FAMILY POLICE: The Hidden War on America’s Poor
by Mara Kingsley
I am currently reading FAMILY POLICE: The Hidden War on America’s Poor.
Across the United States, a powerful yet largely unaccountable agency operates in the shadows—splitting up families, traumatizing children, and criminalizing poverty under the guise of child protection. That agency is Child Protective Services (CPS), and for millions of low-income families, especially those who are Black, Indigenous, or marginalized in any way, it represents something far more dangerous than help: it’s surveillance. It’s punishment. It’s family destruction.
Despite its name, CPS has become less about protecting children and more about exerting control over the poor. As the book FAMILY POLICE: The Hidden War on America’s Poor reveals in chilling detail, the system punishes families not for harming their children, but for struggling to survive. Dirty clothes, an empty fridge, missed school days—these can all be twisted into a narrative of “neglect.” But in truth, neglect is often nothing more than a symptom of poverty, not a crime.
CPS caseworkers are given broad discretion and operate under a shroud of legal secrecy. Once a family is reported—even anonymously—they’re drawn into a bureaucratic nightmare. Parents may be coerced into signing “voluntary” safety plans that lead to court involvement. Children are frequently removed without warrants or emergency hearings. In some counties, the foster care pipeline is so normalized, families have learned to hide rather than ask for help.
And the system is deeply racialized. Black children make up a disproportionately high percentage of kids in foster care. Native American families are targeted at shocking rates. In many communities, CPS functions as an extension of the criminal legal system—a tool to monitor, intimidate, and dismantle families who are already vulnerable.
The foster care system, supposedly a haven, often replaces one trauma with another. Overmedication, abuse, neglect, and homelessness are tragically common outcomes. And once a child enters this system, reunification becomes a legal and financial uphill battle. States receive federal incentives for adoption, not for family preservation. The result is a perverse motivation to keep kids in care.
FAMILY POLICE: The Hidden War on America’s Poor sheds light on this sinister machinery with firsthand accounts, policy analysis, and a call to action. It doesn’t just point fingers—it demands answers. Why are we allowing a publicly funded system to function with so little transparency and so much harm? Why are poor mothers treated like criminals, while actual abuse cases go ignored? Who benefits from the foster-industrial complex?
The answers aren’t easy, but the questions are urgent. If we truly care about children, we must start by supporting their families—offering housing, food, healthcare, and community-based support—not surveillance, removals, and trauma. As FAMILY POLICE makes clear, protecting children should never come at the cost of destroying their families.
Until we dismantle this broken system and replace it with one rooted in justice, dignity, and care, the war on the poor will rage on—waged by the very agencies sworn to protect them.
You can order the book on Amazon by clicking here > https://a.co/d/66BkP22
Steve Holder 