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CNN Live At Daybreak

Panel Has Delivered Scathing Report of Florida's Welfare System

Aired May 28, 2002 - 06:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A blue-ribbon panel has delivered a scathing report of Florida's welfare system in the wake of Rilya Wilson's disappearance. The five-year-old girl has not been accounted for in 16 months now.

As CNN's Susan Candiotti reports, a caseworker and a caregiver are among those blamed.

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SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If those in charge of Rilya Wilson had just followed their own rules, the youngster probably would not be missing.

DAVID LAWRENCE, PANEL CHAIRMAN: You clearly have a caseworker who didn't do her job. You had her supervisor who didn't do his job.

CANDIOTTI: In a stinging 28-page report, now in Florida Governor Jeb Bush's hands, a blue-ribbon panel chastises Rilya's caseworker and her supervisor for -- quote -- "misfeasance, failing to check on Rilya and her little sister monthly as required, and allegedly faking reports for phantom visits."

LAWRENCE: We need to see if there are criminal penalties for this kind of conduct. The same frankly, in my estimation, goes for the caregiver.

CANDIOTTI: The caregiver, Geralyn Graham, plenty of questions about her and a maze of apparent mismanagement by Florida's Child Welfare Agency. Example: Rilya's caretaker applied four times for food stamp and welfare benefits as recently as March, 14 months after the child disappeared. Graham said earlier this month, Rilya's caseworker told her to keep collecting government checks.

GERALYN GRAHAM, RILYA'S CAREGIVER: If we took Rilya off the system, it would be so hard to get her back on, and since she is going to be coming back to you, leave it like it is.

CANDIOTTI: The files again raise questions about how Florida approved Geralyn Graham as a caretaker to begin with. CNN documented at least 33 aliases, a food stamp fraud conviction, and a psychiatric evaluation that says Graham needs psychiatric management. That doctor's report is in Rilya's case file. The governor's panel recommends at least 40 fixes, including a criminal background check of all caregivers, including relatives; fingerprinting and photographing every child four times a year; increased funding to meet overwhelming demands.

LAWRENCE: The question is: Can it happen again? In my estimation, barring some significant checks, it can happen again.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): In Florida, 16 blue-ribbon panels have met in the last 17 years, always after a child welfare scandal. Recommendations have been made, many implemented, but the scandals keep coming.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

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