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Why Supervised Visitation (per se) Sucks. Federal Millions, that is (DOJ Grant 2004-WX-AT-K046) [Publ. June 6, 2013, Format Adjusted May 31, 2021]. (short-link ends “-1Ln.” Post published June 6, 2013, about 8,300 wds)

[[This post is temporarily, “sticky” as this field — Supervised Visitation — is a BFD]].  DOJ Grant 2004-WX-AT-K046: (and a few others).

There are people who make a living in evaluating federally-funded grants programs, such as Safe Exchange and Supervised Visitation.

I have made a survey of the field. A quick check of one of the major international nonprofit associations of providers, Supervised Visitation Network, Inc.. Based on my sampling, plus field experiences, and supported by two DOJ/OIG audits of a certain grant promoting supervised visitation to both providers (regarding the fathers) and to Mothers, to indoctrinate them into accepting the situation, I have come to the essential evaluation (which no DOJ grant was used in producing):

Supervised Visitation, per se, Sucks

My Field Exhibits includes two DOJ audits of Grant 2004-WX-AT-K046 (and related), and how grantees responded to being caught defrauding customers, i.e., US taxpayers: They regrouped and did it again elsewhere.

You can sometimes spot these on the fly: Looks like another one:

Legal Resource Center for Violence Against Women (“LRCVAW” here, also that’s its url):

Working with Attorneys . .To provide Justice and Safety . . . for Domestic Violence Survivors . . in Interstate Custody Cases. “This project was supported by grant number 2004-WT-AX-K079 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, United States Department of Justice. Points of view expressed in this document are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Office on Violence Against Women, United States Department of Justice..

This is another T&TA site: sign up for trainings (aka webinars) and “resources” include the list of State Coalitions, some ABA commissions, and one of the groups I’m profiling below which got nailed for mis-use of federal grants (the same kind!) by the US DOJ/OIG, which is to say, the auditor’s office. LRCVAW apparently incorporated in Maryland on 6/27/2003,** changed the address once, and says it is a nonprofit. (I just looked grantee up under USASpending.gov and found a grant helping supervised visitation centers with interstate custody cases. Over $2 million in grants so far. 6 awards;, not bad for a small organization.

(**Broken link (search again @ (look up “Maryland Business Entities Search”) but the LRCVAW.org link above still active and still not posting its EIN# or any financials. Or see http://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/ to search by name for  EIN# //LGH 31May2021).

USDOJ Audit Reports are grouped into “By Component” and “External.” Notice the the OVW is “External” See next link to view the OVW audits, of which I randomly (really! in general, I was interested in Pennsylvania’s DV groups) chose to audit a certain one, and found material for this post….

Page “3” footnote of this one, referencing $4 million (4 Technical Assistance Grantss) to PCAR fround $336K of questionable costs.

The other (April 2010) audit was not to PCAR, but to the nonprofit NDAA, covering $16 million (16 grants) of which $4million of questionable costs came up. Some of these questionable costs covered the grant mentioned in this title, to “APRI” (American Prosecutors Research Institute), which I happen to know some battered women love to quote as it talks about PAS. However, they don’t look at the financial angle enough to understand they just quoted an organization engaged in questionable financial practices!). That Grant 30-10-0001 is linked to & mentioned again below.

My evaluation approach differs radically from approaches by, say, Dr. Daniel G. Saunders, Professor of Social Work a UMichigan, that Barry Goldstein keeps quoting and holding out as “new light” on how to protect children. While he and his colleagues publish – and do not perish– about these matters, we mothers (and fathers) (and taxpayers) ARE perishing surrounding the topic. I think I might blog that separately, but just FYI, he is on the same TYPE of grants streams as these other technical training and service providers.

You wouldn’t believe how networked these groups are! Take a look, it’s evident.

The thing is, most of us do NOT take a look, and go unconsciously about our business without considering the money forked over for redistribution as actually ours: once it’s out of sight, out of mind. This gets, in the long run, to be like any other project left ignored for years — it tends to expand in scope and trouble to clean up or clear out!

Some projects involve an excess of inanimate objects (like junk in a garage, leaves on a lawn, dishes in a sink, or dust in the house, for a few examples). However this project involves millions (actually, over time, billions) of dollars and live human beings receiving paychecks, sometimes pensions, filing tax returns.   In short, it is a process in which filing for corporation creates a status that attracts grants, which then go do SOMETHING, allegedly some function.  Even when that “social service” or “justice” function isn’t actually formed done,* the money still keeps pouring out until something is done about it — and streams, rivers of water is a good analogy (in many respects) for the flow of funding.

(* 2021 copyedit for clarity, at least as I think I meant 8 years ago…//LGH)

FYI (just in case you think this is a “disgruntled parent” speaking: No,…), we (my ex-batterer/stalker/deadbeat Dad etc. ex-husband and I) were on the bottom of the two-tier custody track. Had anyone offered me supervised visitation (I even at one point asked), I’d have taken the bait. Contact with my daughters was eliminated ON an “unsupervised visitation” exchange. Like most Moms, at the time I had no clue that federal funds for access visitation to improve [sic] noncustodial outcomes* existed.

But because the courts didn’t label us as a wealthy couple [no real estate involved], we entirely missed the referral to supervised visitation for his battering and stalking or my “alienation” (which wasn’t occurring: all visitations ordered, while they lived with me, were made available. When he got custody, that standard was eliminated immediately, overnight, and never raised its ‘ugly’ head again.

To get to this point of total eradication of the sense of “court order” meaning anything at all, we were sent repeatedly (periodically) through through the revolving door of “wham, bam, thank you ma’am” mandatory mediation, in California. We even “mediated” a felony crime called child-stealing. Mandatory Mediation is indeed Miraculous (California Courts Review, Spring 2006: See p. 16, written by a Judge**) — I see it can even undo restraining orders and undermine criminal law. No wonder the therapeutic jurisprudence community loves it! The DV industry gets its DOJ grants, and the family law professionals get their HHS access/visitation grants, and the kids get a lifetime of wondering which end is up, minus a lot of child support, and stable households.

[**with dual NCJFCJ-AFCC membership.  LGH comment 2021, although I probably knew it in 2013 also].

However, readers should know this is from observation, not personal experience with having been subject to supervised visitation in my own custody case. In our case, they simply switched the kids overnight, end of story (or at least of mother/daughter contact, basically, til they aged out), no factual or legal basis ever given, though I definitely formally requested it of the court.

No, I am against this field: because it sucks as a practice; because the trainers are known to be associated with AFCC, and in conflicts-of-interest positions administering their own grants that help fund it; and because, like AFCC itself, the nonprofits associated have to skip state when caught unincorporated, which they simply do … Perhaps this is why conferences of a Florida-domicile nonprofit have to be held in Ontario, Canada?

“Supervised Visitation” cannot be justified logically, financially, or in any common-sense theater, which is I guess why it has to be promoted under public health & welfare and written up by social service and domestic violence career professionals.

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