"It’s an invaluable insider account of a pressing social issue." - Publishers Weekly
Joining the ranks of Evicted and The New Jim Crow, a former caseworker’s searing, clear-eyed investigation of the child welfare system―from foster care to incarceration―that exposes the deep-rooted biases shaping the system, witnessed through the lives of several Black families.
Dr. Jessica Pryce knows the child welfare system firsthand and, in this long overdue work of narrative nonfiction, breaks it down from the inside out, sharing her professional journey and offering the crucial perspectives of caseworkers and Black women impacted by the system. It is a groundbreaking and eye-opening confrontation of the inherent and systemic racism deeply entrenched within the child welfare system.
Pryce started her social work career with an internship where she was committed to helping keep children safe. In the book, she walks alongside her close friends and even her family as they navigate the system, while sharing her own reckoning with the requirements of her job and her role in the systemic harm. Through poignant narratives and introspection, readers witness the harrowing effects of a well-intentioned workforce that has lost its way, demonstrating how family separation is often not in a child’s best interests.
With a renewed commitment to strengthening families in her role as activist, Pryce invites the child welfare workforce to embark on a journey of self-reflection and radical growth. At once a framework for child protective services reform and an intimate, stunning first-hand account of the system as it currently operates, Broken takes everyday scenarios as its focus rather than extreme child welfare cases, challenging readers to critically examine their own mindsets and biases in order to reimagine how we help families in need.
This groundbreaking book confronts the uncomfortable truths of the child welfare system:
- A Caseworker’s Memoir: Follow Dr. Pryce’s personal journey from a well-intentioned intern to a reform-focused activist, and her reckoning with her own role in a system causing harm.
- Systemic Racism Exposed: Through the harrowing, real-life stories of Black families, uncover the deep-rooted biases that lead to disproportionate surveillance and family separation.
- Moral Injury in Social Work: An unflinching look at the emotional and psychological toll on the child welfare workforce, caught between bureaucratic mandates and the human cost to families.
- Poverty and Neglect: Challenge the conventional wisdom that separates poverty from neglect by examining everyday scenarios that criminalize families for their lack of resources.
- A Framework for Change: Discover a path forward for social workers, policymakers, and advocates to dismantle a broken system and build a new, family-centered approach to child protection.
Jessica Pryce is on faculty at Florida State University’s College of Social Work. For the past fifteen years, she has worked in child welfare from multiple angles, including direct casework, research, teaching, training, and policy development. She has provided training for more than two hundred child welfare organizations, empowering professionals to reimagine their role and their work. She currently lives in Florida, where she partners with child welfare leaders who are working on system-wide culture shifts and organizational change. Pryce holds a master of social work degree from Florida State University and a PhD from Howard University.
