CYFs torture children – just let that settle in for a moment

Now, the PSA Coms unit might try and defend their members for being torturers, but I think most educated NZers would be horrified by this…

Teenagers were unlawfully detained for weeks on end in the seclusion wing of a youth justice facility run by Child Youth and Family, according to its own senior staff.

• staff used “inappropriate force” against young people.

• secure care was used as punishment.

• some young people were stripped and put in suicide gowns..

• a “significant number” of teens should not have been put in seclusion in the first place.

…we can blame policy all we like and yes these services are disgracefully underfunded  but there are  human beings who are committing this torture.

We have a Public Service that has been grossly underfunded so that the public turn their back on them and don’t care when the services are privatised, but we also have lots of people working in areas dealing with vulnerable people who should simply not be there.

Any in coming Government isn’t going to be able to change this culture of abuse overnight, that’s why we need autonomous democracy, NGO advocates who can help beneficiaries get the services they require while being able to critically report on the Government Services to force a culture change from the outside.

No wonder the poor run a thousand miles rather than deal with any public service. The madness is that children in state care are more likely to be abused than if left in the Community. That should be a nation wide shame, but the media are leading with the guy who spied on Aaron Smith complaining that things have been rough on him too.

We are going backwards as a country.