For several years, two of America’s top ten big cities have
been extreme outliers when it came to tearing children from their families. When entries into care were compared to the
number of children living in poverty Phoenix had the worst rate of removal
among big cities; Philadelphia was second. Well, now that's changed.
Now children are more likely to be consigned to the chaos of foster care
if they live in Philadelphia than any other big city in America. (Phoenix remains a very close second.)
Details are in the updated NCCPR Big City
Rate-of-Removal Index.
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| Photo of Joe Arpaio by Gage Skidmore |
What happened?
Prompted in part by great
reporting by both the Arizona
Republic and the Arizona Daily Star,
which went all over the country
highlighting places that succeeded in safely curbing needless foster care, Arizona
has begun to get serious about safe, proven alternatives to taking away
children.
The rate of removal in Phoenix is still awful, but not as
bad as it was – and no longer quite as bad as Philadelphia. That’s right, even in the place that elected
Joe Arpaio sheriff, they are more careful about harming impoverished children
with needless foster care than they are in Philadelphia.
How bad is Philadelphia? The rate of removal is triple the
rate of New York City and quadruple the rate of Chicago.
Of course, one could point out that there have been horror
stories about deaths of children “known to the system” in New York City and
Chicago. But there also have been such
cases in Philadelphia. Does anyone
seriously believe Philadelphia children are three times safer from abuse than
children in New York and four times safer from abuse than children in Chicago?
By the way, if you don’t factor in poverty, Philadelphia’s
record looks even worse.
