Question regarding biological father's rights

I am an adopted person. I think it's commendable that you are interested in providing support to your husband's alleged biological child. But we aren't talking about ownership here of a piece of property. As many of the posters have stated, this child for a number of reasons has been uprooted and in having been so done; there are issues that may arise. I can tell you first hand there are problems that may surface that couldn't be handled by 20 people with degrees, although having one is commendable. There a few things that have happened. One due to infidelity on the part of one of the parents there is a void of truth. The fact is a child resulted from an encounter. Unless your husband was unaware of the resulting child, there is some question about this concept that he was not able for a variety of reasons until recently to have taken some responsibility. Pointing fingers of blame to other parties does not negate that fact. You say that the mother had substance abuse issues which of course impact the child whether through genes or through the course of her ability to cope. You also mentioned that he is on work release. That statement can be interpreted in a number of ways. Has he deal with the issues that caused him to be incarcerated or not? If he is on work release he certainly would not present in the minds of many as preferable guardian just because he happens to be the biological father. We could go into long debates about whether that's fair or not but it is a reality legally. Getting into that is not what matters to decision makers. When people put the matter into the hands of "decision makers" they look at what's in the best interest of the child; as they should. That's not to say that given some time and counseling your husband would not be a capable and adequate parent despite his incarceration. Pointing fingers at the fact that other people stepped into to care for a child whose biological parents isn't going to change the situation. The reasons they weren't capable are water under the bridge. A decision maker will simply look at the situation at hand and decide what's in the best interest of the child. Taking an accusatory position won't be interpreted as a good thing.