“If we find that our standards for care were not met, we will hold our contractors accountable.” This is part of a statement from Maryland’s Department of Human Services (DHS) in response to the death of Kanaiyah Ward, a 16-year-old girl in their custody who died of an apparent drug overdose in a hotel room in Baltimore last month. While there are many infuriating issues surrounding Kanaiyah’s tragic death, it is this sentence that may be the worst. This comment is wholly symbolic of a broken department and a broken system that contributed to the death of this child. One would think that when a child in state custody dies alone in a hotel from a drug overdose, the very minimum standard of care has not been met.

Kanaiyah’s death came just days after the release of a terrible audit of the

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