Posted Tuesday, Jun. 29, 2010

BY TERRI LANGFORD AND EMILY RAMSHAW TEXAS TRIBUNE
Houston Chronicle

Job applicants with some criminal history on their résumés have no problem getting approval to work among the state's most vulnerable foster-care children, according to a Houston Chronicle/Texas Tribune investigation.

A review of background check letters the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services sent Daystar Residential Inc. -- a Houston-area facility that made headlines for forcing disabled girls to fight each other -- shows that dozens of potential workers were approved for hire by the state despite arrests ranging from prostitution to assault with a deadly weapon.

It's unclear whether Daystar hired these workers; the state redacted applicants' names. But their approval for employment raises questions about the background check process as lawmakers meet in Austin today to discuss abuse and neglect within Texas' 80 residential treatment centers for troubled kids.

"Our goal is to strike a balance between protecting the children in these facilities and the presumption that an individual applying for a job is innocent until proven guilty," said department spokesman Patrick Crimmins. "There are certain criminal convictions whose nature or severity does not indicate a risk to children, or that so much time has passed to indicate there is no longer risk of occurrence."

According to the Chronicle/Tribune review, of the 536 background checks the state performed on potential Daystar employees between 2007 and May 2010, 136 resulted in a criminal match or a hit on the state's abuse and neglect registry. While some of the applicants' matches involved misdemeanors like evading arrest, fraud by check, speeding, DWIs or drug possession, others had histories that included arrests for robbery, aggravated assault and domestic violence.

Weighing threats

On Dec. 4, 2008, the department told Daystar that a job applicant arrested in Houston in 2000 on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon -- a second-degree felony -- was OK to hire. "This person's criminal history does not include a conviction that would prohibit the person from being present in a childcare operation," licensing representative Yolanda Hernandez wrote.

In 2007, a licensing representative told Daystar that an applicant with a 2001 "credit card or debit card abuse" conviction "must not be retained in a position allowing contact with children while the request for risk evaluation is prepared and considered." Yet a 2009 Daystar job applicant with a 1991 arrest for prostitution, 1993 and 1994 arrests for theft, and a 2008 conviction for reckless driving sailed through the criminal background process.

In many of the cases the Chronicle/Tribune reviewed, it's unknown whether the applicant was convicted, because the letters the agency sends are often missing such information.

Daystar attorney John Carsey said it would be unrealistic to expect a residential treatment center to be free of workers with criminal histories.

"When you consider what happens to people when they're in high school or college, with hot checks or various things, you could easily end up with something on your record," he said. "It would be unfair to the labor pool ... to say nobody can work at a facility who has anything on their criminal history."

Differentiating crimes

Before people are hired to work with children in Texas, they must submit to a criminal background check performed by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Some felony offenses, including crimes against people, robbery, public indecency, stalking and failing to report the sexual assault of a child, are supposed to permanently bar an applicant from working at a center or any other child-care setting.

Applicants who have committed misdemeanor offenses in those categories -- and certain drug offenders with convictions within the last decade -- are eligible for hire if they pass a risk evaluation process. Protective services officials say they consider the severity and circumstances of the crime, the length of time since it occurred, proof of rehabilitation and the applicant's job responsibilities.

'Asking for trouble'

Advocates question why these facilities would want to hire anyone with a criminal record in the first place -- and why the state allows them to do it.

The reality, child welfare expert Susan Watson said, is that treatment center pay is painfully low. The facilities are often in remote, unmonitored areas. And workers are undereducated and often simply don't care about the kids.

"I appreciate that it's really crappy pay for demanding work," said Watson, who coordinates Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid's Individual Rights Group. "But they hire those kinds of folks in shelter care facilities, and it's just asking for trouble."

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/06/29/2302972/state-family-agency-okd-workers.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor