{"id":20780,"date":"2023-10-30T14:19:47","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T18:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&p=20780"},"modified":"2023-10-30T14:19:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T18:19:48","slug":"foster-care-investigation-georgia-juvenile-court-judges-testify-dfcs-director-asked-judges-to-consider-locking-up-children-with-special-needs-in-juvenile-detention","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/foster-care-investigation-georgia-juvenile-court-judges-testify-dfcs-director-asked-judges-to-consider-locking-up-children-with-special-needs-in-juvenile-detention\/","title":{"rendered":"FOSTER CARE INVESTIGATION: Georgia Juvenile Court Judges Testify DFCS Director Asked Judges to Consider Locking Up Children with Special Needs in Juvenile Detention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta, Ga.<\/strong> \u2014 Today at a U.S. Senate Human Rights Subcommittee hearing in Atlanta<\/a>, Georgia juvenile court judges testified that the Director of Georgia\u2019s Division of Family & Children Services (DFCS) asked juvenile court judges to consider locking up children with special needs in a juvenile detention center.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of the hour-long hearing, the Honorable Carolyn Altman, a juvenile court judge in Paulding County, and the Honorable Nhan-Ai Simms, a juvenile court judge in Gwinnett County, testified to their experiences interacting with children in Georgia\u2019s foster care system and Georgia\u2019s DFCS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Altman testified, <\/strong>\u201cI attended a meeting in August this year, with about 30 other judges and DFCS leadership. DFCS Commissioner Broce said that DFCS was not set up to be caregivers for these children, and she asked judges to consider detaining the children \u2013 locking them up in a juvenile detention center for a few days \u2013 so that DFCS could maybe find a placement for them. As judges we do not lock up children, especially special-needs children, because we cannot find a place for them.\u201d [<\/strong>Video<\/strong><\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ossoff asked Judge Altman about her testimony and the legality of the alleged DFCS request to \u201cconsider detaining the children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Altman testified that DFCS\u2019 request to consider locking up children with special needs in a juvenile detention center \u201cis not lawful.\u201d [<\/strong>Video<\/strong><\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked about the same meeting with DFCS\u2019 leadership, Judge Simms testified she was \u201cheartbroken.\u201d  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think if our child welfare system has gotten to the point where we want to extend a child\u2019s time and in detention just because we can’t find a place for them, then something\u2019s wrong, and it\u2019s not working. And we need change. And you know, it’s kind of one of those things when you hear executive leadership, when you hear executive counsel say it, I was shocked,\u201d <\/strong>Judge Simms testified. [Video<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Altman also testified that when a fellow judge informed that the law \u201cprohibits detaining a child because of lack of placement,\u201d DHS General Counsel said they could change the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd when we were in this meeting, again, this was not private. It was not overheard in passing. It was in a room of 30 something judges. One of my colleagues brought that up and said the law specifically prohibits detaining a child because of lack of placement<\/strong>. And then General Counsel Regina Quick, says, \u2018well, we can change that,\u2019<\/strong>\u201d Altman said. [<\/strong>Video<\/strong><\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


# # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlanta, Ga. \u2014 Today at a U.S. Senate Human Rights Subcommittee hearing in Atlanta, Georgia juvenile court judges testified that the Director of Georgia\u2019s Division of Family & Children Services (DFCS) asked juvenile court judges to consider locking up children with special needs in a juvenile detention center. Over the course of the hour-long hearing, the Honorable Carolyn Altman, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20780","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/20780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/20780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20782,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/20780\/revisions\/20782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}