Adoption and Safe Families Act-A Euphemism

****Child Welfare Code****

The Adoption and Safe Families Act

ARE DRUGS A LEGITIMATE REASON FOR A MOTHER TO LOSE HER CHILDREN???

WOMEN: Imagine yourself in a time where you might have been breaking the law in relation to drug use or possession. Maybe you were simply in the presence of someone who was breaking the law. Maybe you didn't know it, but you picked up a hitch-hiker with a kilo of cocaine.



Imagine that you had the worst luck ever, and that you were convicted of a non-violent drug crime and sentenced to two years time.



Unfortunately for you, the "Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997" (PL 105-89) might mean that you will permanently loose custody of your children.



From www.womenandprison.org :

"...If a child is in foster care for 15 of the past 22 months, the state must move to terminate the parent's rights..."



"...known as ASFA, has made it far more likely that mothers (in prison) of children in foster care will lose their children permanently. ..ASFA makes four important changes to foster care policy at the federal level.

First, it removes the requirement for states to provide reasonable efforts to reunite foster children with their parents under specified circumstances, and it emphasizes that the child's health and safety shall be the paramount concern when providing reasonable efforts.

Second, it hastens the process of permanency planning and court proceedings, and mandates reasonable efforts to find a permanent placement for the child in cases when reasonable efforts to reunite the family are not required.

Third, it imposes a mandate for states to move to terminate parental rights in certain circumstances, with a shorter timeline for parents to complete services and regain custody or face termination. If a child is in foster care for 15 of the past 22 months, the state must move to terminate the parent's rights except under certain circumstances.

Fourth, it provides financial incentives for states to increase the number of adoptions completed annually. The Act also provides for criminal records checks for prospective foster and adoptive parents, calls for documentation of agency efforts to locate an adoptive or other permanent homes, and promotes resources for cross-jurisdictional adoptions and permanent placements of children across state and county lines. "



The Adoption and SAFE Families Act of 1997 is just another euphemism, like the 'Patriot Act', it's name does not represent the policy.



It should be called the LESS TIME to GET YOUR KID BACK ACT



"Under ASFA, reasonable efforts to preserve and reunify families are not required when a parent has:

• Subjected the child to aggravated circumstances such as abandonment, torture, or abuse
  


• Committed, or had any criminal accountability in, the murder or manslaughter of a child or the child's other parent, or
  


• Committed felony assault resulting in serious bodily injury to the child or the other parent."

So, breaking down the loaded language again, the ASFA does not require the state to preserve families when a woman fights back against or kills an abusive husband.

Imagine you are a woman who was convicted of a drug charge because of your husband's involvement in drugs. Now imagine that he is abusive towards you and your children. You finally fight back in order to save your life, or your child's life. You go to jail for assaulting your husband, and when police find drugs at the house you are convicted of more crimes. Ultimately, your child is permanently placed with another family because of the ASFA. You will never see your child again.

We might call this the NO WAY TO GET YOUR KID BACK ACT in this case.

Accepting that Drugs are Part of the Human Experience

PARTY DRUGS: Altering your mental state is just part of the human experience for most.

An escape or twist to everyday reality is appealing.

People have a spectrum of how far they take that human urge.

For some, it is as benign as a caffiene high, while others explore the edges of consciousness, sanity, and reality through intense substances like DMT (also reportedly benign).

For some, that urge is constant, while others use mind altering substances as a rare celebration or introspection.

I've been thinking about festivals and concerts, and 'party drugs'. There are MANY people I know who occasionally use substances such as LSD, mushrooms, DMT, or molly. These types of drugs are HIGHLY illegal and warrant extreme penalties according to federal mandatory minimum sentencing policy.

Strangely, they are drugs that are widely used in celebration. Usually people are using these drugs while dancing in extacy, or hugging people with a giant grin, or sometimes while quietly freaking out in a corner.

These are really drugs that are so POTENT that no one wants to use them regularly.

I have never heard of crime related to these drugs.

And yet, a vial of acid will get you 5-10 years in prison on first offense federally (trafficking). Similar penalties apply to other psychadelics.

I agree that powerful drugs like these shouldn't be easily accessible to people, I mean, who wants to have their soup spiked with psychadelic mushrooms? Some 'party' drugs have potential to do great harm and create suffering in the wrong hands.

However, I don't think it's right that peaceful people are serving major time for possessing these substances!

Hemp, the wonder plant and..HEMP HOUSES

I've heard of the benefits of HEMPSEED OIL, have seen HEMP CLOTHING, and even expensive HEMP HAIR PRODUCTS... but I just read about HEMP HOUSES. http://www.harbay.net/fibre/hemphouses.html

In Australia, Ireland and the UK, people are experimenting with building hemp houses.

Hemp is a relative of the Cannabis plant but no matter how much you smoke of it, it will not get you high. This is the ancestor of modern day marijuana.

Hemp is illegal to grow in the USA, but in the old days its use was widespread because it is such an easy to grow and useful crop. In fact, paper, ropes, and sails were usually made out of hemp because it is one of the strongest natural fibers known to man!

One of the best things that could come out of the new legislation to Legalize and Tax Cannabis would be the ability of CA farmers to grow the hemp crop.

This would make California the only state in the country that could grow hemp legally.

We would have a corner on the market, and might improve our economy!

HEMP HEMP HEMP HEMP HEMP HEMP HEMP

33 STATE PRISONS 170,000 PRISONERS IN CA

When I heard the statistics at the weekend sociology class I took on the Industrial Prison Complex, I started to doodle in order to better conceptualize the numbers. I'm a visual learner.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

Each square is 1,000 inmates.

Each polygon is a prison.

Red blocks represent all of the non-violent drug offenders, around a third of inmates.

mandatory minimum sentencing

(These are some main points from a social work policy paper that I co-wrote last year)

FEDERAL DRUG SENTENCING: mandatory minimums

• The enactment of this law was fueled by politics before an election.Tip O’Neill, House Speaker in 1986, was from Boston where Boston Celtic’s Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose. He promoted the Democratic party right before elections with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act.“No hearings were held…No experts…no judges, no one from the Bureau of Prisons, or from any office in the government, provided advise on the idea before it was rushed through the committee and into law…passed a few weeks before the November elections.” Eric Sterling, Esq. for PBS

• This law was not intended to drive up incarceration rates, but it has.“This legislation is not intended as a means of filling our jails with drug users. What we must do as a society is identify those who use drugs, reach out to them, help them quit, and give them the support they need to live right.” President Reagan, 1986
  
• “More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year and the federal government $5 billion more, according to a report released yesterday. With more than 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States leads the world in both the number and percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving far-more-populous China a distant second…” Washington Post 2/29/08
  Federal drug sentencing power was taken out of the hands of judges and given to prosecutors. Judges are bound to use the federal sentencing grid. Prosecutors have choice in what evidence they bring against the defendant.
  
• The federal drug sentencing grid is too harsh.“Mandatory minimums are harsh and in many cases unjust. If the hypothetical example of an 18-year-old gets caught growing marijuana in the woods and happens to have a hunting rifle in his truck when arrested, he could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years. Now he shouldn’t be doing that, (but) an 18-yearold doesn’t know how long 15 years is.” Anthony Kennedy, U.S. Supreme Court justice, in Congressional testimony, 2003
• 
  Illegal drugs should be viewed in the same light as alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine, and addictive prescription drugs. Some illegal drugs, such as marijuana, are less harmful to the body than alcohol, cigarettes, or pain killers.
  
• Drug use is not a moral issue.
  
• People should have freedom over their own bodies.
• Personal drug use affects children and communities, but so does incarceration! Which is worse: A child growing up without a parent, or a child growing up with a drug user?
• Drug addiction should be a medical issue, not a legal issue.
  
• There are many treatment options that are more effective in deterring drug use than incarceration. Incarceration does not significantly prevent or deter drug use. Drug treatment programs and diversion are effective and more cost-efficient. (O’Callaghan, Sonderegger, & Klag, 2004)
  
• MANY PEOPLE LIKE DRUGS! We don’t have enough prison space for all of them!“In 2006, almost 40% of young people age 18–20, about one-third of 21–25 year-olds, and one-quarter of 26–29 year-olds reported using an illicit drug in the past year.” Center for Disease Control Study
  
• “112 million Americans age 12 or older (45% of the population) reported illicit drug use at least once in their lifetime.” Bureau of Justice: 2006