Impact of Reductions in Poverty-Fighting Increasingly Affecting Policing, Flynn Says

“Think big, folks,” Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn urged a full-house audience in the Appellate Courtroom of Eckstein Hall on Tuesday. And Flynn did that himself during an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program, taking a broad view of the role of police in protecting and enhancing the quality of life of people and communities in the city.

Flynn’s perspective focused frequently on how police have become the ones dealing with a gamut of social problems, as well as criminal problems, as public investment in programs aimed at helping people, especially those in poverty, have declined across the United States.

Over the last 25 years, Flynn said, “we have seen a consistent and unrelenting disinvestment in the social network, OK?” He gave mental health as an example: “Right now, the response of our society to issues of mental health is the criminal justice system. I’ve seen this for years and it’s becoming more so. . . . If you have a mental health problem, we can guarantee you a jail cell.” He said substance abuse problems are another example. “What is our social network dealing with substance abuse? Jail.”

Flynn, who is in his sixth year as Milwaukee’s police chief, said, “I’ve got 1,800 men and women out there who are being asked to deal with virtually every single social problem that presents as an inconvenience, discomfort or issue. . . . It is this one group that right now has the weight of every single social problem on it. And maybe we should start asking ourselves, do we need to double back and see what else we’re doing?”

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21st Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction–An Interview with PILS Fellow Trisha Fritz

Trisha FritzThe 21st Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction on behalf of the Law School’s Public Interest Law Society (PILS) will be held in the evening on Friday, February 21, 2014 at the Law School.  Proceeds from the event go to support PILS fellowships to enable Marquette law students to do public interest work in the summer.  Trisha Fritz, a current law student, shares her experience here as a PILS Fellow.  Besides her work as a PILS Fellow, Trisha is helping to organize this year’s Auction.

You may attend the Auction by purchasing tickets here, or you may purchase tickets at the door.  This link also provides you with an option to donate to the Auction.

Where did you work as a PILS Fellow?

I worked at the Milwaukee County Public Defender’s Office in the Juvenile and Mental Health Office located in Wauwatosa.

What kind of work did you do there?

I mainly worked with Juveniles involved in Juvenile Delinquency cases. The office also handles CHIPS, TPR, JIPS, and Mental Health Commitment cases, and I was able to dapple in those areas, but I mainly worked with Delinquency cases. All of the Juveniles that come through the delinquency system have a state public defender assigned to their case. My role was to interview clients and families and continue to handle their cases at various stages through the criminal process. I was able to practice under the student practice rule where I was able to handle all delinquency hearings from the initial detention hearing to disposition hearing (sentencing in the juvenile system).

Continue Reading21st Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction–An Interview with PILS Fellow Trisha Fritz

Wisconsin Assembly Responds to “Child Exchange”

Adoption is intended to create lifelong parent-child relationships, and irrevocable parental obligations, no matter the challenges the newly-formed family might face in integrating an adopted son or daughter. However, in a tragic number of cases, parents decide not to keep the adopted child. Perhaps the highest-profile failed adoption in recent years was that of Artyem Savaliev/Justin Hansen, a seven year old Russian adoptee who in 2010 was put on a flight to Moscow by his Tennessee adoptive mother with a note explaining why she no longer wanted him. The case sparked concern and outrage in both Russia and the US.

Post-adoption family breakdowns are occurring in other less visible ways, including in Wisconsin. Last fall, Reuters published a five-part expose on “private re-homing,” a euphemistic term for advertising one’s unwanted adopted children on the Internet in order to find them a new home. This allows the parents of international and domestic adoptees to effectively, and beyond the supervision of child safety networks, pass off their parental obligations to strangers.

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