The Decision Not to Investigate — Joe Broadmeadow
Rhode Island’s Office of the Child Advocate released a 372-page report on August 31, 2026. The number people will remember is thirty. Thirty children dead. Eleven more who nearly died. All of them five years old or younger. All of them since 2019.
Be precise about the number before someone misuses it. These thirty children did not die in state custody. Most lived at home. Rhode Island’s child protection system had a reason to look at each of them. Someone called the hotline. Someone opened a file. Someone closed it, or screened the call out before anyone knocked on a door.
A custodial death is a failure at the end of the chain. These happened at the front of it, while the state still held every option…