Penn professor Richard Gelles was once hired by Philadelphia's Department of Health Services, but now he says he'll testify against city officials to help clean the department up.
Gelles, dean of Penn's School of Social Policy and Practice, will likely be heavily involved with the fallout of a DHS scandal regarding neglect of children as government officials investigate the department in the coming months.
Gelles has said he will testify as an expert witness in upcoming civil suits and legislative hearings for the agency.
The Philadelphia Inquirer brought the controversy to light earlier this month, when it published an article charging that at least 20 children had died due to abuse or neglect between 2003 and 2005 after the cases had been brought to the attention of DHS, which is responsible for investigating child abuse in Philadelphia.
Gelles and his associates from the School of Social Policy were previously hired by DHS as consultants. They provided a preliminary report in 2004 and a final report in May 2006 recommending that the agency's investigation procedures be revamped.
But Gelles said that he has seen no evidence that either report has been implemented by DHS.
"Sometimes, I feel like I'm telling a person who has a hacking cough that they ought to stop smoking and they look at me and go right back to smoking," Gelles said. "I don't know why they do it because it's not in their best interest, but they still do it."
DHS officials were not available for comment.
Gelles said that a member from the office of state senator Leanne Washington (D-Phila.) contacted him Wednesday to testify at hearings to be held in January.
"I told them we can do it the easy way or the hard way, but one way or another as long as I'm working, I'm not going to rest until agencies do a better job of protecting kids," he said.
He added that this is not the first time his recommendations have been brushed off by DHS.
"We're trying to get them move into the 21st century, use better technology [and] improve the training of their workers," Gelles said. "It's fair to say that we've bumped heads with them and sometimes they listen and sometimes they don't listen. This is one of those times when they absolutely don't appear to listen."
Several government officials have called for hearings to investigate the allegations against DHS, including Philadelphia City Controller Alan Butkovitz and state Rep. George Kenney (R-Phila.).
"Professor Gelles apparently has a plan for improved monitoring and investigation for child abuse complaints, and we want to see it and evaluate it and see if it would be something useful for DHS to do it," Butkovitz said.
Gelles said that the best move would be to create an independent child advocate that would possess subpoena power and the authority to publish public reports so that DHS can be appropriately monitored.
Butkovitz said that Gelles' suggestion would be an idea he would support.
"Generally, that's an approach I like to get bureaucracies to function," he said. "Anytime [departments] have a monopoly power over their jurisdiction, it's easy for troublesome issues to be suppressed."
Whatever the case, Gelles said he will be working hard to ensure that the cases of abuse like those reported by the Inquirer - including a 17-month-old baby being pummeled to death and an 11-week-old being dumped in hot water, thrown down stairs and beaten with a mop handle -- will never happen again.
"I've been doing this for 35 years," Gelles said, "and I'm not stopping now."
