There’s no easy fix for DCF’s woes

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/10/04/another-governor-vows-fix-dcf-but-will-this-one-stay-course/y0n0XWDnlUe9xzOHe1sGnI/story.html



A memorial for Bella Bond, whose remains were found on Deer Island earlier this year, as it appeared on July 25.

There’s no easy fix for DCF’s woes
By Adrian Walker Globe Columnist
October 05, 2015

In the aftermath of the horrendous Bella Bond tragedy, Governor Charlie Baker pledged last week to repair the state’s Department of Children and Families. He declared that the agency will focus on a single mission: keeping kids safe.

~snip~

Like me, you may have assumed that was always the agency’s mission, but Baker believes the agency will benefit from greater clarity. At the moment it’s hard to disagree.

On the other hand, if Baker wants to understand just how hard it will be to fix DCF, he could do worse than to read the piece in the Boston Sunday Globe detailing Bella’s brief and tragic life.

Before the horror of being left to wash ashore on Deer Island three months ago as an unidentified corpse, this child was failed by every adult in her life, including her mother, Rachelle Bond, and the man accused of killing her, Bond’s boyfriend Michael McCarthy. Fixing DCF is a vastly more complicated and sensitive task than making the Green Line run on time.