Public Defense

The Story of a Family in Crisis

Mundanevania has posted a great article from the Seattle Times about a family going through the child protection court system.

Baby M was a gift.

Born a month prematurely, with a tuft of her father's dark hair, she arrived no bigger than a loaf of bread.
...
On this day, Aug. 19, 2003, their dreams were within reach.

But the next day the euphoria began to fade. Traces of methamphetamine were found in Liz's blood. Hospital officials called the state's Child Protective Services.

Baby M was 2 days old when Mary Marrs, a veteran CPS investigator, showed up. Do you know why I am here? she asked Liz and Mike.

The couple rushed to explain themselves. The meth was a stupid mistake, Liz said. In a moment of grief, she'd smoked it a few days earlier, after her mother died...


It is a very well written look at how families end up in child protection court and what happens to them once they're there. These are the same struggles that I see my clients face every day: poverty, drug addiction, mental illness, and domestic violence.

Most of the time when I see child abuse covered in the media, the writer's sympathy for the child and outrage at the abuse prevents them from exploring the parents' point of view and the challenges they face. This writer, Johnathan Martin, avoids that knee-jerk reaction and gives readers a more compassionate look at the situation.

posted by Public Defense @ 12/07/2005