Being wrenched away from the only family you have ever known and thrust into the care system is often a traumatic experience, and sometimes at-risk children deal with their trauma by getting angry and acting out. Unfortunately for children who have this very natural reaction in the State of California, they are arrested for the act more often than foster kids in other states. We are Robert and Kathey Raskin, and we want to see this issue brought to light so more people are aware of this terrible injustice that is taking place.

A Vulnerable Position

Children in foster care are in a vulnerable position. Separated from their families and under the constant threat of repeated abandonment, many develop issues with anger and other emotional problems. When these children have trouble dealing with their emotions, they usually will not receive the professional help they need. Unable to deal with their swirling emotions and their separation trauma, many will strike back with physical violence. In shelters and group homes in California, the result of this is that children as young as eight years old have been arrested.

Who Are the Real Criminals Here?

Between the years of 2015 and 2016, nearly 500 children in shelters and group homes were arrested, detained, or received citations. For these children, what already may be one of the most difficult times of their lives is then made even more damaging when they end up in handcuffs, or, worse, in jail. The CPS system that is supposed to be protecting them is not taking steps to make sure children in crisis receive the emotional support and psychiatric services they need, and unfortunately for these children who now have criminal records, it is too late for many.

Possible Risks in Adulthood

While many children who spend time in the foster care system grow up fine, there are others who do not fare as well. Kids who are trapped in the system can end up with a stunted sense of empathy as a result of growing up without learning to be empathetic to the well-being of other people. Some people even refer to children who endure multiple placements as “psychopaths in the making” because they are being deprived of the normal bonds they need in order to develop a conscience. Placing children who already have the odds stacked against them at further risk by arresting them and sending them to juvenile correction facilities is completely unacceptable, and we, Robert and Kathey Raskin, aren’t standing for it.