It happens all over the country. A watchdog agency or a news organization exposes rampant abuse of children confined to group homes and institutions. Just in the past year, horrors have been exposed in Arizona, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Utah, Oklahoma, Washington State, Arkansas, Connecticut and New York, to name a few.
Whenever all that abuse is exposed, people wonder how it
could have been missed by the state’s child protective services agency, the
agency mandated to keep children safe and, often, the very agency that put the
children there in the first place. Thanks to Ashley Deckert, director of the
Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), we know the
real answer. Speaking at a legislative hearing concerning appalling abuse at
St. Mary’s Home for Children, she said ...
