Why have a blog???

Yesterday morning, I found myself getting frustrated because I was bored and trying to read people's blogs, but none of my regular blogs had been updated in a while. I found myself muttering out loud: well, why have a blog if you aren't going to update???

Pot calling the kettle black. Obviously.

SOOO - the job has started, and while I've come close to posting a couple of really interesting stories on here many times, I stopped myself because I'm not actually sure how much information I'm allowed to share. But as for general observations, now I'm really glad I opted for this internship over the public defenders - from what i've seen of the PDs, I was not at all impressed. I even saw one case where an attorney came to represent his client (who was incarcerated at the time) in a termination proceeding (meaning that the state had filed to have his parental rights terminated forever) and the darned PD hadn't even contacted his client! I've found that a lot of them are so disheartened or jaded that they barely even represent their clients at all, let alone to the best of their abilities.

Meanwhile, this job is different than what I thought it would be in a lot of ways. For example, so much of what I've been doing is actually parent-focused. Basically, if there is a case for abuse or neglect and the children are removed from the home, then the focus switches to what services the state can provide the parents and have those parents completed them. There isn't a really wholistic evaluation of the problem or situation or causes or solutions as far as I can tell, just an evaluation of is this person mentally competent, and if so, what services should we make him/her do before he/she can get the kids back. But the services are really limited to services the state already provides (like substance abuse, parenting classes, domestic violence classes, etc.). So in court, usually we sit down for any given case and just discuss what services the parent has or has not completed, and typically, there isn't even an evaluation of what put the parents in the courtroom in the first place. So it's not a very thorough system in as much as it doesn't really address the problem as a whole and how to solve it or whether it's solved.

That said, I do enjoy watching the process. The job isn't as sad as I thought it might be - mostly our cases involve substance abuse on the part of the parents. Although there have been some really sad cases of molest where it's pretty certain that the kids are going right back to the home (and in one case this will be for the 3rd time) without anyone ever being charged with molestation or treated for that kind of a problem. My favorite part of the job so far is probably mediation - those occur when the state has initiated termination suits against the parents and the parents and the foster parents sit down to try and work out a guardianship or an adoptive agreement or whatnot, without the use of a judge or courts. My second favorite part of the job are the characters in the courtrooms cuz between the judges and the bailiffs, you never know what will be said. One judge got annoyed when a mother who gave birth to a crack baby asked why she can't have her baby back. She leans over the bench, looks her straight in the eye, and yells: BECAUSE YOU POISONED HER!!!! well put, I thought.

Let's see... not much else in my life. I might be getting a part time job at a country club soon though - keeping my fingers crossed. But for now I've rambled for so long that I should get back to work.