Broken Quotes

“Revolutionary change is not neutral. It is never expected and rarely embraced—at first. Revolutionary change would radically alter the operations within child welfare. It would never settle for incremental improvements; it is committed to challenging the foundation of child welfare and creating a humane experience for families. Evolutionary change maintains the status quo. It claims to “protect” children and “help” families, which is noble but shortsighted. Revolutionary change must reach beyond noble ideas and platitudes. Revolutionary change would be a CPS system that approaches the relational connections between a child and their family as sacrosanct. The commitment to strengthening families should be CPS’s ultimate, if not singular, goal.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“An important distinction between evolutionary and revolutionary work is the reality that the former centers on survival. When you are simply evolving as a system, you will do whatever it takes to keep the system going in the same direction—even if evidence informs a different course of action.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“Ultimately, I wrote a book that shows the internal and conflicting struggles of carrying child abuse cases, how those cases are experienced by Black women, and the emotional and moral toll that it takes on everyone involved.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“She considers CPS to be a manipulative system that builds its case decisions on single snapshots of a person’s life.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“In restorative justice, the emphasis is not on perpetrator and victim, because those dichotomies limit the complexities and nuances of this world. In child protective services, that dichotomy is the central premise and the foundation of their ongoing work. There are perpetrators and there are victims, but we know that this is shortsighted.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“You are not a bad parent, you are not an abusive parent, do not let CPS trick you into believing that narrative about yourself. You and your family deserve better.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“The real issue remains that the child welfare system is funded at over twelve billion annually,2 and CPS decided to punish Jatoia for not paying child support to a system that took her children.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“Parents who are incarcerated experience challenges in their ability to render effort toward their child’s well-being. Elizabeth articulated these realities throughout the termination hearing.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“It isn’t fair to condemn parents based on a short scene in a very long movie. But that’s what CPS does—by design. They receive a report describing a scene, and then opt out of viewing the entire movie. But I had seen the movie of Madisen’s life. I saw all the sacrifices Erica made for Madisen. And beyond those sacrifices, I saw how deeply she cared for Madisen. The scene of Erica trying to discipline Madisen was a narrow, oversimplified view of a complex and desperate moment.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“A mug shot is a photo of your lowest moment for all the world to see.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“looked over at Katrina as she held up her phone screen: “Jessica, we’re the KGB.” I grabbed the phone. The information on the page she had looked up said that the KGB were investigative state agents who worked for the Soviet Union. While we were not agents of the former Soviets, we were certainly agents for the great state of Florida. As I peered at her tiny phone screen, blue and red lights flashed around us as two law enforcement vehicles pulled up. If Mr. Dima only suspected we were KGB before, I’m sure he would be fully convinced now.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“A reporter’s job ends when they finish making their report. But a report creates a level of intrusion into a family’s life that I don’t think mandated reporters fully grasp.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“For our cases, the children were the victims that we were tasked with protecting. But victim advocates see the parent who is being abused (overwhelmingly reported as women) as the priority. When there are two (or more) victims, who is responsible for protecting whom? What is the prioritization of which victim?”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“To a CPS investigator, the mother might seem like she’s not prioritizing her children’s safety, but in reality she’s trying to survive from moment to moment.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“Victims love their abusers so deeply, even from rock bottom—they remain a solid foundation for them.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“CPS intervention should intrude as little as possible into the life of the family, be focused on clearly defined objectives, and take the most parsimonious path to remedy a family’s problems.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“Child protection is not just one decision; your work is a series of decisions throughout the life of a case.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“Like baseball, child welfare requires that you remember rules and procedures. All of that is important, but you also have to trust your instincts because when seconds count, a child cannot wait.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), there are just thirty-six affordable and available rental homes for every one hundred low-income renter households nationwide.1”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“Agents of the state are driven by the urge to find a guilty and offending parent and punish them. This sort of professional makes all-encompassing judgment calls that usurp any nuance or individuality. Agents rarely take time to acknowledge structural, systemic, and community factors that affect families. They operate as if they have the solutions to problems that they haven’t even taken time to understand.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families

“Science tells us that within five minutes of waking up, a person generally forgets 50 percent of their dreams. Within ten minutes, 90 percent has been forgotten.”
― Jessica Pryce, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker – A Groundbreaking Investigation of Systemic Racism in Foster Care and Black Families