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Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Indiana government - [Updated] More on Payne appointment to new Indiana Department of Child Services

"Maverick judge to lead child welfare department: Appointment of juvenile court jurist starts breakup of FSSA" is the headline of this morning's story in the Indianapolis Star. Some quotes from the beginning of the long story:

James W. Payne is a maverick judge who has ruled Marion County's juvenile justice system with an iron fist for 20 years. He's angered defense lawyers, taken heat for the number of children he has locked up and been reprimanded for doing a lawmaker a favor.

That's partly why Gov.-elect Mitch Daniels picked Payne as the director of the new Indiana Department of Child Services. The move begins Daniels' transformation of the state's largest agency, the Family and Social Services Administration.

Daniels said Tuesday he didn't want someone in charge of protecting Indiana's youngest who sat on a bench for 20 years "and never created a ripple."

"We are people of change. We are going to hire people of experimentation. We will take some risks," Daniels said.

FSSA still will run programs for the elderly, disabled and mentally ill, as well as Medicaid, which provides health care for needy Hoosiers. Daniels already has picked Mitch Roob to lead that agency.

A short side-bar is titled "In court with Judge Payne."

An AP story this morning explains:

Gov.-elect Mitch Daniels announced the creation of the cabinet-level agency, to be called the Indiana Department of Child Services.

He said Payne will report to him directly but also work with his appointee to head the Family and Social Services Administration, Edward Mitchell "Mitch" Roob Jr.

"We'll be able to effect this reform on day one by executive order," said Daniels, who will be sworn in Jan. 10.

Daniels made the social services administration a campaign issue, saying he would dismantle its current structure and make child protection a freestanding agency. The new department also will be responsible for collecting child support .

See the ILB's updated organization chart reflecting the new appointment here.

[Updated] This report from Jennifer Whitson of the Evansville Courier&Press includes these quotes:

INDIANAPOLIS - Gov.-elect Mitch Daniels announced Tuesday he is going to issue an executive order to separate children services from the rest of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. * * *

In August, the Indiana Supreme Court sent [Judge James] Payne a private letter of reprimand, according to published reports, because he opened court on a holiday in 2000 to give a lawmaker's daughter a hearing without prosecutors or defense attorneys present. [See this 8/10/04 ILB entry for details]

[Rep. Dennis Avery, D-Evansville] said Payne worked against legislation Avery carried last session that opened up the records of children who died while under state supervision.

Supporters of the change said opening the files, which could include records on how often caseworkers visited a child or how well they followed up on abuse complaints, would improve accountability and improve the system. Any record released under the new law must go through a juvenile court judge to protect the privacy of other children who might be mentioned in the reports.

Avery said Payne lobbied against the bill and has since blacked out much of the information in the files he has released. But when asked about openness in Indiana's child protective services Tuesday, Payne said the more oversight the better.

"If we don't open this up so that the public ... knows what are the good things that are going on and point out the things that are not going well, we don't change," Payne said.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 15, 2004 05:59 AM
Posted to Indiana Government