The Machine
The False Face of Protection: Why Alabama DHR Cannot Escape Reform
The Alabama Department of Human Resources defines its mission in reassuring terms: “To provide for the protection, well-being and self-sufficiency of children and adults.” Yet across the state, stories continue to surface that show an agency...
The Machine
Placed to Be Protected, Left to Be Tortured: The Columbia County “House of Horrors”
Nine children were supposed to be safe. Instead, they were delivered straight into a nightmare.
Authorities in Columbia County, Florida, say nine children were rescued from what deputies described as a “house of horrors,” where...
The Machine
Not a Van, a Nissan Maxima: The Lies and Failures Behind the Death of 3-Year-Old KJ Starkes
The family of 3-year-old Ke’Torrius “KJ” Starkes has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR), Covenant Services, and transport worker Kela Stanford. What is being revealed now is...
The Machine
DHR Confirmed Abuse. A Child’s Arm Was Broken. These DHR Workers Let the Daycare Walk Free.
This is our second report concerning a beautiful little girl whose arm was broken while at a daycare in Dothan, Alabama.
Three-year-old Xylah, a nonverbal autistic child whose well-being was entrusted to the staff at...
Know Your Rights
The “Take These Services” Trap: How DHR Turns Promises Into Termination
Across Alabama, parents are told the same thing by the Department of Human Resources: “Take these services, and you’ll get your children back.” It is said as if it is a guarantee, a roadmap...
Sunday Spotlight
Sunday Spotlight | The Wrongs They Will Not Make Right
This week, our spotlight turns back to a truth too many have been forced to live with: DHR knows when it has done wrong and still refuses to make it right. It is not...
The Machine
When the Media Joins the Cover-Up: How Newsrooms Are Complicit in Family Destruction
In a country that claims to value freedom of the press, there’s a growing crisis the public hasn’t fully reckoned with: the silence and complicity of local and mainstream media in the destruction of...
The Machine
Kela Stanford, the Alabama DHR contracted transport driver charged in the tragic death of 3-year-old Ketorrious “KJ” Starks Jr., failed to show up for her first scheduled court appearance on Monday.
According to WBRC, Stanford...