Maryland Officials Say They Aren’t to Blame, Have No Supervision Once Children Are Adopted
UPDATE FROM 2008 MURDER: Freezer with dead children inside was moved twice from Rockville; once to Charles County and then to Lusby in Calvert County. Bowman collected over $150,000 from District taxpayers while the children lay dead in freezer.
GUILTY: Two life sentences plus 75 years without possibility of parole in 2010. STILL IN PRISON AS MD OFFICIALS ALLOW DANGEROUS KILLERS TO BE SET FREE AS IN CASE OF KEITH GREEN convicted of the murder of Claudia Pickeral
MURDER USA: MARYLAND OFFICIALS HAVE RELEASED CHILD KILLER KEITH GREEN ON PAROLE AFTER SERVING ONLY TWENTY YEARS AND HE NOW LIVES NEXT TO AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PLAYGROUND IN WALDORF
“You sentenced these two young innocent children in the dawn of their lives to a death chamber, and for you that option is not available,” Montgomery County Circuit Judge Michael J. Algeo told Bowman
Maryland child welfare official Brenda Donald went on to post in District of Columbia as interim director after predecessor left the job while under scrutiny
Head of D.C. child welfare agency departs as problems investigating neglect persist
From Washington Post: District mayors have long been vexed by child-welfare services. In the days of the crack-cocaine epidemic, social workers were barely able to keep up with the surge of children living in dangerous environments. In 2008, the city government reeled after Banita Jacks killed her four children despite repeated warnings to child-welfare authorities.
By Kenneth C. Rossignol
LUSBY, MD (September 2008) — Joy Bowman, the child who escaped from her adoptive mother’s special little house of horrors in the Chesapeake Ranch Estates will now find that the state agency responsible for her care will place her in a fine home with a great family, which is likely what she was told by the District of Columbia child protective services agency two years ago.
Secretary of Human Resources Brenda Donald sent out a press release the day after Rene Bowman was jailed on child abuse charges while the State Medical Examiner thaws out the two bodies of Joy’s sisters in order to learn how they died.
“Earlier today, the Maryland Department of Human Resources successfully petitioned the court for custody of the surviving adopted child of Renee Bowman,” said Donald’s statement. “Once this little girl is discharged from the hospital, she will be placed with an especially nurturing and loving foster family. DHR has completed a comprehensive review of all data systems and have found no records to indicate that we received any child abuse or neglect complaints about this family. Understandably, there has been an outpouring of concern for this little girl from the public, but we certainly hope that the media will respect her privacy as she has been through more than most of (us) could ever imagine.”
Following that message from Secretary Donald, Nancy Lineman of the agency called to discuss the procedures and supervision of children in Maryland foster care and those who have been adopted.
Lineman said that Maryland conducts a comprehensive evaluation of a family and an examination of all aspects of the home environment that a child will enter when adopted but after the adoption takes place, the family is considered a “private family” and no interference with the family is undertaken by the agency.
The family is respected and treated like any other and only were there complaints would any action for intervention be undertaken.
With Bowman adopting the three children in the District and moving to Maryland, the flow of monthly support checks for the children apparently came without any monitoring of the home or checkups on how the children are doing.
Neighbors of the Bowman residence on Buckskin Trail in Lusby said that they never even knew there were children in the home. Police say that they believe, from interviews with Bowman, that the two dead girls were killed in Montgomery County and moved to Lusby inside the freezer.
Lineman said that there are about 9,300 children under the supervision of Maryland’s child protective services.
When children are in foster homes there is a high level of oversight for their care and well-being.
The District has had several cases of brutality against children with lax supervision provided by human services staffers.
With an adoption virtually ending any oversight of a child’s welfare, a child who has been dealt a tough hand by life is abandoned and sent off to live with the hope of a good life, but with no oversight to assure that life. For those least equipped to deal with calamity or abuse, the only thing they have going for them is simply hope.
Quoting Paula Tolson <ptolson@dhr.state.md.us>:
Statement from DHR Secretary regarding the Bowman case_STATEMENT FROM
MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES_ _SECRETARY BRENDA DONALD ON
CALVERT COUNTY CASE_ September 30, 2008 Earlier today, the
Maryland Department of Human Resources successfully petitioned the
court for custody of the surviving adopted child of Renee Bowman.
Once this little girl is discharged from the hospital, she will be
placed with an especially nurturing and loving foster family. DHR
has completed a comprehensive review of all data systems and have
found no records to indicate that we received any child abuse or
neglect complaints about this family. Understandably, there has been
an outpouring of concern for this little girl from the public, but we
certainly, hope that the media will respect her privacy as she has been
through more than most of could ever imagine. # # #
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