Bureaucratic failings put childrens’ lives at risk

Bureaucratic failings put childrens’ lives at risk

In their continuing series on child welfare in Wisconsin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Gina Barton and Crocker Stephenson focused on the case of Will Robert Johnson who died at five months of age. After reviewing hundreds of pages of documents about the case — many of which are not public and were obtained from outside sources — the two provided a look at how decision are made within the troubled child-welfare system. In the case of Will Johnson, officials approved unsupervised visits between the boy and his severely troubled mother despite opposition by the child’s caseworker. It was during an unsupervised visit that the child drowned in a tub while the mother attempted suicide.