"Gut-wrenching"
Auditors say state does little for program permitting “safe surrender” of newborns who otherwise might be left to die
California’s “safe surrender” program has been suffering from government neglect, according to a state auditor’s report released on April 29. The program allows anyone with legal custody of an infant 72 hours old or younger to leave the baby at a hospital, fire station, or other “safe surrender” point confidentially and without fear of criminal penalty.
In 2000, California approved the safe surrender program after a series of incidents in which parents or others abandoned newborn babies to die. The program became effective in January 2001, and Gov. Gray Davis ordered existing state monies to fund the project. Through December 2003, the state spent $1.8 million to educate the public about the program. After that, according to the state auditors, California spent no further money on the program.
Both Davis and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the audit, vetoed bills that would have instituted a public awareness campaign to let parents know about the program. Davis vetoed the first bill because it required funding beyond what had been approved for the budget that year. Schwarzenegger vetoed the second bill because it extended from 72 hours to seven days the time period in which people could surrender infants. Schwarzenegger said that the time extension could have the unintended effect of keeping infants in unsafe situations for a longer period.
The program’s initial public education campaign, under the auspices of the state Social Services department, consisted of public service announcements on the state’s five largest radio and television markets, said the audit. Since 2002, however, saying further outreach was unnecessary, Social Services has not attempted to obtain more funding.
Social Services’ obligation to oversee the program ended in 2006. Since then, counties have been left to promote and oversee the program, with varied results. According to the auditor’s report, Los Angeles County has had the most comprehensive response, funding media campaigns, developing middle and high school courses to inform students about the safe surrender program, and requiring that government employees receive fact sheets about it. In the first four years, the county spent $500,000 on the effort; in the last four years, $15,000. Currently, the county has no money for the program and is relying on free public service announcements on local cable television stations, David Sommers, an aide to LA County Supervisor Don Knabe, told the April 30 Los Angeles Times.
Since the safe surrender program went into effect, 218 babies statewide have been surrendered. Still, said the audit, the program “is not as effective as it might be.” Indeed, in Los Angeles County alone, 57 babies have been abandoned, 45 of whom died, said the Times. Last year saw three deaths of abandoned babies in the county, the lowest in eight years, Deanne Tilton, director of the county’s nonprofit Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, told the Times. Such success, she said, has been without help of the state.
Debbe Magnusen, founder of Project Cuddle, a private, Orange County program that has saved 631 babies since 1996, told the Times that the state’s neglect of the safe surrender program is “gut-wrenching.” Magnusen told the newspaper, “I think the state can do so much more if they collaborate with private groups."
