ACS Took my childhood; now they’re taking my children

Kmea Jones

My name is Kmea Jones. I am a 32 year old woman who was born in Portland, Oregon. I was around 8 years old when my mother fled with my brother and me to New York to escape the domestic violence at my father’s hands. Although my brother and I were young, we still remember, to this day, when the NYPD broke down the front door to the apartment, put guns to our mother’s head, and removed my brother and I, putting us in a van. I remember looking back to wave to my mom, and she waved back as “A Song For Mama” by Boyz II Men played through the van stereo. 

The child welfare caseworkers told us that our mother was a “crackhead.” That was the word they used to describe our mother to us. They claimed they were removing us to keep us safe, but I do not think that my mom was a “crackhead.” I never saw her do any drugs. Being separated from my family did not help me. Being placed into foster care did not keep me safe. In fact, it put me in more harm’s way.

The foster care agency put me in a mental institution, and I felt like a guinea pig. I sensed that I started to be put in these institutions because I reported to the foster mother when I was sexually abused in foster care. Truthfully, I was abused physically, sexually, and mentally by people in my foster homes. When I tried to tell people and get help, I was ignored and put in a psychiatric ward. The foster system started putting me in group homes when I was a teen. I remember the people in foster care agencies were trying to act like they cared about me, but no one helped me when I actually needed it. I was in the foster system since I was 9 years old until I aged out at age 17, and my mother never got us back. I was just a normal girl when I first came to New York in 1997, and the foster system ruined my life.

I am not alone in this experience. There several Black, Brown, and Multiracial mothers going through the same thing The foster system separated my brother and me – my brother then ran away from his foster home, and this eventually led to his incarceration. The majority of foster youth end up in prison, homeless, or dead because of this system. Foster youths’ childhoods are taken away from them. There are many of us who have gone through the foster system as children and had our lives ruined. 

When a person has to leave foster care on their own, like me, they do not get any support. We do not have any support when we have families of our own. My first ACS case as a parent came in 2014. To be someone who was in foster care and to know of the horrors that happen in foster care everyday, I am fearful of what my children may be experiencing. I am desperately fighting to have them come home to me, and stop my parental rights from getting terminated, but ACS and foster care create so many barriers for me to navigate. Nothing I do seems to matter; the goalposts for reunification are continuously moved after I reach them. I have completed numerous parenting classes, receiving numerous certificates of completion. Recently, my caseworker told the judge that I did not show any progress in my behaviors, because I called my daughter “thick” during a visit. To introduce that in a legal setting as evidence to justify why my parental rights should be terminated, and my daughter’s bond with her mother should be severed, feels like malpractice.

But I do not have people fighting for me. Staten Island does not have family defender services that can help provide a wraparound team. My public defense attorney does not return my calls. I am all alone because the very same system took my family from me. It’s very isolating. 

I have been under “child protective service” surveillance since I was 9. I was never protected by this system. In fact, it took my childhood. & teen hood Now, it’s taken my children from me. 

My story of survival is much more than what you see here. I have overcome and accomplished so much despite this corrupt system. I hope my children do not have to overcome these barriers too. I want my children to return back home. I am capable of taking care of my children. I am capable of providing a loving home for my children. I want my justice and to raise awareness.