the entire business every. Cases of abuse, cases of the use of methods which every professional would question.
Denmark is known to be a country where quality is something which are perferred rather than quantity, but when it comes to the decision whether to remove a child from the parents, Denmark is using an old method which does not serve the child best.
Very often the largest department in city order a massive report called the Clause 50 report. Everybody involved in the life of a child (school, kindergarten, therapists, doctor, hospital etc.) are asked what kind of problems they believe a family have. Then it takes months while the case worker tries to incorporate negative wordings in the statement so the department of social service can justify the spendings.
Once the report is finished the case worker present the report to part-time politicians who often have no background or education which enables them to become experts in such cases.
Needless to say that the department of social services often is the both the lawyer and judge in such cases. You just have to ask yourself if you as a parttime politician would go against such a professional case worker, when it is question to serve the child involved in the case in the best possible way.
Of course not, so the case worker is mandated to call some of his or her friends who runs a group home or are qualified to be foster care parents. In Denmark all it take is to copy the mission statement of another group home before you are in business as a group home.
Denmark has been hit by the economy. Never has there been a reason for the politicians to order consultants to review the spendings of the department of social services as now. It would take some courage by the politicians, but it is needed to battle conditions which resembles corruption.
In order countries like the United States it is well known that educational consultants receive massive fees when they refer children to residential treatment options.
Denmark keeps the selection process a secret. It leaves the impression that there are something to hide. The only way to discover whether it is the case is to make a review of the spendings.
It cannot be done too soon. We are talking the lives of the children.
References:
Large fluctuations in youth placements (Videnskab.dk - google translated)
Right now the authorities are looking on every case where they have removed a child from their parents only to place them in foster care or at group homes.
Denmark are known for using over-priced solutions compared with the rest of the Nordic countries. In fact numbers from 2010 did show that most group homes cost about 25 percent more compared with group homes in Sweden and Norway.
But are they better?
No. The number of placements a child removed from the parents at an early age live to reside in is high. Some have been placed in more than 10 places before the reach the age of adulthood.
Also a steady number of scandals hit the entire business every. Cases of abuse, cases of the use of methods which every professional would question.
Denmark is known to be a country where quality is something which are perferred rather than quantity, but when it comes to the decision whether to remove a child from the parents, Denmark is using an old method which does not serve the child best.
Very often the largest department in city order a massive report called the Clause 50 report. Everybody involved in the life of a child (school, kindergarten, therapists, doctor, hospital etc.) are asked what kind of problems they believe a family have. Then it takes months while the case worker tries to incorporate negative wordings in the statement so the department of social service can justify the spendings.
Once the report is finished the case worker present the report to part-time politicians who often have no background or education which enables them to become experts in such cases.
Needless to say that the department of social services often is the both the lawyer and judge in such cases. You just have to ask yourself if you as a parttime politician would go against such a professional case worker, when it is question to serve the child involved in the case in the best possible way.
Of course not, so the case worker is mandated to call some of his or her friends who runs a group home or are qualified to be foster care parents. In Denmark all it take is to copy the mission statement of another group home before you are in business as a group home.
Denmark has been hit by the economy. Never has there been a reason for the politicians to order consultants to review the spendings of the department of social services as now. It would take some courage by the politicians, but it is needed to battle conditions which resembles corruption.
In order countries like the United States it is well known that educational consultants receive massive fees when they refer children to residential treatment options.
Denmark keeps the selection process a secret. It leaves the impression that there are something to hide. The only way to discover whether it is the case is to make a review of the spendings.
It cannot be done too soon. We are talking the lives of the children.
References:
Large fluctuations in youth placements (Videnskab.dk - google translated)
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Welcome to this blog
This blog will deal with the issue of the rights of children in Denmark.
February 2011 the Danish government went against the recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of the Child when they stated that they would not create the office of an ombudsman for Children in Denmark.
We find that this decision is wrong and that Danish children need legal aid when their parents are in danger of losing custody.
Our human rights organization based in Sweden at the movement is called Minors in residential placement research center. We work together with other organizations the world over regarding better legal protection of children in our society.
February 2011 the Danish government went against the recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of the Child when they stated that they would not create the office of an ombudsman for Children in Denmark.
We find that this decision is wrong and that Danish children need legal aid when their parents are in danger of losing custody.
Our human rights organization based in Sweden at the movement is called Minors in residential placement research center. We work together with other organizations the world over regarding better legal protection of children in our society.
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