The Ohio county where 16 siblings were rescued from squalid conditions is struggling to care for the children and prosecute their parents and two grandparents.
The state has labeled the situation “an unprecedented child welfare crisis” as the tiny rural county’s resources grow increasingly strained.
The local prosecutor said the cost of medical care required for one of the defendants alone would have bankrupted Vinton County. That led the court to change the grandfather’s bond and release him from jail on his own recognizance for care at a hospital so the county didn’t have to pay for it…