OFFICIALS: DCF WARNED 5 YEARS AGO

JON LENDER

The Hartford Courant

The state Department of Children and Families was told five years ago of internal weaknesses that it is only now trying to remedy after the May death of an infant under the foster care of a DCF employee, two key state officials say.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein wrote Friday to DCF Commissioner Susan Hamilton, saying they issued a joint report in 2003 that raised the very issues that Hamilton pledged this month to address because of the death of 7-month-old Michael Brown.

They wrote in their letter that they are "particularly troubled that the same systemic concerns you raised in response to Michael's death were brought to DCF's attention nearly five years ago" in a 2003 report titled "Children Left At Risk."

"Connecticut citizens, particularly our children, deserve to know why - after nearly five years - DCF has failed to adopt or even address the critical measures that we raised in our initial investigative report."

Milstein and Blumenthal asked some pointed questions - including when Hamilton, DCF's legal director before becoming commissioner in 2007, learned of their 2003 report. They asked what DCF did in response and what it plans now.

In response, DCF spokesman Josh Howroyd issued a statement: "The commissioner stands by her comments made last week including her statement that she will continue to hold herself, her staff and the system accountable for any and all improvements within our control that are needed to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again. We will provide the child advocate and the attorney general with a specific response to the concerns that they raise ... and we look forward to working collaboratively with them."

On July 17, Suzanne Listro, 42, a licensed foster parent now on leave from her children's services consultant position at DCF, was arraigned on a manslaughter charge in the May death of the 7-month-old placed in her home a week earlier. Listro had been investigated twice under allegations of child abuse that were never substantiated.

Milstein and Blumenthal compared excerpts from their 2003 report to statements by Hamilton after Listro's arraignment.

*Hamilton said July 17: "Although the [past] allegations [against Listro] were not substantiated, the quality of those investigations, conducted by our centralized Special Investigations Unit (SIU), was substandard and unacceptable. Accordingly, it is unclear whether those allegations would have been substantiated [by] a more thorough investigation."

*The Milstein-Blumenthal report said in 2003: "The [DCF] must improve its processes of investigation and assessment. ... The number of times allegations of abuse or neglect are unsubstantiated, or substantiated and closed without ... action ... reflects a lack of comprehensiveness and depth in the family studies undertaken by department line staff."

In another example, Blumenthal and Milstein cited a statement in their 2003 report that said DCF's "management structure and ... internal communication ... must be revamped" because they were marred by "the use of informal communications, and hand-me-down information."

They noted that Hamilton said on July 17 that she had "learned for the first time" after the baby's death "that unsubstantiated allegations against DCF employees were not being entered into our automated database ... and were being maintained only in hard-copy, and this prevented the licensing staff from having access to this information as part of their assessment."

State Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, who had called for the 2003 report after discovering numerous failures to document child abuse allegations, said the issues in Friday's letter "need to be addressed. ... The last thing we want is to see problems swept under the rug. I would hope that they would reach out to the legislature."

Also in mid-July, a federal judge approved a settlement ordering the state to recruit more foster families to help troubled children and reduce the number of non-family group homes for abused youth. The state must add 850 foster family homes over the next two years.

Contact Jon Lender at jlender@courant.com.