Shelby County Dept. of Children's Services

A couple of weeks ago, there were television and news stories following up on the accusations by some ex-employees in the Department of Children's Services that murders of children in their care had been covered up. The State Comptroller's office found no evidence of cover-ups, which was the main point of most reporting on this.

But I went to the Comptroller's website and found the report for myself. Reading it was eye-opening. They uncovered a massive amount of laxity, overwork and non-communication. The deaths investigated turn up events, and lack of simply doing the job, that show how seriously undermanned and underfunded this agency is. It is, in a word, criminal. Not only that, but there was no communication between the Shelby County office and the State office. No one seems to have done anything about this; it was allowed to continue.

There's a stunning amount more. Sadly, the report is in PDF format, which prevents simple cut'n'paste. I've been meaning to print it out and just type in some of the more startling highlights, but haven't gotten around to it. Hence, this post encouraging you to go there for yourself. It's only fifteen pages and a quick read. But it will turn your stomach and make you shake your head in disbelief. If I can later, I'll try to post some excerpts in an update to this post.

Why this horrowshow wasn't trumpeted by the local paper is beyond me. It's awful, awful stuff. I thought one of the jobs of the papers was uncovering and exposing precisely these kinds of misdeeds. Some legislators need to have their asses held to account for not making sure this agency was on track.

Go read it.