In Florida, any mother can arrange to place her child temporarily in foster care, said Michelle Lagos, a health department spokeswoman.Ī mother may ask the department for help if she has no one to care for her child. The health department, the state Department of Corrections and the state attorney general’s office are investigating whether the group illegally placed inmates’ babies in unregistered or unlicensed foster homes. “The decisions were made by the inmate, the families and their pastors.” “All were through the mother, the family and their attorney,” she said. Linda Rozar, head of Concerned Citizens, said she knew of three cases in which foster parents eventually adopted prison-born babies. So far, however, the dispute between Orsini and the Lewises is the only custody battle that has surfaced. Social workers for the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services have tracked 38 of these infants so far and taken custody of seven, some from foster homes cited previously for child abuse. They say they believe as many as 70 newborns, including Orsini’s son, were placed in foster homes through Concerned Citizens. Investigators have temporarily suspended the group’s prison activities.
But investigators are trying to determine if the group’s prison ministry, Temporary Christian Volunteers, was illegally operating as an adoption agency and misled foster parents into thinking they could adopt. The ministry’s top official denies any wrongdoing.
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