NOnMB[R
1 00
Poverty Endangerment?
arents have been
arrested
thi
s
year
in New
Yo
rk Ci
ty
on c
hil
d
neglect
cha
r
ges like
never
before.
Misdemeanor
child endangerment
arrests
are up 60
percent
since
1995.
And
the
number
of
children
r
emoved
from
their
families by
child
welfare
officials skyrocketed
25
percent
in
the
12
months ending last
June
compared
to
the
previous
year.
..•.
-
..
.-.
As
we
reported
in ou
r
August/Septembe
r
cover
st
ory,
some
mothers have been arrested
based
on
unsubstantiated
reports
filed
by
estranged and abusive husbands and boyfriends.
Remarkably,
other mothers have
been
arrested and
had
their
children taken away
because
they
we
re
too
poor
to
afford
a
decent place
to live.
EDITORI L
Are these
legitimate
grounds
for
breaking
up
families,
dragging
parents
through
the
criminal
justice
system-and
spending
tens
of
ho
u
sands
of
taxpayer dollars
per
child
on
foster
care
placements? Apparently
yes,
as
far
as the
Giuliani administration
is
concerned.
The
city
has
shifted
its handling
of
abuse
and neglect
cases
to
include
up-front
arrests and
deten
tion-and
removal
of
child
r
en
-
before
investigations
have been
carried out
and
allegations
have been
substantiated.
Of
course
proven abusers
who
have caused serious
harm
to
their
children
deserve prosecution and punishment.
B
ut too
frequently
the
people dragged
into
court
do
not
fit
this profile.
One
indication
can be
found
in
state statistics,
which show
that nearly
onejou
rth
of the
children
removed from
their parents by
c
hi
ld
welfare
officia
ls
in
one
mo
n
th
(last February
is
the
most
recent
data
available)
were
returned
home
within
90
days-a
rate
nearly
double
that
of
early
1996
.
Experts
say such
a
resolution occurs most often because
the
removal was
not
justifiable
in court.
In
an
October follow-up
to
our story
in
The
New
York
Tim
es,
write
r R
achel Swarns
quotes Police Commissioner
Howard Safir: The
fac
t
is
that
even
if
we
make
a
mistake
in an
i
ntervention, that's
a
mistake
that
doesn't
really
harm
a ch
ild
.
Huh?
Is
Safir truly oblivious
to
the
fact
that young
children
unnecessarily snatched
from
their
parents'
protection
suffer
extreme
emotiona
l
trauma?
Editoria
l
writers
at
the
city's tabloids
wou
ld
likely
say,
Better
safe
than
sorry.
It's
afalse
argument
.
Unsubstantiated arrests and inappropriate removal
of
children
are
severely abusive
practices
in
and
of
themselves.
They are
not
benign,
protective actions.
The
administration needs
to
learn how
to
provide important child protection
services
effectively without punishing
functional
families simply because
they
are
poor
or need help finding
a
decent place
to live.
The
very
programs designed
to
help these
families-community-based
foster-care prevention
programs-are
severely short
of r
esources even
as the
city spends millions
of
extra dollars
on
new
child
removals
and short
-
term
foster-care placements.
The
Child
Welfare
Watch
project affiliated
with the
Center
for
an Urban Future,
City
Limits
sister
organization, will hold
a
public
forum
to
di
scuss
these
issues
on Tuesday
,
November
25
from
9
a.m. to
Jl
:3
0
a.m.
at
the
CUNY television
studio, 33
West
42nd
St
r
eet,
3rdfloor.
o
attend, you
must RSVP
to
(212)
479
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Gilmore Foundation,
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ity
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CITVLlMITS
1
I
NOVEMBER 997
FE TURES
AI
Vann
and
the
Revolution
Unplugged
wenty years ago,
Assemblyman
Al Vann
promised
to
lead
a
grand coalition
of
blacks
and
Puerto
Ricans
that
would
run
the city
right-from
the left.
Now he
s
lucky
to
hold onto
a
diminishing Bed-Stuy power
base,
and
a
united, powerful black Brooklyn
is
once again
just
a
dream
.
By R
on Howell
Anatomy
of
a Sweetheart
Deal
he Jose
de Diego
Beekman
Houses
in
Mott
Haven
has
been
a
sweetheart
to
everybody---except
its
besieged
tenants.
Billionaires like
Bob Tisch made it
a
quiet hideaway
for tax
shelter
cash
.
Murdering
drug gangs
like
the Wild
Cowboys
made it
their
hole
in
the wall.
Now its
tenants
are
creating
a
bailout that
may
be
the
model for hundreds
of
similar projects
across the
country
.
It
also happens
to
help out
a
high-powered Clinton
fundraiser.
By
Kim
Na
uer
PIPELINES
Central Holding
lternative-to-incarceration
programs reform
criminals
,
save money and open
up
prison cells for
more
dangerous
felons. So
why has
the city
created
a
new
screening process?
By
SashaAbramsky
Courting
Calamity
he tenants supposedly
won
the rent wars
last
summer
.
But
a
pair
of
landlord-bonanza
Housing
Court
laws whisked
quietly
through Albany
could result
in
33
,
000 new
evictions
next
year.
By
Glenn Thrush
Finding Factory
Funding
nvestment
from the
city s
municipal
and union
pension
funds could help
spark
a
revival
of
New York s
beleaguered manufacturing
base,
but
try
telling that
to
City
Hall
.
By Chris
Seymour
Lone
Ranger
No
More
For decades
the Regional Plan
Association
padded the
corridors
of
power and flexed
muscle
for its
sweeping visions
of
regional
development.
But
now
the group must
court communities
i
t wants
to
see
its
latest
plan take wing.
Review
To
Market
,
To
Market?
Spare
Change
Fly,
Dodo, Fly
Editorial
Letters
COMMENT RY
DEP RTMENTS
2
Vita
I
Stats
Ammo
By Michael
Hirsch
32
By
John
E
Seley
38
By
Glenn Thrush
4 5
Briefs
5 7
Professional Directory
36
Supplanting
ACORN
;
Housing
Off
Line;
Bad Banking;
Water
Fight
ob
Ads
37 39
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