Proposed S.C. bill | Parent rights debate ignited

Measure would make it easier for foster families to adopt kids whose parents are in prison

By GINA SMITH - gnsmith@thestate.com

More South Carolinians could lose their parental rights if a bill pending in the General Assembly and recommendations from a state task force become law.

The goal is to make it easier for children in foster care to become eligible for adoption, proponents of the measures say.

But others say the measures, endorsed by the state Department of Social Services and Gov. Mark Sanford, are an unfair infringements on parents’ rights.

A task force created by Sanford recently released a list of recommendations to cut the red tape in the state’s adoption process. Several of the recommendations involve speeding up the termination of the rights of biological parents.

The recommendations pair with a bill, making its way through committees in the House and Senate now. That bill would give family court judges the option to terminate the rights of parents in prison for extended periods of time.

The state currently averages about 400 terminations annually.

The bill only would apply to incarcerated parents whose children are in foster care, not children living with their other parent or with relatives.

“This would only be used when all other options have been exhausted, when there’s no one able to care for this child and the child is stuck in foster care,” said Laura Hudson, executive director of the S.C. Crime Victims’ Council, which is supporting the bill. “Instead of punishing that child by making them stay in foster care, we want them to be adopted to a loving home.”

Prison advocates, including James Murray, S.C. field director of Prison Fellowship, say the bill is unfair and will eliminate the main motivation many prisoners have for cleaning up their lives: regaining custody of their children.

“This bill would be devastating. You take all the hope away for these people, especially women,” said Murray, whose organization works with prisoners in all of the state’s facilities to get their lives back on track.

A SUCCESS STORY

More than 10 years ago, Murray and his wife both were incarcerated. One of their daughters was placed in foster care.

“My relationship with God and my daughters, they were the motivation for me,” Murray said. “I knew if I didn’t get my life together, they’d forever be lost to me. ... I couldn’t let that happen.”

It’s yet to be decided how long a parent must be incarcerated before a judge could terminate parental rights.

Some lawmakers say it should be an option if a parent is sentenced to three years or more in prison. Others say it should be left up to the judge.

Some lawmakers, including state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, say terminating a parent’s rights should be reserved only for those with lengthy prison stays.

“Three years seems too short to me,” Hutto said. “But if someone is serving life in prison or they’re serving 30 years, there’s no real chance that they’ll have much input into the raising of that child.”

For the past five years, the state has adopted out an average of 387 children a year, according to Social Services. That’s a small number compared with the more than 700 children legally free for adoption last year and 926 more not yet legally free for adoption.

Many of the state’s foster parents have long argued the adoption process is unnecessarily lengthy because of the state’s push to return children to their biological parents.

In South Carolina, the finalization of adoption takes about four years. The state would like to reduce that to two years.

Those familiar with the state’s foster-care system say the current system allows many biological parents too much time — years — to get off drugs or make the other life changes necessary to become good parents.

“These children cannot wait five years, 10 years for these problems to be resolved,” said Kathleen Hayes, executive director of the state’s Department of Social Services. “Their developmental needs are so great. We can’t wait.”

When the state decides to terminate parental rights, it can take years to track down biological parents, further delaying the adoption process.

The law requires both biological parents be notified if the state is considering terminating their parental rights, said Virginia Williamson, chief Social Services attorney. The parents also have the right to attend the court hearing and contest the termination.

If paternity has not been established, the state must contact the likely father. Sometimes, multiple men have the potential of being a child’s father. In those cases, all of them must be contacted.

“Many times, they spend years trying to find the father and when they find them, they don’t want anything to do with the child,” said foster father Carl Brown of Columbia. “It can be very frustrating for foster parents who love these children and want to adopt them.”

Brown and his wife have been foster parents to 125 children. They have adopted six.

With several of the children, the couple waited years before parental rights were terminated.

“A couple of years isn’t a long time in my lifetime,” Brown said. “But it’s a very long time when you’re talking about a 7-year-old. Childhood is fleeting.”

Such delays led Sanford to form a foster care and adoption task force to investigate ways to cut through the adoption red tape.

The task force, co-chaired by Brown, recently reported its findings. They recommended:

• A state registry of birth fathers to make it easier for the state to locate and contact them about terminating parental rights;

• Accelerated hearings for termination of parental rights;

• More Social Services and court personnel dedicated to reducing the number of termination of parental rights cases;

• More aggressive recruitment of foster and adoptive parents.

The recommendations will be introduced as legislation this year or next, said Joel Sawyer, Sanford’s spokesman.

Reach Smith at (803) 771-8658