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by Laura Clinton, Dee Gray, Chris Barrett and The Courtwatch staff
CourtWatch is an advocacy group for parents
who feel that they have been unjustly treated by Child Protective Services
(C.P.S.) and the Juvenile Dependency Court (J.D.C.). In addition to
advocating for these parents, we would also like to assist you in providing
more comprehensive services to your clients.
CourtWatch is designed to assist parents who are entangled with
C.P.S. and J.D.C. and feel as though they have been mistreated, regardless
of whether or not they wish to regain custody of their children. We are
committed to the belief that ALL people deserve to be treated fairly and
justly by governmental agencies and the legal system, without the use of
intimidation, threats, and/or being kept uninformed of their rights.
This group will serve to supplement the legal services provided by
your agency by further assisting individuals with documenting their
experiences and writing letters to the governmental agencies that they feel
are accountable for their mistreatment. We would work to combine advocacy
with support by accompanying individuals to court, and providing them with
a space to share their experiences with others.
We are also committed to making accountable C.P.S., the City
Attorney's Office, and all agencies that deal with parents. For instance,
this would include addressing the misuse of the term "social worker" when
it is applied to unlicensed child welfare workers in court proceedings/ court documents. It would also include a critical analysis of
the impact of false psychiatric diagnoses by unlicensed child welfare
workers as well as biased psychiatric evaluations as evidence for removing
children from their parent's custody and preventing reunification. In
addition, we want to see a thorough investigation of the statements and
motivations of those that report child abuse and enforcement of criminal
penalties of false statements.
We have synthesized the experiences of many parents who have
themselves been mistreated by C.P.S. and other governmental agencies, and
have drawn on their techniques in resisting their injustice (i.e.
documenting their experiences through letter writing, phone calls, writing
articles, etc.) as well as the advocacy experience of the staff at POOR
Magazine.
We hope that you will inform your clients about our services, and
that we can work together to provide the best services possible to clients
in need. Like you, we believe that everyone is entitled to fair, equitable
treatment within the legal system.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at
(415) 863-6306. We thank you in advance for your time and continued
commitment to equality.
"[Every ] poor family comes with a [state] worker
who wants to take your kids away."
-Malcolm X
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