Children and minors have faced constant disadvantages for ages; they are the most under-represented among all groups. Minors do not receive the same respect, and their concerns are considered naive. Add not having parents to advocate for you and your well-being, and we have foster children. Foster children are severely neglected and face constant disadvantages within the foster system, specifically in regards to the for-profit foster care system.
State and local governments are responsible for children whose parents cannot care for them. They often subcontract the work by placing children in foster homes to nonprofit organizations. However, for-profit operations have become prevalent in fostering children, which has come under much scrutiny. The nation’s largest for-profit foster care agency is known as National Mentor Holdings, founded in 1980 by marine corps veteran E. Byron Hensley in Boston, Massachusetts. His tenant wasn’t to work with youth, but he graduated and began working at a group home for troubled kids. Hensley became convinced that teens would be better in private residences as opposed to group homes.
Mentor’s foster care business received fees from state and local governments for its services, and some of that money is used to train the foster parents and pay those parents a daily rate for caring for the children. Former workers say that in order to increase profits, the company cuts corners services that are used to ensure the children in its care are safe. The mentor training session only lasts 24 hours and includes a viewing of the film “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.” It’s obvious that watching a movie does not develop the qualities needed by potential foster parents, and 24 hours of training do not justify the right to care for a child.
For-profit foster care agencies seek to maximize income and reduce expenses like any other business. When these agencies work to reduce costs, they are radically reducing the quality of service and protection of under- privileged children. Agencies like Mentor ultimately amount to exchanging children for money.
There are several cases in which Mentor has practiced neglect and abuse, and after extreme cases of death and sexual violence within Mentor, their abuse was finally revealed to the public. One of Mentor’s most grisly failings in foster care was the story of Alexandria Hill, a two-year-old, was placed with Sheryl Smalls, a known crack addict, who after months of abuse, murdered her by swinging her until her head crashed onto the floor.
If Alexandria Hill’s gruesome death fails to portray Mentor’s negligence, look at Last Chance Farms, which shows the company’s failures in training and monitoring foster parents in spite of the multiple warning signs. The first couple to get certified by Mentor was Stephen Merritt and his wife Carol, whose home was hazardous for small children yet were still approved. Later, Stephen Merrit’s son, whose name is also Stephen Merrit, and his wife Trudy signed up with Mentor at a house in the same compound. He passed the background check relatively easily, despite confessing to his high school expulsion and lying about his history of drug use in spite of clear evidence. Other Merritt relatives joined the foster business all on the farm. It took 12 years, but Stephen Merritt pleaded guilty to sexually abusing the young boys placed under his care by Mentor. The investigation revealed that Mentor ignored Merritt’s drug arrests and discovered that the boys were forced to do drugs before they were molested. He also admitted that his uncle, another foster parent, was abusing their foster child. Sadly, cases of abuse are common among for-profit foster cares systems, and more than six children have died in Mentor’s custody due to pure negligence by Mentor.
For a company that has built an empire that specializes in placing children with nurturing families, Mentor has failed its community immensely. These children are beaten into silence, and the American Child welfare system is failing by its careless placement in dangerous homes. The first step in providing justice for children like Alexandria Hill is to ban for-profit foster care agencies, because profit will always succeed the value of providing these kids with a safe and stable environment.
