D.A. Jeff Hunt  calls for meeting
Polk County’s Child Protection Team recently reported that a lack in prosecution of cases is a gap in local efforts to protect children.
The team also identified mental health and substance abuse as gaps, deficiencies or barriers to child protection. Other gaps mentioned in the report were unemployment, unstable living environments and lack of time for a juvenile court counselor in Polk County.
District Attorney Jeff Hunt called for a meeting with Polk officials after hearing of the team’s report.
“In my office in the years I’ve been D.A., we have placed the highest priority on cases where women or children are victimized,” said Hunt. “We’ve always been very accessible.”
Hunt said he was surprised to hear there was a problem in Polk County and that’s why he immediately called for a meeting to address the issues.
“If there’s a communication problem, I’m certainly going to address that,” said Hunt.
Commissioner Cindy Walker said she was taken aback when she heard there’s a gap in prosecution of cases.
“I’d like to know what we could do,” Walker said. “A lack of prosecution; I have a problem with that.”
Commissioners decided in March to put a resolution calling for more prosecution on their April 4 agenda, but before the meeting, they heard from Hunt.
Polk County Manager Ryan Whitson said Hunt called him and asked to meet with area officials to address the concerns.
Whitson said plans are for Hunt to meet with him, DSS officials, commissioners and the sheriff.
“I think we all need to sit down and talk,” said Whitson.
The meeting has not yet been scheduled because some of the participants have been out of town the past couple of weeks.
Since the April 4 meeting, Whitson, DSS, the school system and Polk County Magistrate Lionel Gilbert have met. As a result of that meeting, social workers will now be charging parents in some cases, for example, when parents are not sending their children to school. In addition, parents may face charges of contributing to child abuse in driving while impaired cases when a child is in the vehicle.
Whitson mentioned during the March meeting that there are some cases in which a social worker can charge people with an offense.
“So we are making progress,” Whitson said.
The Polk County Board of Commissioners discussed the protection team report over the past two meetings. On March 21, commissioners heard from Polk County Department of Social Service (DSS) Program Manager Lou Parton, who is also a member of the child protection team.
Parton said during 2010, DSS evaluated 171 new cases, with the majority being cases of neglect.
“This year we had the unfortunate situation to look at two cases of sexual abuse,” Parton told commissioners.
Parton said the team identified mental health and substance abuse as the highest contributing factors to child abuse and neglect cases in Polk County, then unemployment and issues with parenting, lack of income and not having a good relationship with the DA in prosecuting cases.
She said the county hasn’t had adequate mental health facilities for years and there are no adequate adolescent substance abuse programs, as well as a lack of parenting classes.
Parton also said the county needs more economic opportunities and a full-time juvenile court counselor.
Commissioners also in March reviewed the child fatality protection team report and approved a proclamation recognizing April as child abuse and neglect prevention month (see page 4 for the proclamation text).
The child fatality team investigated two child deaths in 2009 under the age of 18. One death was caused by extreme prematurity and another was caused by shaken baby syndrome, according to team chair Helen White.
The team meets to identify if there are any gaps to prevent child deaths that occur in Polk County. The investigations are done one year following the death.