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Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Gov. Morrisey introduces new foster care transparency and reform initiatives
bluefield – More transparency about child neglect and death cases in what's been called a broken foster care system were among the remedial steps that West Virginia's governor announced Wednesday. Standing behind a lectern bearing the sign Transparency In Foster Care, Gov. Patrick Morrisey spoke in Charleston about changes coming to the state's child welfare system. Hearing from residents who have dealt with the system helped to create the reforms. 'Last week, I had a chance to attend a listening session held by the Department of Human Services in Martinsburg about the child welfare system in West Virginia,' Morrisey said. 'In the overall listening tour we had eight meetings across the state which was organized by our terrific Human Services Secretary Alex Mayer, who unfortunately can't be here today because he's doing great things for the state.' The state Department of Human Services has been working to identify ways to improve the child welfare system, according to the governor. 'We launched this listening tour because we know the most valuable input we can have is from folks on the ground. Parents, guardians, grandparents, judges, lawyers, social workers and more gathered at these eight stops around the state to provide feedback based upon their lived and shared experiences,' Morrisey said. People attending these public sessions described a system with many problems. 'When I attended the session in Martinsburg, I heard some of the attendees talk about a broken system, that they were disjointed, siloed, frustrated, a lot of words that we don't want to stand for any program in the state let alone something that affects so many of our kids,' Morrisey said. 'Frankly, it's tough to sit and listen to all those negative experiences about what many of the folks went through. I know that I shared some of that when I worked down the hall as the attorney general. We didn't have some of the tools that we needed to ultimately bring the kind of change to the system that's required. That's changing now.' Hearing about many child welfare issues that could have been avoided with better communications was difficult, he said. Eliminating bureaucratic red tape and giving Child Protective Service workers the right tools would have helped, too. 'I think you know all of these issues have been going on for a very, very long time and. unfortunately, it's the kids who suffer and we can't tolerate that,' Morrisey said. 'West Virginia cannot, I repeat, West Virginia cannot keep kicking the can down the road as was done in the past. That's not the model of this administration. In my administration, we're making urgently needed changes to take the first steps to address issues within the child welfare system.' Morrisey said when he first took office, he received a letter from a local news outlet about one of their Freedom of Information Act requests that 'essentially had been stonewalled and ignored by the previous administration.' 'The information had to do with the fatalities and near-fatalities of children in West Virginia's child welfare system,' the governor said. 'There was no excuse, I repeat, there was no excuse to keep this information shielded from the public. No excuse. We're going to be different. We're going to be up front with the people of West Virginia and we're going to be as transparent as the law possibly allows. So today, we're releasing the response to that FOIA and all that the law allows.' The child welfare reforms announced Wednesday included: • Fully complying with the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and federal guidelines requiring public disclosure of key information in child abuse or neglect cases resulting in fatalities or near fatalities. • Overhauling the Child Welfare Dashboard to make it simpler to use and easier to interpret the data. • Requiring supervisors to conduct monthly reviews with their child welfare cases and work with our state office team to identify opportunities for improvement and launching a department-wide 'Leadership Education and Development' (LEAD) initiative to better prepare our supervisors. • Creating a Critical Incident Review Team to conduct a deeper dive into every critical incident. • Introducing a Comprehensive Practice Model to provide a foundational framework that can be standardized across the state. • Allowing caseworkers to gather more comprehensive information on cases rather than relying solely on the referral. 'For far too long, we've asked families and frontline professionals to navigate a system that has not kept pace with the complexities our families and children face today. That must change,' Secretary Mayer said later. 'We are listening—intentionally—and using that feedback to shape a more responsive, accountable and transparent system built on trust. ' Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Yahoo
Mercer County woman charged with felony child neglect
princeton – One parent has been arrested and a warrant is ready for another after three children were found living in conditions both law enforcement and state Child Protective Service personnel called 'deplorable.' Ashley Nicole Smith, 30, of Princeton has been charged with three counts of gross child neglect and another three counts of concealment of a minor child, according to a criminal complaint filed by Capt. S.A. Sommers with the Mercer County Sheriff's Department. Both types of charges are felonies. In West Virginia, child neglect resulting in injury or creating risk of injury is a felony with a possible one to five year prison term, according to the West Virginia Code. Concealment or removal of a minor child from a custodian or a person entitled to visitation is another felony with a penalty of up to a year in jail. Smith was being held Thursday at the Southern Regional Jail on a $25,000 cash or surety bond with the condition of home confinement if released. The investigation leading to Smith's arrest spans from April 2023 to July 2024, Sommers said in the complaint. It involves Smith and the biological father of their three children. In April 2023, a Child Protective Services case was opened due to reports of deplorable living conditions for the three children and drug use by their parents, Sommers said. On April 19, 2023, the family was evicted from their home near Bluefield and rented a room at a Princeton motel. Shortly afterward, Smith moved the children to a relative's Kentucky home. Child Protective Services lost contact with the family after May 29, 2023. Child Protective Services regained contact with the family in December 2023 and learned they had returned to Mercer County. Sommers said in his complaint that Smith and the father failed to fully cooperate with drug screenings. On May 29, 2024, Child Protective Services lost contact with the family again, but found they had used SNAP benefits in Mercer County on June 15 and 16, 2024. Through a relative, the agency learned the family was living near Bramwell, Sommers said. This relative said one of the children's relatives had stopped at the home and 'observed that the children were dirty, barely clothed and appeared skinny. He also alleged that he had taken food to them, but was cussed at and the food was thrown away.' After a Child Protective Services worker visited the family's home on June 28, 2024, Magistrate Susan Honaker granted the department emergency custody of the children, Sommers said in the complaint. The worker returned to the home and learned that the family had left. The owner of a trailer the family had been using allowed the worker and law enforcement to inspect it. 'They found there was no power or running water and it smelled 'foul,'' Sommers said. 'She reported that it was hard to breathe due to the odor. The home was in 'complete disarray' and the conditions were 'deplorable.' There was a broken window in the kitchen and throughout the home. She located a twin bed that the children slept on, finding it filthy.' The owner told the Child Protective Services worker not to enter the back room due to a snake infestation. 'He continued, stating he had killed three snakes already' and that was why the parents had taped the door shut, Sommers said. 'The ceiling in the hallway connected to that room was falling in and appeared wet,' Sommers said in the complaint. On July 1, 2024, Smith was told that the department had custody of the children and that she needed to turn them over, but she refused and stated she was in Kentucky, Sommers said. That same day, Child Protective Services were tipped about where the children were living and relayed the information to Deputy J. Pinter. According to information from Pinter's report, Pinter and Deputy A. Presley went to Old Coaldale Mountain Road to serve the state's custody order. An anoymous source informed them that the family was deep in the woods, according to Pinter's report. When law enforcement located the site, they found a tent set up next to a vehicle. The father was taken into custody due to an active warrant out of Tazewell County, Va. Authorities in that county advised they would extradite the father. Smith and the three children, all under the age of 12, were found, Pinter said. 'The children's clothes and bodies were extremely dirty, their clothes fit poorly and I did not observe there to be adequate shelter, food or water in the area,' Pinter said in his report. The Child Protective Services worker later said that the children were dirty from sleeping on the ground. On July 17, 2024 during a forensic interview with one of the children, Child Protective Services learned that the family had moved about four times a month because of the state agency 'finding them,' Pinter said. 'She also revealed that they had to rely on others to bring food and that they stayed hungry,' Pinter said. On Monday, Sommers requested that the Mercer County Magistrate Court issue warrants for Smith and the father, who had not been arrested on the charges as of Thursday. Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Morrisey's State of the State didn't touch on some of West Virginia's biggest problems
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey gave his State of the State address on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, outlining his priorities for the legislative session. (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography) West Virginia, I love you so much, but why do you continue to vote for people who won't do anything to help you? You can't keep voting for the people who say 'Trump' and 'Jesus' the most and claim they know better than experts, then expect West Virginia to take a rocket ship ride to the top. There are thousands of children in foster care, and we have a shortage of Child Protective Service workers. In 2023, there were 5,286 child abuse and neglect cases filed in circuit courts in West Virginia alone. Gov. Patrick Morrisey didn't mention anything about that in his State of the State address. However, he did spend a good portion of his speech talking again about how he's going to 'eradicate the woke virus from infecting our schools.' Morrisey also briefly touched on the state's opioid epidemic, but he placed most of the blame on the 'open southern border and lax immigration enforcement.' He was correct in saying that more than 80% of overdose deaths in West Virginia were from fentanyl, however, most of it is not coming from immigrants. More than 85% of people charged with fentanyl trafficking annually are U.S. citizens, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Nearly 82% of all convicted drug traffickers in 2023 were U.S. residents. More than 90% of the fentanyl that is seized at the Mexican border comes through legal points of entry, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Experts say evidence-based harm reduction strategies can minimize overdoses and diseases contracted through sharing needles. And yet, lawmakers have made it almost impossible for anyone to start a syringe services program in West Virginia, and last year banned those programs from distributing safe smoking supplies. In the first few days of session, there have already been more bills introduced to make syringe exchange programs and all opioid treatment programs unlawful. Morrisey didn't mention anything about school discipline — another huge problem — but he did mention President Donald Trump eight times during his speech. And on Friday, 13 lawmakers introduced House Concurrent Resolution 33 to rename Spruce Knob, the tallest point in the state, as 'Trump Mountain.' It's very much giving, 'The leader is good, the leader is great, we surrender our will, as of this date.' Thousands of West Virginians are without clean water, but Morrisey didn't mention anything about it or utility infrastructure. But he did spend a chunk of his speech focusing on erasing transgender people somehow without using the word transgender. He bragged about joining Trump in the White House while he signed an executive order that banned transgender women from competing in women's sports. In West Virginia, only one transegender girl has wanted to compete in women's sports. 'As your governor, my duty is to protect and defend the citizens of West Virginia,' Morrisey said. Unless you're transgender. Or in active addiction. Or an immigrant. Or disabled. Or a minority — remember, Morrisey immediately banned diversity, equity and inclusion programs with an executive order on his second day in office? How are we supposed to convince businesses to relocate themselves and their employees here if we can't provide them with the most basic human right: clean, running drinking water? We're only a few days into this session, there's still time to focus on actual problems. Unfortunately, lawmakers don't care what West Virginians have to say. They made that clear when they voted to end public hearings on day 1. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
