Written by According to an article, which ran in the Asbury Park Press recently, one former foster child, Benny Matthews has been sentenced to 23-years in prison.
Matthews, now 21-years-old, entered the foster care system at the age of 9 and lived with 13 different foster families. His mother was a drug addict according to the article.
An entire generation of children are growing up without family ties or even ties to a local community due to the “help” and intervention of child protection workers, courtesy of our state and federal government.
We must ask ourselves what hand, we as a society played in this child’s life. Where were the services his family should have received? Could his mother have met his needs better and overcome her drug habit, with help from various state agencies? Was any assistance ever offered to his natural family? Could this outcome have been avoided?
This case as in many we that are being reported in the news these days, has no winners, only losers. This former foster child will now join the ranks of many former foster children, who are alumni of our prison system, instead of graduating from college.
Too many children are being cheated out of a normal life and we should not stand by and continue to allow it to happen. We must demand that federal dollars be applied first to helping children remain with their natural parents, whenever possible. Too many children are removed from their mother and father, for no good reason and will suffer their entire lives because of it.