Abuse In Foster Homes is Real

Jack Mook is a Pittsburgh police detective and Army Veteran. Mook is a committed bachelor. He also volunteers at Steel City Boxing, a non-profit organization that works to teach kids in poverty about the sport. This is where he met brothers Josh and Jessee. He became their trainer and instantly had a connection with them. He knew the two boys came from poverty, and would even take them out to dinner because he said that Joshua was so skinny that he could see his ribcage. The boys would come to the gym multiple times a week to train. Then they stopped. Jack Mook became worried, so he set out to find Josh at school. He picked Josh up one day and said he looked terrible. Mook said, “I got him in the car and he didn’t look good. He just started crying in the car. The kid never cried.” Josh described their home situation to him, explaining how they had slept on the floor for the past six years. Jack and Jessee lived with foster parents who were extremely abusive and neglectful. Josh described his situation by saying that he would sleep his life away and only wake up to go to school. Mook told Josh to hang on and take care of Jessee, and that he would take care of things. Mook became the boys foster parent in an emergency situation after the parents they were living with had a run-in with the police. Mook had been their foster parent for two years, until he decided to go further and adopt them. The boys say he has completely changed their lives. Jessee said that he “feels completely safe,” and Josh said that, “He gave us a childhood. I know we’re going to grow up to be good now.” Mook went on to say that the boys were making him better. When asked what it was like being a parent he said, “It’s the most stressful thing I ever did,” he said, “but when they smile, it releases the stress.”



I really enjoyed reading about this man and kids. I thought it was a good ending for a terrible situation. Besides just being a good story, I liked that it brought awareness to the fact that there are foster parents who abuse the kids they take in. Statistics about abuse in foster care are almost impossible to find, but there are plenty of stories that have made headlines dealing with this issue. The Trenton, New Jersey foster care system has found that 1 in 5 children within their system were abused at a foster home. Budget cuts have led to a high turnover rate for caseworkers. There are not as many caseworkers, meaning that they all have to take in more kids. With the overwhelming amount of work, they begin to become lackadaisical in their care for each kid. They begin to neglect a thorough background check of foster parents and limit the amount of times they check in on the kid after they are placed in a home. Government suggests that incidents of abuse in foster homes is very small, but surveys of children who had lived in foster care say otherwise. Below is a table of the percentage of foster children affected by maltreatment. Some of the numbers may seem small, but maltreatment can have a lasting effect on the kid’s life. Based on the differences between what the government and kids report, the level of maltreatment in foster care has been difficult to gauge.



Just in November 2014, a lawsuit came forward from kids in foster care in California. It is the “Kids for Cash” claim. It is directed towards one of California’s largest private foster care agencies. It addresses how these kids faced physical and mental abuse over a seven year period and how it was covered up by the foster care agency.

“The suit claims the children were "caught in an illegal, abusive, violent, concealed, unconscionable 'kids for cash' operation from 2006 to 2013." It goes on to say the foster children "suffered ongoing, unrestrained, terror, torture, corporal punishment, physical and mental abuse and neglect" at the hands of the foster parents that was "covered up/ unchecked by defendant Interim (Care Foster Family Agency).”

California pays private agencies about $2,000 a month per child. The agencies are allowed to keep as much as 60% for various care purposes, but that was not the case in this situation. This case has not been settled yet, but the groups main goal is purely to bring awareness to the fact that they are not always placed in the perfect home and that some of the agencies are run in a corrupt manner.

Websites about Jack Mook:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bachelor-detective-takes-on-case-of-two-pittsburgh-boys/

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/09/25/pittsburgh-police-detective-adopts-two-boys-in-need-of-a-home/

http://www.today.com/news/tough-cop-adopts-brothers-need-2D80172646

https://getfitpgh.com/pittsburgh-cop-adopts-local-boys/

Website about abuse in foster home:

http://www.youthlaw.org/publications/yln/2005/july_september_2005/foster_parents_who_are_they_and_what_are_their_motivations/

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2013/12/children-abused-foster-parents.html

“Kids for Cash” Source:

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Lawsuit-Claims-Kids-for-Cash-Foster-Care-Abuse--281880151.html