I really feel bad for this boy. According to the elementary school and program he was in he would have been one of my students next year. I know something could have been done to prevent this. People knew about the abuse -- the neighbors and particularly the mother of the friend whose house he ended up at!! Why did they not report what was clearly criminal behavior by the mother?
The issue is these welfare to work programs do not work if you do not address the whole situation. These programs give the mother job skills to support the family independently but fail to teach them life skills like how to balance it all (work, parenting, keeping house, etc.) She took her frustrations out on this child to the very extreme and led him to just lose it. I am really praying for that child and his healing.