Question 1

1A. Browse the site and read the article. Summarize the program in about 200 wrds. 1B. Evaluate this use of monetary incentives. Is the use of an economic payment in order to encourage a certain kind of behavior good policy? 1C. Does it matter that the people taking the payment are drug users and, as such, cognitively impaired? Would you feel the same way if the payment was for sterilization of dogs or cats? Explain carefully.

Letter from Destiny My name is Destiny Harris and I am 20 years old. I tested positive for crack, PCP, and heroin when I was adopted at 8 months old by Barbara and Smitty Harris! When I was tested at the age of one, they told my mother that I would always be delayed because of my prenatal neglect. It turns out that the real neglect occurred in foster care for 8 months after birth. Now I am on the Deans list in College and I owe that to my parents who dedicated their lives to loving and caring for me. Over the past 12 years my siblings and I have worked with our mother as she goes into the streets talking to addicts across the Country. We have been in all types of neighborhoods with people of all races, and the one thing I have noticed is that the addicts seem to love and respect my mother. read the entire letter Our Mission The Sad Reality Project Prevention offers cash incentives to The abuse of alcohol and drugs has had a women and men addicted to drugs and/or dramatic effect on foster care, particularly in alcohol to use long term or permanent birth the past 20 years. With increasing frequency, control. Project Prevention is a National, 501 children are coming into care because their (C) 3 organization using your donations to parents are addicted to alcohol and drugs. stop a problem before it happens. We have Many children also are born to mothers who paid addicts in 50 States and the District of abused alcohol and drugs while pregnant. Columbia. These children often are placed in foster care with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or other drug- Our mission is to continue to reach out to related conditions. addicts offering referrals to drug treatment for those interested and to get them on birth Of all the recent trends in child welfare, control until they can care for the children perhaps none has been more troubling than they conceive. We are lowering the number the increase in cases of child abuse and of children added to foster care, preventing neglect resulting from parental abuse of the addicts from the guilt and pain they feel alcohol and drugs. each time they give birth only to have their child taken away, and preventing suffering of In 1995, nearly 3.1 million children were innocent children because even those reported to child protective services as fortunate enough to be born with no medical abused or neglected. Approximately one or emotional problems after placed in foster million of these reports were substantiated. care face often a lifetime of longing to feel Substance abuse was found to be a factor in loved and wanted a majority of these cases. find out more