Comments on: Court Rules Mother Must Take More Time with Kids: So It Sentences Her to Jail

By: Journalist Arrested for Telling Son to Walk Home from McDonalds « JONATHAN TURLEY

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:12:09 +0000

[...] I am probably the most protective, risk-adverse parent on Earth. My wife accuses me of wanting to turn the four kids into bubble babies. I would not use this type of punishment or scared straight technique. However, it is an example in my view of how we have criminalized every aspect of our lives, here. [...]

By: Jay @ OFR

Jay @ OFR — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:53:56 +0000

Missouri also skirts the unconstitutional debtor’s prison by incarcerating parents who fail to pay child support by labeling it criminal non-support. That sounds like debt to me. If the law hasn’t been challenged already, maybe it will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court?

I’ve already represented a person facing possible jail on civil contempt charges filed against them for non-payment and we won. IF the other side really wanted child support payments, I don’t understand what the other side was trying to accomplish by forcing someone to hire an attorney to avoid prison which would make it impossible to make any child support payments.

I guess the judge thought the same thing…

By: Jill

Jill — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:07:05 +0000

This just doesn’t make sense. There was quite a bit of money spent on this trial and it’s outcome. Why is the money being spent in this manner? The same amount of money could have been spent on a medical/psychological evaluation of the son to get him started on proper treatment. Violent outbursts can be caused by abuse. They may be a sign of temporal lobe epilepsy. Someone needs to understand what is really happening here. Truancy is the symptom, not the root of the problem.

This sentence will only further alienate mother and son as evidenced in her threat to hit him if he doesn’t go to school.

Authorities can not say they did not have the money to provide proper treatment. They chose to spend a great deal of money. I find this typical of our society. We continue to spend untold gobs of money of the prison system while restricting money for education, health and welfare of our children. This thinking gives us worse than nothing for something. It is both stupid and cruel.