This is under the more outrageous category. The State of Illinois paid someone with two rapid convictions to babysit. That’s right. Yep, you heard it right. The state paid a convicted rapist with a series of other crimes in his history to babysit. Probably, given his predilections, he would have babysat for free.
Seriously,chalk it up to lousy background checks, but according to an article in the Tribune….
sborne, of Chicago, wasn’t the only sex offender paid by taxpayers to baby-sit, according to a Tribune investigation that found cases of convicted rapists, molesters and other violent felons given access to children over the past decade. The money comes from a $750 million-a-year program that subsidizes child care for more than 150,000 impoverished Illinois families.
The state Department of Human Services poorly vetted baby sitters for years — and when a 2009 law forced better checks, it took nearly 18 months to start them, the newspaper’s investigation of the Child Care Assistance Program found.”
So for a fair number of years, and due to the lack of or the processing of shoddy background checks, the State paid various felons to watch children from impoverished families. The first thing that comes to mind is how easily a sexual predator can win the confidence of a young child by plying them with money or treats. It would be a snap.
Despite the lousy economy, it is just too risky not to conduct background checks on anyone with proximity to children.
