A Positive Change Brought about by the Justin Harris Mess
If you missed the newest disgusting adoption rehoming story last week; Arkansas Represenative, Justin Harris and his wife Marcia had adopted two sisters form Arkansas DHS. Citing “behavioral problems” after a few months this “forever family” sent the girls to live with another family where the 6 year old was raped by her new “father” Eric Francis.
Of course, being a politician involved in rehoming, the horrible story hit the news. There is good coverage of the story and issues over that First Mother Forum; Justin Harris and Another Sad Story of an Adoption That Shouldn’t Have Been.
So that’s the really awful bad news; the good news is that it has gotten the attention of some folks who might have missed the great investigative piece done by Reuters on Adoption Rehoming Abuses in September of 2013. And in the vein of more good news; Arkansas looks like they don’t want to see more rehoming happening.
Re-Homing Transfers of Adopted Children To be a Felony in Arkasas
HOUSE BILL 1648 PROHIBIT PRIVATE TRANSFERS OF ADOPTED 9 CHILDREN EXCEPT TO RELATIVES
The original news article I found is here, but both the bill and the concept is pretty simple. Arkansas Representative Greg Leding (D – Fayetteville), filed HB1648 on March 5th, 2014 in response to finding out about rehoming practices in general. Like many things we know to be reality in adopting, it’s another clear case where a state legislator, like the general public, just was unaware of the wrongdoings in common and accepted adoption practices.
“We’re all frankly still learning about this, it’s something I don’t think any of us knew was possible just 48 hours ago,” Leding said Thursday.
What I personally like is that Rep. Leding didn’t just wring his hands and say “how awful” he went and did something created to address this!
For the full text of the Arkansas House Bill 1648 .
In a nutshell: If House Bill 1648 becomes law, first-time violators would face a Class D felony (up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000), second-time offenders would face a Class C felony (three to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000), and a third or subsequence offense would be met with a Class B felony (five to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000).
