Foster care still reeling from privatization, By Martha Stoddard, December 1, 2012, Omaha World-Herald: “Nebraska’s child welfare system is still suffering from the instability caused by the state’s privatization experiment, according to a report released Friday. The Foster Care Review Office’s annual report on children in out-of-home care found concerning levels of caseworker turnover, missing documentation and a lack of complete case plans during 2011 and the first half of this year. All three problems worsened after the state attempted to turn over major responsibilities for managing child welfare and juvenile justice cases to private contractors…”
Tag: Privatization
Medicaid Program – Florida
Fla. Medicaid program in limbo, By Kelli Kennedy (AP), October 7, 2012, Miami Herald: “Millions of uninsured Florida families and health care providers are in a purgatory of sorts. Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-led Legislature want to privatize the state’s Medicaid program, but need the Obama administration’s permission. The Obama administration wants to make more low-income Floridians eligible for Medicaid, but needs Scott and the Legislature to agree. The sides have been negotiating a package deal for more than a year and won’t comment. Without a solution billions of federal dollars could go to other states and many uninsured Floridians will continue to receive their health care in emergency rooms – the most expensive, least effective place. Safety nets, like community health centers, say they don’t have enough funding to keep up as more uninsured patients end up in their waiting rooms…”
Probation Fees and Jail Time
Poor land in jail as companies add huge fees for probation, By Ethan Bronner, July 2, 2012, New York Times: “Three years ago, Gina Ray, who is now 31 and unemployed, was fined $179 for speeding. She failed to show up at court (she says the ticket bore the wrong date), so her license was revoked. When she was next pulled over, she was, of course, driving without a license. By then her fees added up to more than $1,500. Unable to pay, she was handed over to a private probation company and jailed – charged an additional fee for each day behind bars. For that driving offense, Ms. Ray has been locked up three times for a total of 40 days and owes $3,170, much of it to the probation company. Her story, in hardscrabble, rural Alabama, where Krispy Kreme promises that ‘two can dine for $5.99,’ is not about innocence. It is, rather, about the mushrooming of fines and fees levied by money-starved towns across the country and the for-profit businesses that administer the system. The result is that growing numbers of poor people, like Ms. Ray, are ending up jailed and in debt for minor infractions…”