Bruce Jackson of the Four Starved Brothers Headlined in Inquirer Story

The Philadelphia Inquirer reporter(s) is asking the same question. Why is Bruce Jackson being sequestered away from his brothers and from a normal, productive, and happy life?

In April, an Inquirer report revealed that Jackson’s three younger brothers, ages 16 to 20, had been unable to see him in four years.

They are grateful to Jackson and call him “our hero” for freeing them from the abusive household into which they’d separately been adopted.

After that story was published, an advocacy group stepped in.

The intervention appears to be the first time since Jackson’s records were sealed in December 2003 that an independent watchdog has looked into his care.

Disability Rights New Jersey, a federally funded nonprofit charged with investigating abuse and neglect complaints, reviewed caseworkers’ records on Jackson and interviewed Department of Human Services professional staff to see if he is receiving adequate services.

Executive director Joe Young said the review, which did not include a visit with Jackson, had found no red flags. But bound by privacy restrictions, Young could say little about Jackson’s care.

Educational and vocational goals are “part of his long-term plan,” said Young, who could not say whether Jackson is getting tutoring or job training to help move him toward more independence.

Young also could not say why Jackson had not seen his brothers, who were adopted by James and Amber Parrish of Millville, Cumberland County, after the abuse was discovered.

The brothers, too, are mystified.

“They didn’t let him come to Tre’Shawn’s graduation” from high school last year, Terrell Parrish, 16, said in an interview in March after he complained of being cut off during a telephone call with Jackson. “They got him guarded like the president.”

With its focus on care, Disability Rights will not look into Jackson’s trust fund expenditures or an unusual will researched on his behalf.

And that’s a fricking shame because those guardians are weird. What is with these people? Do they think that he’ll blow the money if he’s out on his own? That doesn’t have to happen. Why can’t he even live with his brothers, or even a few blocks away from them with an attendant, if that is his choice?

He’s been put in storage, I think. Really cold storage.

Read on. The article is four pages long. They’re really duking this out.

Disability Rights should not give up on this young man; they should be asking other advocacy groups to step up for him. The way Bruce Jackson is being treated is creepy to say the least and morally and emotionally destructive at the most.

The community should step up for this young man.

~ by blksista on August 2, 2010.