The Past is Prologue

As I have stated many times, most DCF workers are good to excellent. But the fact remains: DCF is a bureaucracy; and in a bureaucracy, you get ahead by telling your boss what he or she wants to hear. If you also help the client or customer, and do the right thing, fine; but that is secondary.

The most important thing is to protect yourself. In this economy, raises, promotions, health care benefits, pensions, and continued employment are important. The wise person is unlikely to jeopardize them.

When I first started as a State-paid Juvenile Court lawyer, I had a much higher opinion of DCF than I do now. It changed with the Mexico baby.

I had an assignment to represent a child. His parents had taken him to the small upstate town of Mexico, New York, and sold him to a very nice middle-class couple who could not have children. The parents, of course, maintained that it was a temporary arrangement, and they were just providing expense money to the couple.

I demanded that DCF investigate. They said that the Mexico couple were very good people, and did nothing. I then threatened to go to the newspapers. Suddenly, a team of DCF social workers and Connecticut State Troopers, aided by New York State Troopers, descended upon Mexico and seized the baby, bringing her back to Connecticut and putting her in a foster home.

The distraught Mexico couple, who believed that they had acted in good faith all along, called me; apparently getting nowhere with DCF. They pleaded how responsible and appropriate they were, etc. I advised them, at least a dozen times, to get a Connecticut lawyer and fight for custody. For whatever reason, they declined, and the baby was eventually adopted by a Connecticut couple.

I thought it strange that DCF needed prodding from me to rescue a bartered child, however respectable the buyers were.