Table of Contents

Part 1 Acknowledgements 7 Part 2 Foreword 13 Part 3 A Third World Initiation 27 Part 4 Learning the System 37 Part 5 Preserving Families, Killing Children 58 Part 6 The Underclass 85 Part 7 The Confidentiality Game 113 Part 8 New Realities 129 Part 9 Wrong Race, Wrong Place 147 Part 10 Orphans in a Strom 162 Part 11 Ideology and Reality 174 Part 12 Index 185

About the Author

Patrick T. Murphy is Public Guardian of Cook County, Illinois, an office unique in the United States. He has also written Our Kindly Parent—the State and among many honors has received the Juvenile Justice Award of the American Bar Association and Criminal Justice Award of the governor of Illinois.

Reviews

A splendid book.
*Msgr. John Egan, DePaul University*

Honest and self-reflective...written with wit and great knowledge.
*Boris M. Astrachan, M.D., Chairman Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago*

Wasted is a first-rate read—poignant and instructive.
*Edward I. Koch, Former Mayor, New York City*

Insightful and passionate...a book about responsibility and of how shirking it leads to social catastrophe.
*Ellis Cose, Author of Color-Blind and The Rage of a Privileged Class*

A powerful indictment of the child welfare system...its message deserves a broad hearing among those who care about our society's children.
*Elizabeth Bartholet, "professor of law, Harvard Law School*

In this angry, hard-hitting book, Murphy‘ the public guardian of Cook County, Ill.‘argues that state agencies and the legal system don't always use good judgment in trying to keep families intact. Although he acknowledges that even marginally conscientious parents are usually better than the institutional care the state can provide, he claims to have seen too many cases of children brutalized by parents who lack skills and concern. In Murphy's view, the system originally designed to protect children now regards irresponsible parents as society's victims and protects them instead, in effect "preserving families [and] killing children." While separation from parents can be damaging, the author makes the point that in many cases it is less so than allowing children to remain at risk. He reserves particular scorn for critics of interracial adoption and suggests that "residential care" (orphanages) sometimes provides a more stable and nurturing environment than foster care. Murphy's snarling tone occasionally undercuts him, as does as a marked tendency to argue from anecdotal evidence. But unlike many social critics, he lists practical ideas for rehabilitating the system, such as reclassifying abuse and neglect into three separate categories for legal redress, and restructuring child welfare bureaucracies into two agencies, one to provide services and the other to investigate child abuse. These suggestions alone make the book worth reading. (Sept.)

A splendid book. -- Msgr. John Egan, DePaul University
Honest and self-reflective...written with wit and great knowledge. -- Boris M. Astrachan, M.D., Chairman Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago
Wasted is a first-rate read-poignant and instructive. -- Edward I. Koch, Former Mayor, New York City
Insightful and passionate...a book about responsibility and of how shirking it leads to social catastrophe. -- Ellis Cose, Author of Color-Blind and The Rage of a Privileged Class
A powerful indictment of the child welfare system...its message deserves a broad hearing among those who care about our society's children. -- Elizabeth Bartholet, "professor of law, Harvard Law School