Broken

January 22, 2024
Pryce debuts with a harrowing memoir of her former career as an investigator for Child Protective Services and her eventual reckoning with the system’s structural inequities. As a CPS investigator in Tallahassee, Fla., Pryce responded to anonymous reports of child abuse and neglect. At first trusting in the process, she later came to see the system as geared toward hasty child removal rather than careful consideration of each case. After a close friend was investigated by CPS, Pryce came to believe that families being separated were disproportionately poor and Black, and that it would be better to provide more support to struggling families before resorting to child removal. She eventually left the department and became an advocate for reform. While Pryce’s initial naivety almost beggars belief—she recalls being so unattuned to problems with the system that she reported her own sister to CPS, shocking even her coworkers—the narrative is all the more riveting for her total immersion in the ideology. Readers will be troubled and enthralled by Pryce’s detailed reconstructions of disturbing scenes in which she and other investigators entered messy and dysfunctional homes for confrontations with clearly neglectful but also desperate and ill-equipped parents. Equally noteworthy is Pryce’s careful spelling out of how workplace camaraderie provides cover for the persistence of bad policy. It’s an invaluable insider account of a pressing social issue.

July 1, 2024

Pryce (social work, Florida State Univ.) sheds light on systemic issues within child protective services agencies. Their mission, to ensure safe and happy homes for all children, is revealed to be a broken promise. A former caseworker, Pryce shares her journey of initially trying to make a positive impact, only to discover that her work often perpetuated harm, particularly to children of color. Pryce follows several families, two of whom were personally close to her, through the CPS process. Mandated reporters, hurried and biased medical staff, and CPS's one-size-fits-all approach to reunification works against families, especially those from marginalized backgrounds. Parents who jump through all of the hoops, many of which are cumbersome and costly, do not always succeed in being reunited with their children, and noncompliance is a nonstarter. Audie Award finalist Deanna Anthony narrates the heart-wrenching stories of several families torn apart by an inherently biased system. Her gentle, precise delivery highlights the story rather than the performance, allowing listeners an intimate glimpse into Pryce's work as she follows families through their ordeals. Details organize themselves under Anthony's clear, crisp narration of the events. VERDICT A thoughtful debut account, revealing troubling inequities within the U.S. child welfare system.--Laura Trombley

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.