Maine nonprofit calls for legislature to reject child death report

AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) – One organization is calling for the state legislature to reject a recent report concerning child deaths.

Walk a Mile in Their Shoes is a nonprofit that advocates for child welfare and protection to reduce child abuse and homicides in Maine.

On Oct. 23, they sent a letter asking the state‘s Government Oversight Committee to reject the recently-released report from the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA).

This report reviewed the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Office of Child and Family Services’ actions taken in the cases of four child deaths in 2021.

Walk a Mile’s complaint comes from the case analysis of Sylus Melvin, a one-month-old Milo infant who was killed by his father in Aug. 2021.

In August of last year, Sylus’ father, Reginald Melvin, was sentenced to 25 years for the murder of his infant son. He originally pled not guilty, but accepted a plea deal that charged him with domestic violence manslaughter.

While the report says the CPS caseworkers were thorough in their efforts, Walk a Mile says prior reported domestic abuse was not seen as the red flag it should have been.

“I think there‘s two issues: One is the report does not bring to the highest level domestic violence in families, and they need to change that,” explains Bill Diamond, founder and director of Walk a Mile in Their Shoes. “And if this report isn’t changed, then it’s going to go on for the next case that’s reviewed and again and again, that domestic violence is really not recognized as being serious when it’s very serious.”

Diamond says Walk A Mile hopes the committee will send the report back to be rewritten, this time with a highlighted emphasis on the prior domestic abuse.

He went on to suggest that DHHS implement a policy that places individuals with a record of domestic violence in a specialized category so caseworkers are better equipped to handle situations like Sylus’.

If the report is accepted as is, Diamond says the group will “speak up even louder” to raise awareness of domestic abuse and child endangerment.

It is not known when the next time the Government Oversight Committee will meet to decide the fate of the OPEGA report.

Copyright 2024 WABI. All rights reserved.