The Child Protection eNewsletter

Report urges Texas youth prison reform… 

A special investigator has issued a report saying the state's juvenile prison system needs a sweeping overhaul to ensure the health and safety of children placed in the agency.  Read More Here  Jay Kimbrough, who was appointed by Governor Rick Perry in March to oversee an investigation into allegations of physical and sexual abuse at Texas Youth Commission facilities, told state officials that the agency suffers from a "fundamental lack of accountability" that officials have been unwilling to address.  Two top administrators of the West Texas State School in Pyote were indicted recently on charges of sexual abuse of inmates there.

According to the report, the chief culprit behind agency problems was its structure, which concentrates too much power in the hands of officials at 22 outlying facilities.  "The lack of a strong, centralized management structure allowed leaders at individual facilities to override agency policies, control hiring and wield tremendous influence over the complaint process," the report says.

Kimbrough, a former Perry aide, recommended 56 ways to restore the agency's credibility and said many of his recommendations have been implemented since the scandal broke in February.  Among the recommendations given highest priority by Kimbrough are to strengthen background checks for TYC staff, to release juveniles jailed for misdemeanors, and to create a panel to consider modifying the juvenile sentencing process.

The investigation into sexual abuse and mismanagement at the Texas Youth Commission has led to the dismissal of 66 employees with records of felony charges or arrests, including one convicted of homicide and another who had pleaded guilty to attempted murder.  Read More Here

Dad locks kids in cages to do drugs… 

A boy was locked up in a small dog cage when he was being punished and while his father used drugs, and he sometimes had to wear a shock collar, authorities said.  Read More Here  His parents appeared briefly in court Thursday on charges of child endangerment and making or selling drugs in front of the boy, 10, and his 5-year-old brother.  Jessica Botzko, 28, and John Westover, 37, were arrested Wednesday, a day after the boys were left alone at home and ran away.  They were found on a neighbor's porch.

The older boy told officers that he left because he was tired of being locked up, said police Captain Ray Carroll.  The cage was less than 2 feet high and 2 feet wide, and had a chain across the top with two locks on each end, he said.  "He had to tuck his knees into his chest, and he fell asleep in there on a couple occasions," Carroll said.  "It wasn't continuous.  It was probably on and off for punishment."  Court documents say the 10-year-old boy was repeatedly shocked at the family's home through a remote-controlled collar meant as a training device for animals.

In other news… 

A 29-year-old man who was accused last year at a congressional hearing of molesting a teenage boy has been sentenced to several prison terms.  Read More Here  Justin Berry, who testified before Congress last year about online child pornography, said he was lured to Michigan from California as a teenager to attend a computer camp and was molested by Kenneth Gourlay.  vol4_iss16  and  vol4_iss1

Prominent evangelical Christians are urging churchgoers to strongly consider adoption or foster care, not just out of kindness or biblical calling but also to answer criticism that their movement, while condemning abortion and same-sex adoption, doesn't do enough for children without parents.  Read More Here  With backing from Focus on the Family and best-selling author Rick Warren, the effort to promote "orphan care" among the nation's estimated 65 million evangelicals could drastically reduce foster care rolls if successful.

A 1-year-old boy died after being left alone in a car for hours as temperatures soared into the 80s, and his father was charged with negligent homicide, police said.  Read More Here  Timothy Reid was found unresponsive by his father, Robert Reid, Tuesday afternoon, nearly seven hours after Reid parked the car at work, officials said.  Emergency workers pronounced the toddler dead at the scene and said the temperature in the car was 142 degrees.

The U.S. Marshals Service said a law enforcement team had hunted down Kenneth John Freeman, the man the director of the Marshals Service called the "king of the child exploitation suspects," tracking him to Hong Kong where he was arrested.  Read More Here  "Once in a while, there comes along somebody who is just beyond description," U.S. Marshals Director John Clark told ABC News.  Authorities charge that Freeman raped his daughter over a two-year period, starting when she was 10 years old.  He videotaped the scenes and posted them online in what, they said, became "one of the most widely downloaded child pornography videos" in recent history, seen by millions.  Freeman apparently wants to contest his extradition to the United States, a lawyer said.  Read More Here

A 10-year-old disabled girl severely burned by scalding bath water died after going more than a week without medical treatment, authorities said Tuesday.  Her father and a female relative were charged in her death.  Read More Here  "If you'd see the photos and the condition that she was left in - just to lay in that bed with all those burns," said Police Chief Charles Kellar.  "I mean, it was horrible."  Quiniece Lockett was blind, partially paralyzed and had cerebral palsy, Kellar said.

Last month, we reported Catholic Charities was closing one of Illinois' largest foster care programs in less than three months, leaving the state and other agencies to quickly absorb its Chicago area caseload of more than 900 children because of an inability to keep its liability insurance coverage.  vol5_iss28  Out of 26 potential insurers provided by a broker, "24 denied us, our current carrier offered us coverage for everything but foster care" and the last company never responded, the agency reported.  Read More Here

Although prosecutors said Miss America may not testify against the men she helped arrest in an undercover sex sting in which she was used as bait, the Miss America Organization says the 2007 winner will help in any way she can.  Read More Here  Lauren Nelson, 20, of Lawton, Oklahoma, worked with police in Suffolk County to target would-be Internet sexual predators, taped for an episode of the TV show "America's Most Wanted."  vol5_iss30

A Pennsylvania  high school student charged with raping a schoolmate while she was very drunk is still attending classes in the same school with the girl, though a judge has ordered him not to have contact with the girl.  Read More Here  Officials at the Moon Area School District confirmed that Vincent Valenzi, 18, has continued attending classes since he was charged April 2 with raping the girl, who was just 14, during a party at his home on March 24.  The girl had passed out, or nearly so, from drinking beer and tequila when Valenzi assaulted her, police said.

Since the Baltimore Jewish Times' April 13 account that the deceased Rabbi Ephraim F. Shapiro—former principal of the Talmudical Academy and spiritual leader of the old Agudas Achim Synagogue—molested young boys hundreds of times, at least three women have come forward to share their molestation stories.  Read More Here  Pedophiles, according to Lisa Ferentz, a Pikesville-based clinical social worker and creator of a certificate program in Advanced Trauma Treatment, are not necessarily attracted to one gender over the other

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