By TIMOTHY ROCHE

HE OPSY PHOTO SHOWS A LITTLE BOY WHO LOOKS RELIEVED TO BE

---

dea. 's eyesare closed. Ahospital tube protrudes from his broken nose.
He deep cuts above his right ear and dark linear scars on his fore-
hea .IThebruiseson his backarea successionof yello~s, greensand I
blue .~n the bottom of his tiny feetareunhealedthird-degreeburns. I
I ~ -~ --

~~~ been tte~d andtortured. He had beentied with pa~o/hoseandbelts I

to a banister the womanwho hadbecomehis foste~_~dmo~~~ ~te of J
Georgiahad n him awayfromhismother,thenabandonedhim in the woman's .I
care.Little 11 .I
~~unting ~~m. Thechildwassixyearsold.He weighedonly291bs.Thefoster- 8
1'- ~--
caresystemis not \vor/<inginAtlanta. I Untimely deathis often the only occa- birth parents. "They take kids away -

Nor is it working in Chicago,where a sionfor the public to catcha glimpse of the from someonelike me who hasn't
boywasbeatento deathbytwo fosterbroth- foster-care system. But there are living got an education and money, but
erswho were knownto be violent. It is not hells,and at times you can smellthe brim- they give them to Homer?" asksa
\vorldng in Bibb County,Ga.,where a girl stonea long wayoff. At otherstheevilscome girl's father. "Now what am I sup-
\vith cerebralpalsywasplacedin !' in disguise. In Gillette, Wyo., posedto do for my baby?You know,
a home with a swimming pool; ~ Homer and BethGriswoldwere whenshe camehome,I didn't knowhow to
she was left unattended and ~ pillars of the community who hold her. I didn't know if, after what she'd
drowned. And children are not ~ were askedto be fosterparents. beenthrough,sheshould sit on my lap."
protectedin Dallaseither.There ; Shewasa psychologist,a former Five years ago, there were about a
two-year-oldJoel Hernandezal- ~ member of the child-protection quarterof a million children in the country's
legedly was beaten so severely " ~ team. Her specialtywas identi- foster-caresystems.Todaythat numberhas
t11athe had to be placed in a ~ ~ fying sexual abuse. But while doubled,to between 550,000and 560,000
bodycast. Yetsocialworkers let Beth baked Halloweencookies children. Often these are held hostageto
him stay with his parents, t11en HOMER GRISWOLD: upstairs,Homerwasdownstairs abuse and neglect, to bureaucratic foul-
never seteyeson him-even af- A pillarof society? molestingtwo ofthe girls in their ups and carelessness,condemned to fu-
ter 15visits to the family home brought no I care. Had anyone spenta couple of hours tures in which dreams cannot come true.
one to the door. All the socialworkers did I checkinghis background,theywould have President Clinton and Congressboast of
wassend a certified letter. Joel'sbody was found previousallegationsof abuseand ha- new legislation and funding to move chil-
laterfound in a shallowgrave.His stepfather rassment. Homer Griswold was sent to dren more quickly from foster care to
and uncle are chargedwith his murder. prison,and the girls were returned to their adoption. Indeed, there has been an in-
,

TIME, NOVEMBER 13, 2000

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DATEJan. 15, 1~98
DESCRIPTIONWhen
~""',,' 'J .s)~e,;y f'-IcJTheEl '.::: Terrell was not tied toa
banister, he allegedly

&u..'fe
\ ~;";~~:f
iJe Q~j .,
~ was given only oatmeal
and grits to eat by his
foster grandmother
V'-.""-S plen f r .::>:J
~ ..PHARINA PETERSON
Aed'r'~S-S \n'11:...:::
I'\~{{. She never wanted Terrell
to live with her but
loved her owngrandkids

-
1
I I
I crease
those nu bers. Many
parentstoo continue to act selflesslyasim-
portant way stations for at-risk kids while
their biological parentsget their lives to-
gether.However,neglectanda quagmireof
child-swallowingbureaucraciesplaguethe
system.And the incidenceof neglect,phys-
ical and sexualabuseof children in the var-
ious foster-caresystemsis fearedto be sig-
nificantly higher than the incidence in the
generalpopulation.Nobodybothersto keep
an accurate count, but in round num- foster-care systems are in such poor shape
.in bers, more than 7,500 children are tortured that case files are still hard copy-bound.
foster under what is technically government pro- Without modern databases, tracking the
tection. Together with the many more who fate of children remains a maddening paper
linger as long as 10 years in protective-cus- chase. "These systems should be a national
tody systems, they are Americas generation scandal," says Marcia Robinson Lowry, ex-
of lost children, forsaken and forgotten. ecutive director of Children's ill ts Inc.
The Department of Health and Human "In virtually every state, there is no ac-
Services deemed its own auditing process so j countability ." Says Don Keenan, an Atlanta ~
flawed that Secretary Donna Shalala did not, lawyer who has sued Georgia posthumous- ~
protest when Congress suspended its abili- i ly on behalf of children who died in foster ~
ty to collect funds from states that did not! care: "This is a meltdown. This is critical." g
meet federal eligibility requirements. State i It costs at least $7 billion a year, or about §

TIME, NOVEMBER 13,2000

$13,000a child, to care for Americas foster the dead is Octavious Sims, whose fami-
lads.The problemis not a single blackhole 1y' s suspectednegligence had been reported
but a series-eachstateaffectedwith its own over and over to social workers before he
distinctproblems.A yearlonginvestigation was starved, immersed in boiling water
by TIMEhasfound the crisismounting in at and beaten to death three days before his
least20 statesas lawyers file classactions first birthday. Another is Raymond Ellis,
asldngjudgesto take control of entire agen- 16, paralyzed in a car accident as a toddler
cies and Governorsto appoint taskforces and in need of constant care. For years
to review child-welfare programs. Three doctors had begged caseworkers to remove
statesin particular-Georgia, Alabamaand him from his mother's care. No one did.
California-show the severityof the crisis. Raymond died of a preventable infection
and pneumonia.
The files, obtained by TIME, show a
pattern of inadequate monitoring, poor
" "" ~" ~ record keeping and bad decisions. In the
~~kfcii
PETERSON WAS CD case of Terrell, the records show that social
YOUNGAND black, like workers skipped home visits, missed a cru-
50% of the foster-care cial court hearing and lied in reports that
population. He was a
victim of the crackepidemic
m supervisors signed but did not read.
As appalling as is Terrell's death, the
0
thatspawnednot only a gen-
eration of addictsbut alsoa
generationof lost children
'< fact is that Georgia took steps years ago to
keep such a tragedy from happening. After
the death of a little girl named Kathy Joe in
most of whom have found
l~ 0 1997, Georgia lawmakers vowed reform.
their wayinto the foster-care
system.His mother wasad-
~ Panic over foster care produced regulations
designed to save children's lives. Until Ter-
dicted to crack. He had two .-to rell's death, however, no one had checked
to make sure the changes were enforced. "I
siblings with different fa-
thers.The stateopenedeight ~ am not here to defend this system," says
files on his family in five CD Barnes, who this year pushed for a chil-
years,and 21 different case- dren's ombudsman and laws to increase
workers from five offices
were involved in the cases.
Socialworkers, faithful to a
;I
C-
caseworker accountability. "We have not
made this a high enough priority."

policy trend of placing kids ~

with family members, sent CD
Terrell to the home of a
woman who was the pater-
nal grandmother of one of his siblings.
Technically she was not a blood relative,
but shewas closeenough.
Then they apparently closedhis case
file and forgot abouthim. "Terrell Peterson
should not have happened,"saysGeorgia
GovernorRoyBames.Earlier this year,he
ordered a sweepingcriminal investigation
into the suspiciousdeathsof Terrell and 12
other foster children around the state.The
boy's foster grandmother, Pharina Pet-
erson, has been charged with murder,
along with his foster aunt Terri Lynn Pe-
tersonand her boyfriend, Calvin Pittman.
The Georgia bureau of investigationhas
spentmuch of this yeartrying to determine
whether the negligence of social workers
made them accomplicesin the children's
deaths. Bureau agentsseized more than
30,000documentslast Januarywhen raid-
ing state welfare offices to investigatethe
deaths.They believe some files may have
been convenientlylost or perhapspilfered
by people with secretsto hide.
The stories of the children and their
deaths fill sevencardboardboxes.Among