In 1990, Brenda Scott, an author with a degree in law enforcement and criminology, wrote a rather frightening book entitled “Out of Control: Who’s Watching Our Child Protection Agencies“. In it she addressed some very disturbing facts regarding conspiracies and malpractice issues within the very institutions put in place to protect our nation’s children from abuse.

In her book, Scott quoted Justice Louis D. Brandeis, a Supreme Court Justice born in 1856. He championed progressive social causes and helped to develop the “right to privacy” concept in law. One of his well known statements is, “the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”

According to Senator Nancy Schaefer, a conservative politician who published the controversial 2007 report entitled ” The Corrupt Business of Child Protective Services”, in 1998 the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect reported that six times as many children died in foster care than in the general public. She also pointed out that the agency had admitted that once the children were removed to “safety”, they were then far more likely to be abused, physically and sexually, than in the general population.

Schaefer wrote her report because she believed that CPS had reached a point where the system was so poorly regulated, and the case workers were so ruthless, that it had become a “protected empire” which performed “legal kidnappings”. Families needed to be aware of the truth. While Schaefer focused her report on the CPS of her home state, Georgia, she was emphatic that it was no different in the remaining 49 states.

Unfortunately, evidence of this can be seen all over Michigan. Cases like those of the Wendrows, Maryanne Godboldo, and US Navy Officer Matthew Hindes are just a few of the classic examples of a parent whose rights were violated, whose children were treated like property, and who faced phenomenal odds in getting back legal custody of their children.

CPS has been called many things over the years. It has been accused of many crimes against families. The themes that seem to crop up over and over are “violation of rights” and “kidnapping” – both of which are very serious, and very tragic.

Both Scott and Schaefer have addressed these problems respectively, providing advice for parents who are battling these very issues and demanding that the system be overhauled and fully reformed. Suggestions for change include a full independent audit of the system to expose corruption, mandating a jury trial before a child is removed from parental custody, and an end to the financial incentives that separate families.