On March 23, 2011 Brooklyn District Attorney Charles B. Hynes charged two former staff members of the Administration for Children's Services with criminally negligent homicide, in the death of little Marchella Pierce who died tragically on Sept 2, 2010 at the hands of her Mother, Carlotta Brett- Pierce (1) . The child's grandmother Loretta Brett was arraigned on charges of manslaughter the same day the ACS workers were charged, 23 March 2011. The District Attorney alleges that the caseworker did not make required home visits in the weeks leading up to the death and that required paperwork was not produced in a timely fashion. The case was open and active at the time of the death, which was caused by the parent. The case was languishing in a protective unit because the Administration for Children's Services has done away with the centralized units where preventive cases were managed. ((PR)) This family has been serviced by a now-defunded private preventive agency, (the Child Development Support Corporation) and would have been transferred to a central office to be monitored there, had the ACS not done away with that office. Both the caseworker and his former supervisor are charged with the homicide in what the Union has called "a shocking case of prosecutorial overreach" [unionist May 2011]. ((PR)) The case was languishing in a protective unit because the Administration for Children's Services has done away with the centralized units where preventive cases were managed. This family had been serviced by a now-defunded private preventive agency and would have been transferred to a central office to be monitored there, had the ACS not done away with that office. The prosecutor's office has stated that they intend a systematic inquiry and will look at agency procedures but for some reason have chosen to focus on the worker and his supervisor first. In the social services and particularly in Child Welfare, scapegoating is a traditional response but is shortsighted and tragic. I had the opportunity to hear former Child Welfare Administration commissioner and well known social work professor Alma Carten several years ago and she spoke of the agency's habit of offering up of Child Protective workers as "sacrificial lambs" in the aftermath of child fatality cases, and the sad way that this practice compromises and invalidates the work of the child protection agencies. The leadership of ACS have made claims that they do not support the prosecution of these workers by the Brooklyn D.A. but their own testimony refutes this. No one in the ACS leadership has denounced scapegoating. It appears that the practice benefits the status quo as unseemly deaths may be blamed on poor work habits, lack of initiative on the worker's part or on poor casework practice, and scrutiny of policy decisions and mandates in casework practice, which come down from above, can therefore be avoided. The question of the motivation of the district attorney also bears some scrutiny. The charges were a public act of finger pointing, reinforcing the supposed vigilance of the D.A who is rumored to be considering running for higher office.
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