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From New York Times:
Maisha Joefield thought she was getting by pretty well as a young single mother in Brooklyn, splurging on her daughter, Deja, even though money was tight. When Deja was a baby, she bought her Luvs instead of generic diapers when she could. When her daughter got a little older, Ms. Joefield outfitted the bedroom in their apartment with a princess bed for Deja, while she slept on a pullout couch.
She had family around, too. Though she had broken up with Dejas father, they spent holidays and vacations together for Dejas sake. Ms. Joefields grandmother lived across the street, and Deja knew she could always go to her great-grandmothers apartment in an emergency.
One night, exhausted, Ms. Joefield put Deja to bed, and plopped into a bath with her headphones on.
By the time I come out, Im looking, I dont see my child, said Ms. Joefield, who began frantically searching the building. Deja, who was 5, had indeed headed for the grandmothers house when she couldnt find her mother, but the next thing Ms. Joefield knew, it was a police matter.
Im thinking, Ill explain to them what happened, and Ill get my child, Ms. Joefield said.
For most parents, this scenario might be a panic-inducing, but hardly insurmountable, hiccup in the long trial of raising a child. Yet for Ms. Joefield and women in her circumstances living in poor neighborhoods, with few child care options the consequences can be severe. Police officers removed Deja from her apartment and the Administration for Childrens Services placed her in foster care. Police charged Ms. Joefield with endangering the welfare of a child.
She was caught up in what lawyers and others who represent families say is a troubling and longstanding phenomenon: the power of Childrens Services to take children from their parents on the grounds that the childs safety is at risk, even with scant evidence.
The agencys requests for removals filed in family court rose 40 percent in the first quarter of 2017, to 730 from 519, compared with the same period last year, according to figures obtained by The New York Times.
In interviews, dozens of lawyers working on these cases say the removals punish parents who have few resources. Their clients are predominantly poor black and Hispanic women, they say, and the criminalization of their parenting choices has led some to nickname the practice: Jane Crow.
After Ms. Joefield was released from jail, she had a court hearing, and Deja was returned to her after four days. Still, the case stayed open for a year, during which she had to take parenting classes, and caseworkers regularly stopped by her apartment to do things like check her cupboards for adequate food supplies and inspect Dejas body for bruises. They asked me if I beat her, Ms. Joefield said. Theyre putting me in this box of bad mothers.
Its a slap in your face to have someone tell you what you can and cannot do with a child that you brought into this world, she said, wiping tears away.
I still get nervous, she said. Youre afraid to parent the way you would normally parent.
Lawyers for parents say the spikes in child removals tend to occur after high-profile failures in the system, and this could well describe the pattern now: In December, the agency administrator resigned after two children who were being monitored by the agency were beaten to death in separate incidents.
As a result, an independent monitor is now assessing the agency, and the new commissioner, David Hansell, has promised to reform it.
Mr. Hansell said in an interview that Childrens Services has been trying to shift from ordering removals to offering support. He supplied figures showing that emergency removals of the kind that took Deja from her mother were about the same, a little over 300, in the first two months of 2017 as during the same period in 2016.
Vivek Sankaran, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, has examined short-term placements of children in foster care. He learned that in the 2013 federal fiscal year, 25,000 children nationwide were in foster care for 30 days or fewer, about 10 percent of the total removals.
According to court records from Ms. Joefields case, a passer-by found Deja, who was then 5, out on the sidewalk at midnight. The records noted that Deja appeared well looked after. Deja told interviewers that she attended school daily and usually ate pancakes for breakfast.
Dejas pediatrician told the agency that Ms. Joefield is very attentive and that Deja is a smart kid. Administrators at Dejas school said they had no concerns. And Childrens Services, in a report on the family, noted that Ms. Joefield was in college; Dejas father, who lived nearby, was employed and involved; Deja was very intelligent for her age; and there was plenty of family support.
Still, the agency pushed for Deja to be removed, though records show the great-grandmother called the agency asking that Deja be sent to her. Dejas father was also available.
But those four days in 2010, Ms. Joefield said, had produced long-lasting effects.
First, her name remained on a state registry of child abusers for years, preventing Ms. Joefield, a former day care worker, from working with children. Most important, she said, speaking of Deja, the experience had changed her.
The threat of the agency removing children has become a weapon landlords use to force out lower paying tenants. According to dozens of public defenders and housing lawyers, some parents face a stark choice: leave their apartments or lose their kids.
Bernadette Charles found this out when her apartment, in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, experienced problem after problem. A sluice of brown water came through the ceiling, ruining the suede couch she had just purchased on credit. Large rats took over the kitchen.
While her husband spent his days driving a school bus, she spent hers worrying about how each new hazard would affect her four sons. At first she kept quiet. She felt fortunate to have a place where her family could meet the rent. One day she walked into the bathroom to find black mold sprouting in paisley patterns on the walls. For Ms. Charles, that was the breaking point.
Ms. Charles said that when her landlord learned she had complained to 311 about conditions, he punished her by calling Childrens Services. The agency worker arrived days later. The worker cited unsafe conditions, including roaches and dirty dishes in the sink. Despite noting that the couples four children were clean and healthy, the worker said they could not stay and removed the children. Ms. Charles remembers her youngest, who was 3 at the time, wailing as he was taken from the apartment.
He didnt want to give us any chance, Ms. Charles said of the Childrens Services agent. Three days later, a judge ordered that the family be reunited.
