Deceased/Not Found NH - Harmony Montgomery, 7, Manchester, Oct 2019 *reported missing Dec 2021* *REWARD* *Arrest* #2

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Psychic Sleuth said:
Social Workers last less than 2 years on average. I honestly cannot imagine a more difficult job. They are way over worked and it's unbelievable what is expected of them. IMHO it's the laws that need to change. Harmony never should have been turned over to her Father. Whose fault is it that she was? It's hard to say without knowing all the details of the dependency case. But I know from experience with Foster Care, the goal is always reunification with a bio parent no matter what. Violent criminal history or not. Addiction or not. REUNIFICATION REUNIFICATION REUNIFICATION. That's all you hear. They put the parent in a class and deem them "fixed" and return the kids. It happens every day. Most people just don't know and think it's all on DCYF/CPS. The Judge always makes the final decision.
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thank you
 
"'The definition of neglect explicitly excludes things that are caused by the lack of financial means; it excludes poverty,' Ribsam said.

Yet, oftentimes, what people report is the result of poverty.

'I think that’s where a lot of people get confused,' he said. 'They see a family struggling, even a homeless family but that is not neglect under the law. It’s not how the law works.'"
DCYF caseworkers determine abuse or neglect based on NH law – and it’s complicated | Manchester Ink Link

Just to add: there are many pockets of serious poverty in NH - even within the touristy areas. I know there was a lot of discussion about the generator; they were unlikely to be the only family with that kind of set-up. The "Live Free or Die" runs deep in some populations as well. JMO.
 
Psychic Sleuth said:
Social Workers last less than 2 years on average. I honestly cannot imagine a more difficult job. They are way over worked and it's unbelievable what is expected of them. IMHO it's the laws that need to change. Harmony never should have been turned over to her Father. Whose fault is it that she was? It's hard to say without knowing all the details of the dependency case. But I know from experience with Foster Care, the goal is always reunification with a bio parent no matter what. Violent criminal history or not. Addiction or not. REUNIFICATION REUNIFICATION REUNIFICATION. That's all you hear. They put the parent in a class and deem them "fixed" and return the kids. It happens every day. Most people just don't know and think it's all on DCYF/CPS. The Judge always makes the final decision.
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I served as a CASA, and plan to return to active service now that I am going to fully retire. IMHO everything you say here is accurate....sad.....but accurate. The children must depend upon the triad of social workers/Appointed attorney GAL or CASA and the input of social workers. Reunification is 100% the goal unless/until the child's appointed representatives recommendation differs and is considered valid by the judge.
Each state has various challenges in budget, legislation, retention of Social Workers and experienced judges.
 
In an interview with police, Harmony’s great-uncle told officers he saw her with a black eye in July 2019. He said Adam Montgomery told him he hit Harmony after seeing her holding her hand over her younger brother’s mouth to stop him from crying, according to the police documents.

Manchester police records show that the Division for Children, Youth and Families had repeated involvement in the case. Crystal Renee Sorey, Harmony’s biological mother, lost custody of her daughter after substance abuse struggles. She reported her daughter missing in November 2021 after not seeing her since Easter in 2019.

In an email to the office of Manchester’s mayor, she explained that DCYF had an open case on her daughter but hadn’t done anything to help her.

“DCYF failed my child 100 percent and everyone in our family will vouch for that,” she wrote in the email.

Moira O’Neill, the director for the office of the Child Advocate, which is charged with overseeing DCYF, said Harmony’s disappearance isn’t necessarily a systemic failure.

She said before school age, there aren’t many avenues that would lead to an adult reporting child abuse. While young children should regularly see pediatricians, missed appointments are not uncommon.

Especially in the “live free or die” state, O’Neill finds it hard to believe that parents would want any kind of surveillance system.

“A bureaucracy can only do so much in a state government,” she said. “The failure is at the level of community. It’s a societal failure: that we don’t pay attention to kids around us.”

Though a child protection services worker may have been assigned to this case, she said DCYF employees have limited options — especially if the reported problems are ‘resolved’ in the office’s eyes.

“It was only recently that DCYF has been able to get a court order to actually get in and see a child if they’re worried about the child,” she said. “Everyone thinks they can do everything, but they actually have pretty limited authority around going into people’s homes.”
‘Societal failure’: NH girl’s quiet disappearance raises questions about DCYF
 
Psychic Sleuth said:
Social Workers last less than 2 years on average. I honestly cannot imagine a more difficult job. They are way over worked and it's unbelievable what is expected of them. IMHO it's the laws that need to change. Harmony never should have been turned over to her Father. Whose fault is it that she was? It's hard to say without knowing all the details of the dependency case. But I know from experience with Foster Care, the goal is always reunification with a bio parent no matter what. Violent criminal history or not. Addiction or not. REUNIFICATION REUNIFICATION REUNIFICATION. That's all you hear. They put the parent in a class and deem them "fixed" and return the kids. It happens every day. Most people just don't know and think it's all on DCYF/CPS. The Judge always makes the final decision.
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But the judge takes into account the recommendations made by the social workers in their psycho-social assessments that are provided to the judge.
 
Sundog said:
But the judge takes into account the recommendations made by the social workers in their psycho-social assessments that are provided to the judge.
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Yes, they do. And some of them simply rubber stamp their recommendations. I understand the system is overburdened but it's discouraging to see a case like this one. One adult after the other failed this baby girl.
 
Police cruisers were a frequent sight at 77 Gilford St. in the summer of 2019, as the father and stepmother of Harmony Montgomery made their home in the street of modest Cape Cod-style houses not far from Wolfe Park on the West Side of Manchester.

Neighbors called the police to complain about trash and the Montgomery family squatting in the house. They worried about a child who lived there.

They called when the couple started arguing, or when disputes arose involving extended family members.

But records of three months of police calls and reports include little to suggest the presence of Harmony Montgomery — the 7-year-old girl who has been missing for two years and is now the subject of a search in its third week.

The information is contained in 34 documents that Manchester police generated about activity at the house, which at the time was owned by the grandmother of Adam Montgomery, Harmony’s father. Police have released them to the Union Leader and other media through the New Hampshire Right-to-Know Law.

The documents show that police notified the state’s child protection agency — the Division for Children, Youth and Families — about living conditions at the house. The documents also say that DCYF was involved with the family.

Harmony’s mother, Crystal Sorey, has been critical about child protection agencies in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

“DCYF failed my child 100 percent & everyone in my family will vouch for that,” she wrote to Mayor Joyce Craig on Jan. 2.

In a 12-minute interview with a News Nation reporter last week, Sorey detailed her frustration with the system.
Many police calls, scant evidence of Harmony at Gilford Street house in 2019
 
This is going to be controversial but I think the balancing tests for child protection need to be recalibrated. In so many other areas of law the state acts like a monster, destroying people's privacy over the most minor of alleged infractions. And yet in child protection, everyone is walking on eggshells over the often drug-addicted neglectful parents' rights.

It's time to burden shift. Change the law to say DCYF and individual case workers are not liable for wrongdoing if children are removed from a parent's care and later the abuse charges are found to be unsubstantiated or alleviated. Act first and let the parents sue later. How many children will you save because drug addicted people will not bother to get clean and hire a lawyer to get their children back? Those children will be better off in safe loving homes than being neglected and abused.

It's time the state treats the lives of children as seriously as they take collecting penalties for minor violations and seizing money and alleged "proceeds of crime" from ordinary criminals.
 
Sundog said:
But the judge takes into account the recommendations made by the social workers in their psycho-social assessments that are provided to the judge.
Click to expand...

Sometimes yes and sometimes no. In cases I've been involved in through foster care, that wasn't always the case. Until I did foster care, I had no idea how it all worked and was shocked by what I learned and what I heard at hearings. For instance, I had one parent with substance abuse issues. This parent was only required to have a clean UA for 30 days to get their child back (along with other services). When the child returned home, this parent had had a positive meth UA 40 days prior and still the child went home. DCYF presented really good evidence IMHO that it was not safe to return this child. The Judge ruled against DCYF. And this is just one example. I could give many examples of how the laws are wrong and how parents are given chance after chance after chance and how flexible the laws are. They really do bend over backwards for parents and not so much for the child. (At least here in my state)
 
PommyMommy said:
JAN 15, 2022
DCYF says girl’s quiet disappearance points to ‘societal failure’ (concordmonitor.com)
[...]

Moira O’Neill, the director for the office of the Child Advocate, said Harmony’s disappearance isn’t necessarily a systemic failure.

[...]

“A bureaucracy can only do so much in a state government,” she said. “The failure is at the level of community. It’s a societal failure that we don’t pay attention to kids around us.”

[...]

“It was only recently that DCYF has been able to get a court order to actually get in and see a child if they’re worried about the child,” she said. “Everyone thinks they can do everything, but they actually have pretty limited authority around going into people’s homes.”

[...]

DCYF has had a long, troubled reputation in the public eye.

Most publicly, the agency came under fire after the death of two children, Sadee Willott in 2014 and Brielle Gage in 2015.

Child protection workers were involved in Sadee Willott’s life just days after her birth. Over the first 21 months of her short life, caseworkers met with Sadee’s family 30 times to check whether the toddler was being physically abused and neglected. Every report was dismissed, except for the last – but by then it was far too late. When the ruling was made, Sadee had already been dead for more than a year.

In the year before Brielle Gage died, DCYF received at least five reports of abuse and neglect against the toddler or her four brothers, who ranged in age from nine months to 8 years old.

A 2017 Monitor investigation found that crushing caseloads, high staff turnover and a lack of thorough investigations were to blame for the oversights.

[...]

Another Monitor investigation from November found that many of these problems still exist in DCYF offices, especially at the Manchester office which would have responded to reports surrounding Harmony Montgomery.

In a state that employs a total of 283 child protection workers, 196 have quit or transferred out of their positions since 2019, according to data from the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services.

[...]

AB, a former Manchester child protection worker, said when she left her position in the spring of 2019 she was working on cases for more than 200 children. She said she worked between 70 and 80 hours a week to keep up with her workload while caring for her own newborn.

[...]
Click to expand...

200 cases? That is insane!
 
Psychic Sleuth said:
Sometimes yes and sometimes no. In cases I've been involved in through foster care, that wasn't always the case. Until I did foster care, I had no idea how it all worked and was shocked by what I learned and what I heard at hearings. For instance, I had one parent with substance abuse issues. This parent was only required to have a clean UA for 30 days to get their child back (along with other services). When the child returned home, this parent had had a positive meth UA 40 days prior and still the child went home. DCYF presented really good evidence IMHO that it was not safe to return this child. The Judge ruled against DCYF. And this is just one example. I could give many examples of how the laws are wrong and how parents are given chance after chance after chance and how flexible the laws are. They really do bend over backwards for parents and not so much for the child. (At least here in my state)
Click to expand...

To add: this child's parent also had an active warrant, pending criminal charges and a significant other who was a convicted child abuser. And still the child was returned home.

If you find this shocking, you shouldn't. It is common and children are returned to parents that are much worse. Read Oakley Carlson's story. It's very similar to Harmony's. She's been missing since Feb 2019 and after repeated calls to DCYF/CPS by concerned family and former foster parents, nobody checked on this child. She was in foster care most of her life (2.5 years) and her foster parents wanted to adopt her and begged them not to return her. So, to say that the community needs to take responsibility and it's a "societal failure", often times they try, and nothing is done. This is NOT ok and laws need to change.
 
Alethea said:
This is going to be controversial but I think the balancing tests for child protection need to be recalibrated. In so many other areas of law the state acts like a monster, destroying people's privacy over the most minor of alleged infractions. And yet in child protection, everyone is walking on eggshells over the often drug-addicted neglectful parents' rights.

It's time to burden shift. Change the law to say DCYF and individual case workers are not liable for wrongdoing if children are removed from a parent's care and later the abuse charges are found to be unsubstantiated or alleviated. Act first and let the parents sue later. How many children will you save because drug addicted people will not bother to get clean and hire a lawyer to get their children back? Those children will be better off in safe loving homes than being neglected and abused.

It's time the state treats the lives of children as seriously as they take collecting penalties for minor violations and seizing money and alleged "proceeds of crime" from ordinary criminals.
Click to expand...
 
I agree we need to do more with potentially abused and neglected children. My thinking is going "upstream" and using a coordinated approach to fighting the scourge of opioid abuse. We know what works but we don't seem to do it. I really don't think we have enough money or fosters to pull all the kids that need it. I've seen people work their recovery. I believe many of the addicted parents could turn their lives around with more coordinated systems of recovery. MOO
 
Lulu'smom said:
I agree we need to do more with potentially abused and neglected children. My thinking is going "upstream" and using a coordinated approach to fighting the scourge of opioid abuse. We know what works but we don't seem to do it. I really don't think we have enough money or fosters to pull all the kids that need it. I've seen people work their recovery. I believe many of the addicted parents could turn their lives around with more coordinated systems of recovery. MOO
Click to expand...

The problem is that we do have these systems in New Hampshire and they are very successful for the people who want to get clean. But you have to want to get clean to get clean. I am a huge proponent of our Drug Court system where people with addictions are diverted from the justice system to a recovery program that is very heavily monitored by a Judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys, social workers, recovery experts, and clinics. People are given a chance to work the drug court program to get and stay clean, get and keep a job, and avoid the stain of a criminal record. But you have to want to do it and it is harder than using and stealing. I work with people who have dedicated their entire lives to this - and there are so many people who are completing these programs successfully and staying out of the system.

But if you can't and won't do it for the sake of your children, you should lose them. And lose them permanently. Harmony herself had an adoptive family ready to adopt her (who adopted her brother).

Where would we be if MA/NH refused to return Harmony to AM due to his serious record and lack of rehabilitation and instead allowed her to be adopted? She would be alive. And maybe AM would have had a chance to work on his recovery and turn his life around. But it looks like he won't have that chance either due to his choices. IMO
 
Alethea said:
The problem is that we do have these systems in New Hampshire and they are very successful for the people who want to get clean. But you have to want to get clean to get clean. I am a huge proponent of our Drug Court system where people with addictions are diverted from the justice system to a recovery program that is very heavily monitored by a Judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys, social workers, recovery experts, and clinics. People are given a chance to work the drug court program to get and stay clean, get and keep a job, and avoid the stain of a criminal record. But you have to want to do it and it is harder than using and stealing. I work with people who have dedicated their entire lives to this - and there are so many people who are completing these programs successfully and staying out of the system.

But if you can't and won't do it for the sake of your children, you should lose them. And lose them permanently. Harmony herself had an adoptive family ready to adopt her (who adopted her brother).

Where would we be if MA/NH refused to return Harmony to AM due to his serious record and lack of rehabilitation and instead allowed her to be adopted? She would be alive. And maybe AM would have had a chance to work on his recovery and turn his life around. But it looks like he won't have that chance either due to his choices. IMO
Click to expand...
 
I understand what you are saying but where would we be if MA had successfully rehabbed CS? and she never went to AM? Also, I disagree with the substance abuse treatment community that you have to want to get clean. You'll typically never want to get clean while your brain is on drugs. I have family members who are long term clean but initially were pretty much strongarmed into rehab. Once the brain is off drugs for a while, there's better inclination toward getting and staying clean. And I also believe many of the parents who are addicted do love their kids.
 
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