Why We Need Prop 122 to reform CPS Observations by AZ State Senator Jonathan Paton In 2007, shortly after I returned to the Arizona State Legislature from a tour of active duty in Iraq, I was contacted by a Tucson television news station, KVOA TV. They were calling about the deaths of two Tucson children, Ariana and Tyler Payne, who had been murdered by their own father, Christopher Payne. One of the children’s bodies was discovered in a storage unit in Tucson. When they interviewed both Tucson Police Department and Child Protective Services (CPS) about the case, the KVOA reporters were told conflicting stories. The most troubling issue was that both Ariana and Tyler Payne were known to be at risk by CPS, but the agency simply forgot about them until their deaths. Their lives simply dropped through the cracks in the bureaucracy. KVOA reporters asked me, a state lawmaker, to try to clear up what had actually happened in the Payne case. Shortly after these deaths, another tragedy rocked Arizona, Brandon Williams, another little boy from Tucson, was murdered by his own mother. Again, it turned out CPS had been investigating her for child abuse too. I spoke to CPS and their attorneys and asked to see the actual case files on the investigations CPS had conducted on the Payne children and Brandon Williams. I wanted to know what had happened in the two cases. I will never forget the feeling of talking to these lawyers with the case files in their laps and being told that the government would let me look at the records of the mistakes CPS had made, mistakes that allowed vulnerable children to fall through the cracks, but there was a condition. “We’ll let you look at the records,” someone from CPS told me, “but the information is confidential.” “Confidential? What if I find evidence of wrong-doing? Can I talk about that?” I asked. “If you reveal anything, you will be prosecuted.” I was stunned. Keeping CPS records secret was designed to protect the identity of children, but when children are murdered, who is CPS trying to protect? But the officials were insistent, no information could be revealed. It’s the ultimate dilemma – you can find out what really happened, but you cannot do anything to fix the problem. The information that I read in those files was heartbreaking and shocking. Child Protective Services had made numerous mistakes and even broken state law. Despite a court order barring Christopher Payne, a heroin addict, from having custody of Ariana and Tyler, CPS had not only handed the children over to him, but they never checked on them again. This was a violation of CPS’ own rules and Arizona State law. But the problems did not end there. Other cases began popping up and a pattern developed. In a period of one year six Tucson children had three things in common: CPS investigated their parents for abuse, CPS lost track of them and at the end of one year all six children were dead. As a result of these deaths, the Arizona Legislature passed reforms to make CPS records available in cases where the child died or there was a near fatality. The bills were passed with overwhelming majorities of Republicans and Democrats. The idea was that Arizona would have the most open child protective services system in the U.S. The problem was that despite changes in Arizona law, CPS still managed to keep records of these children hidden from public scrutiny. Each time CPS and their attorneys cited regulations from a federal law called the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). Washington, they said, bars Arizona from releasing records. Arizona is the only state that takes that view. Other states use CAPTA to give them a way to protect children, but Arizona uses it to protect bureaucrats. Why is transparency so important? After all, isn’t lack of funding the major reason why these children are dying? It is certainly true that better funding can mean more caseworkers to follow children. It can also mean that caseworkers can have better training. The problem is that without having access to CPS records we really have no way of proving that. In addition, at the time of the high profile Tucson deaths, CPS had received its largest funding increases in its history. The reason why I think transparency is so important is because if we know how children fall through the cracks of a bureaucracy, we can find ways to fix those problems. One of the lessons we learned from the Brandon Williams case, for example, was that CPS and law enforcement needed to cooperate more. As a result, the legislature passed a bill that led to more cooperation. In Southern Arizona alone, over one hundred children were saved from abuse since that law was passed. Transparency can literally save lives. But despite all of this, CPS and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office uses CAPTA as a way to shield the government from more scrutiny. You see the headlines every year and the problems are not only in Southern Arizona— children are dying all over Arizona and the troubles CPS have keep intensifying. That is why I support Prop 122. Prop 122 gives Arizona the ability to simply opt out of any federal program that prevents Arizona from releasing records of children who are fatalities or near fatalities. Prop 122 gives Arizona the ability to take away one more excuse the government has to hide its mistakes. I am a firm believer that a government that operates in secret will eventually abuse its power. A transparent government is a government that is ultimately accountable to the people it serves. Transparency is not a Republican or Democrat issue. The problems facing CPS have been the same problems whether a Republican or a Democrat was running the State of Arizona. Whether you believe our child welfare needs more funding or less funding, we can all agree we need to know what our government is doing and how it is operating. I believe Prop 122 gives Arizona voters the tools to do that. The State of Arizona could not save Ariana and Tyler Payne, but I firmly believe Ariana and Tyler can save the State of Arizona. Senator Jonathan Paton Fmr Judiciary Chair - Arizona State Senate Fmr Vice Chair of Government Reform - Arizona State Senat
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 03:15:25 +0000
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