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Dennis Saffran\xa0and\xa0Seth Barron\xa0discuss New York\xa0City's misguided family-reunification policies, which can have fatal consequences for children in distressed homes.

In\xa0the\xa0Summer 1997 Issue of\xa0City Journal, Saffran wrote an article entitled "Fatal Preservation," which chronicled attempts by New York's social-services agencies to\xa0keep\xa0children with their troubled\xa0and abusiveparents.\xa0The policy\xa0proved tragic\xa0for kids like six-year-old Elisa\xa0Izquierdo, killed at the hands of her crack-addicted mother in 1995. Elisa's mother\xa0had regained custody of her daughter\xa0over the opposition of\xa0relatives and teachers.\xa0Too many other New York City children have met similar fates.

More than 20 years later,\xa0Saffran\xa0finds that, on balance,\xa0little has changed. \xa0"Many in the social-work establishment, including officials in the administrations of New York City's last two mayors\xa0. . .\xa0have remained hostile to [reforms] and committed to the old family-preservation orthodoxy."

Dennis Saffran\xa0is a Queens-based appellate attorney, writer, and former GOP candidate for the New York City Council. He can be reached on Twitter @dennisjsaffran.