Technology

Karlena Hamblin was sitting on a stool in her Brownsville, Brooklyn apartment waiting for the Administration for Children’s Services to knock on her door for a weekly check-in. She’d just fed her infant daughter, who she held cradled in her arms.

ACS, which is responsible for investigating child welfare in New York City, had been watching her and her family since she was three months pregnant, when the agency held a pre-birth conference to talk over her family’s future. “The baby’s not even here yet and you’re already talking about removing her?” she said. “I didn’t even know what I was having yet.” She sobbed at night from fear.

Now, investigators check her daughter for signs of abuse or neglect, and could report anything they learn to a family court judge. Hanging over every visit is the chance that a misstep leads to her losing her daughter, who’s now just a few months old, to the foster care system.

“I’m always worried,” Hamblin said. “I get more anxious around any court date, and even though I tell myself, ‘No, I’m not doing nothing wrong, I don’t have nothing to hide,’ it’s like I’m programmed to be scared because I’ve been afraid since day one.”

Hamblin has a good idea why she’s under surveillance. She grew up in foster care. Shortly after aging out, she got pregnant and later, she says, developed symptoms of postpartum depression. She checked herself into the psych ward while her sister cared for her infant son. She lost him to foster care in 2017.