In 2004, then candidate Mitch Daniels mercilessly criticized Democrats for problems in Indiana’s Child Protective Services. The highly publicized abusive deaths of toddlers by their birth parents, caregivers or foster parents shocked Hoosiers who demanded action.
After becoming governor, Daniels named former Juvenile Court Judge James Payne to run a new state Department of Child Services (DCS) that hired more caseworkers and strengthened procedures so that the abuses would end.
So, why did the system fail last week?
Why did Indiana learn that a smiling 3-year-old, TaJanay Bailey, was beaten and in essence executed, allegedly by her mother Charity and “boyfriend” Lawrence Green.
The description of how TaJanay was abused, including being hung by her T-shirt from a hook, united Indianapolis in rage and anger. Terrorists in Abu Gharib and Guantanamo aren’t treated as badly as these two so-called adults treated that baby.
Court documents released to the Indianapolis Star report the DCS caseworker assigned to TaJanay had been employed just seven months. The two adults, Green and Bailey, hadn’t met all the requirements to regain custody of TaJanay.
The system Gov. Daniels and Judge Payne put in place allowed a rookie caseworker and a supervisor, to take TaJanay from a loving foster home and place her into the jaws of hell.
Worse, TaJanay died inside an apartment at the notorious Phoenix Apartments.
In October, Star columnist Matthew Tully and photojournalist Danese Kenon published a series of articles about the sin and shame that’s the Phoenix.
If that story had been published in major newspapers in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Atlanta or Houston, the outcry would’ve caused an army of health and building inspectors to descend upon the Phoenix, writing reams of code violation citations.
Mayor Bart Peterson visited the Phoenix days after the Star’s series, but nothing had been done.
Last Friday, I toured a couple of Phoenix apartments, with several Black ministers — Rev. Byron Alston, Rev. Donald Golder, Rev. Charles Harrison, plus IPS Board member Olgen Williams, Prosecutor Carl Brizzi and Mayor-elect Greg Ballard.
What we saw were conditions worse than third world slums. Residents told us of an indifferent, callous management that lets calls for repairs go unanswered “for weeks.”
Nearly all the Phoenix’s residents are on Section 8 federal rent subsidies. They pay little or nothing each month. But you and I, taxpayers, are paying an outrageously inflated bill — $750 monthly, for substandard, cockroach-infested, third world condition apartments.
Scores of quality apartments in Indianapolis are cheaper per month than what the Phoenix’s irresponsible, out-of-state owners are charging taxpayers for people to live in horrid conditions at the Phoenix.
Brizzi vowed to do something. But, he should’ve done that years ago. The Phoenix isn’t the only slum in Indianapolis. There are scores of apartment complexes owned by abhorrent absentee landlords who charge taxpayers high rents for apartments where poor and working class tenants live in substandard conditions and receive no services or amenities.
Affordable housing for the city’s poor and working class has been a problem in Indianapolis for decades. Though he talked a good game, the Peterson administration didn’t do much to alleviate the affordable housing problem. Slums like the Phoenix continue to exist.
What happened to TaJanay Bailey was an unmitigated tragedy. In her memory, those at DCS responsible for this tragedy should be terminated — forthwith. The city should intervene with inspectors, programs and more. The insensitive, invisible owners of the Phoenix should be forced by government action to fix it up or tear it down.
Indianapolis must get serious about cleaning up its dilapidated housing for the poor and working poor. You can’t be a first class world city with third world housing. Cleaning it up and eradicating needless child deaths are the best memorial we can erect to TaJanay Bailey’s too-short life.
What I’m hearing in the streets
Now that Julia Carson’s not running for re-election, the street is ablaze with speculation of who might run to replace her. Media pundits have thrown names out, egged on by persons who really don’t know what’s going on, without directly talking to potential candidates themselves.
To separate the facts from the hype, I’ve talked in the past week with six African-Americans whose names have been thrown out as possibly entering the race to succeed Congresswoman Carson. I talked with them on an “off the record” basis.
Of the six, three, all currently elected officials, told me they’re definitively running for Julia’s seat. Another’s evaluating the situation and may decide early next year whether to run. Two others, one an elected official, the other a well-known figure, told me they’re definitely not running.
At least this pundit is talking directly to potential candidates. That’s not the case with WRTV/Channel 6 commentator Abdul Hakim-Shabazz who said on Channel 6’s Web site that state Rep. Vanessa Summers “will probably” run for Carson’s seat. Summers vehemently denied it on our WTLC-AM (1310) radio program.
The chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick along with fellow Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones visited Carson last week. In an exclusive interview on “Afternoons with Amos,” both women said Carson was “uplifted” by their visit.
Both Kilpatrick (mother of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick) and Tubbs Jones stressed the importance of our African-American community not letting the 7th District seat “fall into Republican hands.” And Chairwoman Kilpatrick pledged that the Black Caucus would be “supportive” if an African-American is picked as the Democratic candidate to replace Carson in next year’s primary.
Mayor-elect Greg Ballard’s visit to the Phoenix Apartments impressed and sent a signal that Ballard, who is still a blank page to our Black community, might be a mayor that cares and is concerned about working class and poor folks. Again, a photo-op visit is great. But our community wants to see concrete action and fairness from a mayor-elect our community’s still wary of.
See ‘ya next week.
Amos Brown’s opinions are not necessarily those of the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. You can contact him at (317) 221-0915 or by e-mail at ACBROWN@AOL.COM.
