Eye On Illinois: Lawmaker on DCFS troubles: ‘The price of failure is too high’

As expected, a June 13 column on the sentencing of a former Department of Children and Family Services investigator drew spirited feedback (For full background, visit shawlocal.com/tags/aj-freund).

This issue grabbed readers in the heart of our coverage area for many years, and readers who wrote in referenced their personal connections. But the failures of DCFS plague our entire state. Many families may not ever directly encounter that agency, but those who do understand how every choice can be deeply affecting – indeed life-altering – and how we all share responsibility.

As such, consider this from state Rep. Steve Reick, R- Woodstock:

“What happened to AJ Freund was certainly a systemic failure, I’ve been staring at that systemic failure for five years and it’s certainly true that tragedies such as this will continue to occur until the reforms needed at DCFS are instituted and enforced. However, there’s no question that Carlos Acosta’s handling of this case demanded legal action. What he did was the bare minimum to fulfill the boilerplate requirements of his policies and procedures manual, but what he didn’t do was believe the evidence of his own eyes. I saw a picture of AJ taken a week before he died, and there is no way anyone could see that face staring back at the camera with its ‘raccoon eyes’ and look of utter terror without knowing what was happening to him. Systemic failure of an agency cannot stand as a shield for those whose job it is to protect those within one’s charge if the evidence is so compelling, as it was here.

“The problems plaguing DCFS are problems that run through every agency in state government: bloat, inefficiency, lack of resources, lack of accountability and bureaucratic logrolling. What sometimes results is the foot soldiers in these agencies deciding to do what’s necessary to keep their jobs and reluctance to do much more. That’s not to say that there aren’t employees who will go the extra mile. There are, and we see it all the time. The Carlos Acostas of this world are the outliers, which makes what he did even more inexcusable.

“When the focus of your agency is protecting children, the failures of the agency and those within it hit us all even harder. I don’t doubt the sincerity of those who say that we need to cast a wider net of blame. We do, but the actions of individuals also need to be judged. You began your column by saying that there are no winners in this case. That’s true unless we use the lessons of this case to make our child welfare system better than what it is now, because the price of failure is too high.”

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.