Children at risk: Grant helps drug enforcement officers protect kids

By Courtney Blanchard
Dubuque Telegraph Herald

The door flies open.

Police officers fill the living room, clutching guns and shouting through respirator-masks strapped to their faces. The suspects are handcuffed and shoved outside to waiting squad cars, their lights flashing.

"And there are little babies in the house," said Dubuque Assistant County Attorney Chris Corken, recounting the scene of a methamphetamine lab bust.

Several years ago, during the height of the methamphetamine lab boom, county officials set out to develop the best system to protect children in homes with drugs. The biggest breakthrough in their system: applying child-endangerment laws to drug exposure, not just physical abuse.

"It's almost shameful to say that it had never occurred to us, because it's clearly been an issue," she said. "There's nothing much more harmful than living in the drug trade, it's just that we never made that leap."

In 2003, a $250,000 grant helped kick off a formal program drawing collaboration between police, prosecutors, the Department of Human Services and the Visiting Nurse Association. When the grant money ran out, the county had developed a framework to charge and attempt to rehabilitate parents who were using, selling or making drugs in front of their children. Corken helped train other law enforcement agencies in Iowa and recently developed a prototype that she unveiled last month at a national conference in Colorado.

"Now we're out advocating that this is how we do business," she said. "If you work narcotics, you should be looking out for the children."

A collaboration
The Drug Endangered Children program began in 2003, when the Dubuque Drug Task Force devoted much of its time to dismantling meth labs. The number of labs has been reduced significantly since, but children are still exposed to meth, cocaine, marijuana and other drugs.

Sgt. Dale Snyder, of the Dubuque Drug Task Force, said drug exposure can cause circulation and breathing problems.

"It's also a learned behavior down the road. If a child sees their parents using drugs, they think it's OK," Snyder said.

Anytime someone is found to be manufacturing, using or selling drugs in front of children, they can be charged with child endangerment in addition to any drug charges that apply.

The drug task force teams with DHS workers to investigate complaints of drug use in front of children. Hillary Law, social work supervisor with DHS, said police bring their experience and provide a safety net for social workers who sometimes walk into unpredictable situations.

The two agencies benefit by sharing information, whether it's a police investigation that reveals a vulnerable child or an anonymous tip to a social worker.

"It goes both ways. There are times we know about things they haven't heard about, or visa versa," Law said.

Rehabilitation
Substance abuse remains staggeringly high among criminal offenders.

At last count, 89 percent of the residents at the Elm Street Residential Facility reported a current or past substance abuse issue, Residential Manager Wendy Lyons said.

A majority of the residents have children or live with children. The facility houses offenders in work-release transitional programs.

"The majority of these people are going to go back home at some point," Lyons said. "We're focusing more on that transition."

In Drug Endangered Children cases, prosecutors work with probation officers and DHS workers to structure conditions for release, like drug testing and counseling. The child endangerment charge allows prosecutors to ask for such conditions, and judges generally grant the request.

Lyons said community support, friends and family help in the rehabilitation process.

DHS workers look for parents to show cooperation with multiple agencies, clean drug testing and a change in behavior.

"We bank on (children) being the motivating factor. We want their children to be home, for them to be able to parent successfully," she said.

Prevention
About eight years ago, Corken said cases emerged involving sexually active young female children.

"These kids were basically falling through the cracks," Corken said. "We were prosecuting their parents for their drug cases, we were working with the children in the (juvenile) cases, and these girls were coming through the system with, clearly, some serious issues."

Corken hopes that the Drug Endangered Children model will help prevent such cases. Prevention is a relatively new idea for police and prosecutors.

"We've never been considered to be a prevention tool," she said. "In all honesty, we can be the best prevention by creating a system where we break the cycle for the children in the homes where they're being exposed to drugs."

Copyright 2010 Woodward Communications, Inc.