New story at Arkansas Times:
“In 2007, a 10-year-old girl from Fort Smith named Ivy Brake became the responsibility of the state. Her mother, Ivy recalled, was loving, sweet and unstable. She struggled with substance abuse for most of Ivy’s childhood. She periodically got clean — once for a year — until, when Ivy was 10, an old boyfriend returned, and her mother started using again. Ivy and her 12-year-old sister, Kristin, left to stay with a relative, but soon after they arrived, the police showed up, asking questions about their life at home.
“The police, Kristin said, were going to wait for the girls’ grandmother to come take them from the relative’s house, but the Arkansas Department of Human Services’ Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) got there first…”
