Hayden says the permanency law accomplishes little. He thinks taking a child away from its parents is a short-term fix.

"You're going to still be dealing with these people. fathers and mothers today are 14, 15 years old and they're going to be around for a long time."

Several days a week, the court allows Janet to spend time with her youngest son and daughter.

On a summer afternoon in a makeshift playroom in the women's shelter basement, Janet sits crouched at a child's table. She divides her attention between her son who's practicing math and her daughter who sits cross-legged at Janet's feet drawing. Both children have large brown eyes and dark skin. The little boy is raw energy; the little girl is bashful. Janet asks her daughter what she's drawing.

"He's crying. Why is he crying? Because he misses his mommy. Do you miss your mommy? Yes. Do you cry? Yes."

Although Hennepin County child protection officials say the permanency law has resulted in more parents losing permanent custody of their children, it's unclear who these parents are. Hennepin County does not track their race, income level, whether they use drugs, what kind of drugs they're using, or where in the county they live. Hennepin County child protection's budget is more than 70-million dollars a year; that does not include drug treatment costs.

Former juvenile judge Isabel Gomez believes the way the county handles child protection should be leveled and rebuilt. She says the system has hurt as many children as it has helped.

"It would be one thing if we were removing people from their blighted homes, terminating parental rights and then placing them with Blondie and Dagwood and they lived happily ever after. But we've never done that."

Gomez says no one should believe the permanency law will completely remedy situations such as Janet's; the problems are far too complex. Gomez says the courts fail because they try to provide neat and tidy solutions to life's most difficult problems.

"I think it's a terrible thing to take a child out of the home in the way that we do that. To essentially arrest the child, take the child away and banish the parent -- and that's what happened in case after case in what I saw -- the kids I saw doing best were kids who maintained a relationship with their mother through their ups and downs. I think as long as we use tools that are designed to be neat and efficient and tidy things up and have some confidence that's good, we're wrong."

It's possible the root cause of Janet's problems exists in the years before she ever tried drugs or had her first child. Janet says her father began having sexual intercourse with her when she was 12 and continued for three years until her brother blurted out the secret during a family argument. Janet was sent to live with her aunt and uncle for the summer but had to return home in the fall for school.

Janet says she told her pastor about the incest when she was 15. The pastor made her father apologize and then told the family to move on with their lives.

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