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Aug 9, 2007 6:51 pm US/Eastern
Scathing Report Exposes Problems With ACS
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
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Nixzmary Brown, 7, was molested, tortured and beaten to death by her stepfather.
AP
The city issued a damning report on its child welfare agency on Thursday, calling for significant change in the way caseworkers look into allegations of abuse and neglect after 10 children died as a result of bungled investigations.
The city's Department of Investigation said it probed the deaths of 11 children and one who nearly drowned in an eight-month stretch beginning in October 2005. DOI said that in all the cases, the Administration for Children's Services was either investigating the parents or had completed its findings.
"In all but one of these cases, DOI has found that the investigations conducted by ACS were substantially inadequate and incomplete," the 141-page report said.
The sharply critical report outlines a troubling pattern of lying, incompetence, carelessness, ill-trained caseworkers and the grim details of the little children whose deaths likely could have been prevented, according to the report.
The shocking cases include the 2006 brutal beating deaths of Nixzmary Brown, 7, and Quachaun Brown, 4, along with 2-month-old Michael Segarra, who died in his crib of neglect and tested positive for cocaine at birth.
Mayor Bloomberg ordered the DOI investigation in January 2006 after widespread concern about ACS's ability to properly investigate and respond to abuse allegations, the report said.
The concern proved well-founded.
The DOI's extensive investigation "revealed grave problems in the quality and integrity of the investigations conducted by ACS staff," the report said.
The report said caseworkers routinely took the word of parents who denied the allegations. At other times, managers put pressure on caseworkers to "close cases within the state-mandated 60 day period at the expense of a thorough and thoughtful investigation of the allegations."
Shoddy work was rampant.
"In many cases, rather than attempting to interview individuals who would likely have had relevant or corroborative information concerning the allegations ... ACS simply closed their investigations concluding that there was no credible evidence to support the allegations," according to the report.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
