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Monday, January 14, 2002
Pennsylvania has yet to learn the lesson of Minnesota and 11 other states. After a three-year pilot program, the Midwestern state's Supreme Court has ordered that all hearings and most court records on abused and neglected children be open to the public beginning in July.
Minnesota Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz said the experiment that has been working in 12 counties since 1998 should be made statewide and permanent. "The power of the court system is derived from the trust and confidence of the people in the judiciary," she wrote. "You cannot have that trust and confidence when the people cannot get into the courtroom."
Too bad Pennsylvania judges don't share her view.
Three weeks ago, a Cambria County Common Pleas judge denied the Post-Gazette's request for public access to a custody hearing involving four children who had been abused by their parents.
Darlene and Michael Ference of Johnstown, in a case that police called the worst in the city's history, pleaded guilty to an assortment of charges last August -- she to 15 charges related to child abuse and he to charges of child endangerment and false imprisonment.
Police said the children suffered a decade of mistreatment in which they were denied food and water, locked away in their rooms and beaten with fists and spatulas. The parents nailed the windows shut so the children couldn't scoop snow to drink and they dunked the children in water when they complained, police said.
While Pennsylvania law keeps juvenile hearings closed, ostensibly to protect the interests of children, the state constitution declares that "all courts shall be open." The Post-Gazette's attorney argued the constitutional provision before Cambria County Judge Norman A. Krumenacker III. Although the judge refused on Dec. 27 to open the hearings in the case, the Post-Gazette will appeal to Superior Court.
Too often a closed juvenile hearing merely gives cover to a malfunctioning child welfare system, which offers some children too little protection too late. Not only do society's most vulnerable citizens deserve better, the public also has a right to see how that arm of the courts functions -- just as it can monitor the quality of justice dispensed by adult courts.
Minnesota has joined the list of enlightened states that holds this view. Pennsylvanians can only hope that someday their state will be there, too.