The Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS) has once again failed to appropriately monitor and oversee the safety of a child. One-month-old Sylus Melvin was killed by his father Reginald Melvin who plead guilty. It had been reported to OCFS that the child was in danger because his father was violent and unpredictable.
Sylus Melvin’s mother, Desiree Newbert stated that she contacted the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the caseworker expressing her concerns about the safety of her infant son and young daughter due to threats made by Reginald Melvin to kill the family. In her report to the Department and caseworker she claimed Reginald was “crazy acting” and that she feared for her family. DHHS/OCFS and the caseworker never returned her call and did not visit the home.
“OCFS continually fails to protect children in their care and have not ceased in leaving vulnerable children in dangerous situations despite repeated warnings by family members and others that children are not safe.” said former senator Bill Diamond.
The mother reported that DHHS never made a home visit to observe the safety concerns and neglected to make any efforts to evaluate the safety of the family. “One-month-old Sylus Melvin never should have died” said Diamond, “yet as a result of DHHS’s lack of sound judgement, Sylus did…just as Maddox Williams never should have been callously placed with a known convicted felon who killed him.” Clearly many unsound decisions were made by OCFS leading to Sylus Melvin’s needless death. Starting at the time of Sylus’s birth and over the next several months the family had six different caseworkers; none of whom had any knowledge of the previous caseworkers’ experiences or details of the case itself. According to Diamond, “This is another regrettable, but all too familiar case illustrating OCFS’s incompetent management which never gets better.”