Brooklyn

Describing injustice of an “almost unbearable” magnitude, Brooklyn’s District Attorney Eric Gonzalez this week released a report concluding that police and prosecutorial misconduct contributed to the wrongful convictions of 25 New Yorkers by his own office. 

Forty-two out of 59 New York neighborhoods have seen risks to children’s well-being increase overall since the previous year, according to a new report released by the Citizens’ Committee for Children (CCC), a nonprofit advocacy group.

The New York State legislature passed a raft of historic child welfare bills this year. All of them aimed to strengthen birth family ties: one bill would open access to original birth certificates for adoptees; another increases the standard of evidence in child neglect cases, and decreases the consequences of such investigations for parents; four other bills boost support for relatives and family friends who care for someone else’s child.

Adoptees can face a unique struggle with grief, loss and identity — contrary to how they are often depicted in films like “Annie” or “Superman.” But most graduate programs in counseling and therapy rarely explore the issue, or the complexities of the child welfare system, leaving adoptive families nationwide to struggle alone.

One of the busiest family courts in the nation occupies a hulking 32-story administrative tower in downtown Brooklyn. On a recent Thursday, I visited to observe the child abuse and neglect hearings on the eighth floor.

The child advocacy group Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York (CCC) recently released a unique report ranking 59 New York City communities by trends in health, housing stability, income security and other risk indicators for youth.

by Raquel Arellano and John Kelly The case against Chereece Bell and Damon Adams, two child welfare workers accused of homicide in the 2010 death of a New York City child, will head back to court this summer.