Update, More On The Death Of TaJanay Bailey

Update on this post .

The Blogmeister has worked in Mental Health and with the Department of Child Services (in it’s various incarnations) for over 15 years.  Still, reading about cases such as this makes him physically ill.

From a story in the Indianapolis Star:

“Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi wants to know why the state Department of Child Services did not notify police after a caseworker determined TaJanay Bailey was physically abused in 2006.

A hospital emergency room visit documented bruises on the toddler’s body after a May 2006 visit with her mother, Charity Bailey, and Bailey’s boyfriend, Lawrence Green.

Bailey and Green now face charges of murder and neglect in the death of the 3-year-old Tuesday.

Brizzi said the abuse was among the worst he’d seen in a criminal case, and he planned to try the case himself. He said prosecutors could use the victim’s age and the use of torture as statutory aggravators when they press for a life sentence.

About 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, Bailey woke TaJanay and saw she “had boo-booed and peed herself,” Bailey told police. She said she took the girl to the bathroom to clean her off, the affidavit says, and Green then began “whipping TaJanay with his black leather belt.”

In his statement, Green told police he did hit the girl, but Bailey was already screaming at her and striking her, too. Bailey hit the girl in the head with her knee, knocking TaJanay’s head against the wall, Green told police.  Police called to investigate TaJanay’s death were appalled at the condition of the apartment, in the 4100 block of Edgemere Court.

Police say Bailey and Green abused TaJanay over the past two weeks, including hanging her on a coat hook by her T-shirt, beating her with a belt and knocking her in the chest for wetting her pants. While hanging from the hook, the girl’s shirt left marks under her arms and on the back of her neck, said a probable cause affidavit that Brizzi filed Wednesday.

James W. Payne, director of the state Department of Child Services, said Wednesday that he is prohibited by law from talking about specifics of the case, including whether police were notified.  But he pledged an aggressive review of the way TaJanay’s case was handled to determine whether the agency or its workers did anything wrong, and what could be done to prevent similar tragedies.

At this point, he said, nothing indicates a system breakdown or individual misconduct contributing to the death. He said the review will take about two weeks.  “These tragic events will, unfortunately, occur,” he said. “We know we can’t protect and prevent everything.”

Brizzi said his office had not been able to find a police report resulting from the 2006 hospital visit. The injuries should have prompted a police investigation because even the doctor noted physical abuse, he said.

“Someone from the government . . . went in and said it was OK for her to return to the home,” he said. “I’m not sure where the blame lies, but we have a dead 3-year-old little girl.”

The article goes on to give a history of the case, and discusses the troubling history of TaJanay’s mother, Charity Bailey.  The Blogmeister is sure what will happen in this case is what happens everytime some tragic incident such as this occurs.  Politicians will vie for airtime discussing who is to blame,  there will be a high profile trial, people will be fired, paperwork will be changed.  More than likely, Mr. Payne is correct, there was not a system breakdown…but what Mr. Payne, politicians, and the public need to realize is the system itself, while adequate for most cases, is broken when it comes to severe cases such as this.  While the increased numbers of caseworkers is a good start, the DCS needs to hire trained caseworkers (they currently do not need to have any college education).  Then, they need to change the focus from educating abusive parents, to making them serve consequences for their actions AND treating them (utilizing licensed professionals).  Finally, there needs to be a process where there is a recognition, earlier in the process, that a parent may not ever recover from their abusive tendencies and a procedure to permanently remove the child from their care.   Someone will get blamed for this, but in the blogmeister’s opinion, it is a flawed system that is truly to blame.

This post is updated here , here, and here.