No children have been placed with the group since then, and that will continue until its members are formally certified as foster families in Pennsylvania.
The 31 children who as of last month were still with Mennonite families - mainly in Lancaster, Cumberland, and Lebanon Counties - apparently will be able to stay with them. The mothers of those children are no longer in prison and have agreed to allow the Mennonites to continue foster care.
"There's no discussion of retroactivity," Ambrose said.
According to a new prison policy, Riverside Correctional Facility social workers will help inmates find placement for their babies. If no relative can be found, DHS will be notified. The birth mother in most cases should still be able to decide who will care for her child.
If the Mennonite group goes through the state process to become a certified caregiver, "then we would have no problem with the Mennonites," Inspector General Amy Kurland said in an interview Tuesday.
Ambrose's concern triggered the inquiry into the long-running, informal Mennonite Caregivers Program, which says it has fostered 91 babies born to women incarcerated at the Riverside facility over 12 years. Forty-nine were returned to their birth mothers and 11 have been adopted by their Mennonite families.
"To allow children to be placed with an unlicensed social services agency, without any formal recordkeeping process or monitoring, put them at great risk," the inspector general's report says.
A Mennonite group member said she had not seen the report but had heard requirements were going to be imposed. "There are mixed feelings," said Carol Wise of New Holland, Pa. "It's disappointing to have our simple program closed, but there are times when we have really appreciated DHS's help."
