Family Rights and Child Abuse News

Your right to record the police

by Jazz Shaw

In an era where virtually every phone is a combination audio recorder, still shot and video camera, one disturbing trend of late has been the increasing habit of police to arrest citizens who record their activities in the public square.

Glenn Reynolds, in the Examiner, goes on to detail the additional case of Simon Glik in Massachusetts, who recently won an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals For The First Circuit. Mr. Glik was arrested for videotaping police in the act of detaining a suspect on a public street and subsequently charged with "wiretapping." I should say up front that I'm pretty much always a big supporter of the police, having had more than a few of them in our family. But when they conduct their business out in public, they are held to a high standard. If they are dong their jobs properly, they should have nothing to fear from the scrutiny of the rest of the citizens.

Hot Air

September 5, 2011

Youngstown News, CSB policies questioned

by Ed Runyan

About 10 members of the public attended a Trumbull County Children Services Board meeting Tuesday to question the board about policies that protect the rights of the parents of children who come into the CSB system.

The group believes Trumbull CSB isn't following one of the Ohio Rules of Juvenile Procedure when a child is removed from a home over allegations of abuse or neglect. Smith said he believes the rules require a judge or magistrate to rule on whether there is probable cause for a child to be removed from a home, but no judge is involved in such cases in Trumbull County.

vindy.com

August 31, 2011

Young offenders get an alternative to custody

by Amelia Gentleman

Daily life for 15-year-old Stuart is governed by a complex system of incentives and points that seems to have more in common with a television gameshow than a custodial sentence.

As a participant in an experimental youth justice initiative, he is working out a nine-month sentence for aggravated burglary as a guest in the home of a warmly sympathetic foster parent, instead of being locked up in a young offenders institution (YOI).

The Guardian

April 29, 2009

Young lives blighted forever

by Kim Dungey

When Dunedin man Clem Wright died a virtual recluse, his stepbrother Vince claimed he was one of many former foster children whose lives had been ruined by abuse.

Mr. Wright was raised by loving foster parents but Clem Wright lived in 14 homes in 14 years, suffered from rickets and was attacked by his foster parents with a stock whip. Convinced that situation was not unusual in New Zealand in the 1930s and 1940s, Mr. Wright sought stories of others in the area who had been fostered.

Otago Daily Times (NZ)

November 7, 2008

Young boy's death at hands of foster parents led to change

by Michael D. Pitman

It's been five years since the death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel at the hands of his foster parents that captured the attention of the region, state and nation, sent two people to prison and led to a child welfare system overhaul.

Marcus' death during the weekend of Aug. 4-6, 2006, in the closet of the Carrolls' Union Twp. home in Clermont County placed a giant spotlight on some gaping holes in the child welfare system and led private foster placement agency, the former Lifeway for Youth, from operating in the state. While his death was the breaking point to prompt reform in Ohio's foster care and children services system, other children died while under the charge of Butler County Children Services: Tiffany Hubbard, 3, of Hamilton in 1986; Randi Fuller, 2, of Hamilton, in 2000; Christopher Long, 2, of Middletown, in 2001; Courtney Centers, 3, of Middletown in 2002; Jesus Rodriquez, 7 months, of Hamilton in 2003; and Justin Johnson, 13 months, of Middletown in 2004.

oxfordpress.com

August 7, 2011