Michigan Kids Dying in Foster Care; Renk’s Interview with the Reporter Who Uncovered It

I read an article in the Lansing Sate Journal written by Justin Hinkley titled More Michigan Kids Are Dying From Abuse or Neglect a Decade After A Lawsuit Forced the State to Spend Millions of Dollars on Improvements.

In that article I learned that those deaths increased despite the doubling Michigan’s child welfare budget and nearly doubling Michigan’s child welfare staff.

A little background information is needed, back in 2008 Michigan settled a lawsuit for abi=use and neglect of the children.  When the state settled that lawsuit their was 59 deaths, when we shoot forward to 2016 Michigan reported 85 such deaths and became one of the five worst states in the nation.

I called the reporter Justin Hinkley and asked him to come on air to discuss not only his original article but also the update to this issue.  After Justin wrote the article I linked to above there was an annual court hearing in which the judge was updated on the progress of the recommendations.

Please listen to our interview below: