The Child Welfare Organizing Project sits in a corner of the Clinton Houses between 109th and 110th Streets in East Harlem, a place where parents can get advice from other parents when they are under investigation for abusing or neglecting their children. It’s one of the few places such parents can go because during an investigation, which can last up to two months, they have no right to a lawyer, nor are they typically told what rights they do have. In a dimly lit backroom with a few toys and a child’s drawing of a valentine on the wall, I speak with a handful of mothers with recent child welfare involvement. They ask that I not use their names for fear that doing so could lead to more trouble.
One mother, who wishes to go by Stella B., says she never had the opportunity to be properly investigated because her children, 8 and 17, were removed on an emergency basis and placed with a relative after she was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend and held for eleven days—a fact confirmed by a letter from the Manhattan district attorney’s office—while child protective services “indicated” a case of neglect against her.
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