The worker, whose name was not available at press time, was fired and her supervisor demoted, according to Cummings.

“I’m just frustrated these things continue to happen,” the prosecutor said. “Someone has to start thinking about the children.”

He said the “institutional attitude” of keeping children with their parents can be detrimental to children. The Madison County Trauma Team, he said, recommended taking the baby away from Gray but the department kept her with her mother.

Cummings said criminal charges against the caseworker are possible. In January 2003, Cummings filed criminal charges against Mike Warrum, the caseworker assigned to protect 8-year-old wheelchair-bound Mark Norris, who died of pneumonia and malnutrition.

But in that case, Norris was a ward of the state, while Gray-Johnson was only under supervision.

When Gray was arrested, she was already in jail, having been arrested on separate charges — theft, a Class D felony, forgery, a Class C felony, and felony probation violation — on May 18.

Just before she was due to be released on those charges, Gray was arrested on neglect charges.

Bond is set at $35,000. If convicted, she faces 20 to 50 years in prison.

Gray-Johnson is the third child in three years to die in Madison County under CPS supervision. Besides Norris, in November 2003 11-month-old April Patlin, died, six months after CPS officials stopped visiting her home.