Drug abuse is wreaking havoc on families and landing innocent children smack dab in the middle of the chaos, district court officials say. Rescuing those children and guiding them past the chaos is the job of badly needed volunteers.
Skyrocketing methamphetamine use is taking its toll and resulting in a similar boom in cases of child abuse and neglect, says Kate Juran, who heads a non- profit program intended to stand up for the best interests of those children. The Fifth Judicial District Voice for Children, or CASA (court-appointed special advocate) program, has seen neglected/abused children cases soar, said Juran. In all of last year, there were sixteen court hearings on children caught up in the melee.
“We’ve already had that in the last three months,” she said. Usually, across the entire three counties in the Fifth Judicial District – Madison, Beaverhead and Jefferson – there are 25-30 active cases at any one time. That number right now is 47, said Juran. Those children suffer from physical neglect, being unkempt, unfed, not in school and unsupervised, she said. “We see a lot of filthy homes,” Juran said.
