We have previously discussed the move in some states to jail parents of truant children. It is part of the criminalization of America where pet peeves of politicians are ramped up to criminal offenses to make a point. Now, Eileen DiNino, 55, of Reading, Pennsylvania has died while serving one of these ridiculous sentences. The mother of seven died in jail after serving half of her 48-hour sentence.
The 48-hour sentence was in lieu of a $2,000 — a choice that many impoverished parents have to make.
District Judge Dean R. Patton is quoted as asking “Did something happen? Was she scared to death?” He described DiNino as “a lost soul.”
Perhaps not quite as lost as when she was sent to jail for her kids not attending school regularly. The law is another example of how politicians are criminalizing every type of social ill to demonstrate their commitment to an area like education. Little thought is given to how such sentences only worsen the situation in families that already have serious problems. Jail increasingly seems the answer to every social failure for politicians. It not only magnifies the problems in these families but gives these parents criminal records.
In this one county, more than 1,600 people have been jailed and two-thirds of them are women since 2000 over truancy fines. Yet, the “give-them-a-dose-of-jail” crowd will likely be undeterred. What most concerns me is that more affluent people can simply pay these fines so it will be often single mothers from impoverished families who are send to jail. However, prosecutors like Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy have pushed to jail parents for missing teacher-parent conferences. The criminal code is becoming our vehicle of reinforcement of good social habits and behavior. As more such matters are put into the criminal system, politicians demands that their pet peeves of unkept lawns or feeding pigeons be added as well. It becomes a downward spiral into a criminalized society.
Source: ABC
Violet, it amazes me that some what to privatize everything. So many services went to hell when they were privatized. I’m thinking of Walter Reed Army hospital, prisons, air port security, court room guards.
Jude – no kidding, since the foster care system is so awesome. Our prisons are full of former foster kids.
Lee:
Here are the modes of thought in a nutshell:
A) All of the poor are helpless victims of fate, with no responsibility whatsoever for their circumstances, and it is completely unfair that they do not have a middle class life style. They need more government assistance.
B) All of the poor are completely responsible for their own predicament, and get what they deserve. They should have NO government assistance.
C) (And I think most people ascribe to this belief) SOME people are poor because of their own life choices – doing drugs, joining gangs, becoming criminals and subsequently unemployable, getting pregnant out of wedlock. They need programs that specifically help overcoming their past mistakes and getting back on the ladder of success. SOME people are poor because they are victims of fate – such as they get the trinity almost guaranteed to cause bankruptcy – lose a job, get a major illness or injury, and divorced. Again, they need programs tailored to get them out of an impossible situation and back on the ladder of success. Programs should be designed to act as spring boards – help during the low times and a platform that launches them back into the pool rather than a permanent hammock. The problem with the hammock paradigm is that they will never have better circumstances.
The problem is that Liberals confuse group C with group A. Any talk about work requirements, or changing programs to ensure people get back on their feet gets misconstrued as group A. Any complaint about a lack of personal responsibility gets confused with group A. And there are “group A” people out there. They are just in the minority.
This is why I am a fiscal conservative. There is no magic money tree that grows overnight when the government wastes our taxpayer dollars. Wasteful spending takes money away from where it can do good – such as battered women shelters. If my taxes are going to be spent, they had better do some real good. And closing battered women shelters on the one hand, while giving away free bike helmets to anyone who shows up, regardless of economic status, is NOT how I want my taxes spent.
I guess the kids will go to school regularly now, since they are wards of the state. YAY!
Violet this acceptance by way too many that the poor, which includes working poor, have caused their own difficulties and get what they deserve is a shame on this country. It is the continued acceptance of the Reagan “welfare queen” lie.
Karen I agree, it crosses cultural, ethnic, financial and any other lines. (I had been responding to what Paul said). And I agree jailing definitely does not seem like a solution.
I live in a PA county next to Reading and have been a social worker/advocate for the poor for over 20 years. Things have gotten exponentially worse since “Welfare Reform” and since Corbett’s Republican non-leadership. Funding for domestic violence shelters and transitional housing has been eliminated til women are forced to stay in life threatening situations or live in cars or squats and hide their predicaments from agencies that would further oppress them as above. There always seems to be funding for the police state end of services.
Since privatization of medicaid benefits here into corporate HMO’s, these huge insurance contractors constantly fail to provide the mandated care they promised would be cheaper thru them than thru the “state”. Yes, it is cheaper to provide no care- the contractors get their fees, the doctors get miniscule fees and limits on their ability to freely prescribe what care the patients medically need- what they were able to receive prior to the HMO’s limits. Women are ill, working at minimum wage jobs because there is no more job training to prepare for living wage alternatives. If women can find medical services, they have no leave time to attend when they or their children are sick- they lose jobs for doing so. They work without needed prescription medicines- even when diabetic with foot ulcers, with knees broken down from years of menial jobs scrubbing floors, waiting at bus stops with full loads for hours- because when you can find a route that hasn’t been eliminated, it will have been reduced to long waits, no transfers to your area before your shift. I’ve had women call in tears because bus drivers pass them by in the rain and snow to make up for running late that day…leaving a mother with no way to get home for her children’s school bus- another infraction that lands you with Children and Youth and yes, possible jail time.
People here want to beleive that these are young careless single girls that repeatedly become unwed mothers and live in luxury from it. In reality, these women are frequently middle/lower middle class moms who used to be married, stay at home or PT wage earners, dependent on husbands, til husbands left for greener pastures or beat them once too often, or were taken off to jail for their own DnA offenses, leaving their failies to the mercy of the State. These women are our sisters, aunts, neighbors- they are us- and they are suffering. And yes, dying in jail- swiftly- or slowly, painfully in their everyday lives. The real liars, welfare usurpers, consumers of public largesse are the politicians and their privatizing corporate whores. They claim to know the answers- and yes, in effect they do because their solutions ARE the prison planet, debter’s prisons, police institutions that all share the same secret handshakes, the same false air of decency. They sleep the sleep of the innocent while knowing what they do to these broken people. I try to beleive there is an afterlife where everyone gets their due- but I still can’t sleep.
Why can’t the hat be passed in the courtroom? The woman’s blood is on the judge’s hands the jail and the children are also responsible.
Help! lost another comment. WordMess REALLY does not like me today.
Darren – thanks!
Lee – affluent parents still get troubled truant teenagers, and I’ve known some disorganized middle class and affluent moms.
If it’s a matter of organization or good parenting, anyone of any socioeconomic strata can be a good, organized parent.
But I do agree that the poor don’t have as much access to counseling for troubled teens. Single moms have a huge risk factor for their kids to drop out, join gangs, and get arrested. It is a real problem. Jailing the moms does not sound like a solution.
More affluent parents usually make sure their kids get to school, so they do not end up getting either fined or jailed. Paul I did not put words in your mouth’ You wrote: More affluent parents usually make sure their kids get to school, so they do not end up getting either fined or jailed. That has nothing to do with Maslow I have a feeling if that was what you meant you would have said it in that note, for instance, but those who are poor/disadvantaged often have other things more important for them to worry about such as food and shelter, but you didn’t.
Karen, it looks like Pennsylvania had a mandatory jail time provision for a failure to pay truancy fines. However, constitutional limits still apply. Unfortunately, someone who is unable to comply with basic requirements to get those constitutional arguments before the court or assemble the evidence to support them loses their chance. The judge’s comments suggest that he dislikes the mandatory jail time, but she didn’t provide him with a legal basis for not imposing it.
Help! Lost a post down the Vortex of Doom!
From newspaper articles, she was found dead in her cell, cause pending.
Reports make it sound like she was unemployed, disorganized, and simply overwhelmed. She often missed important court dates, was missing paperwork, or was unkempt. She sounds like a real life version of the Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.
The poor thing. Now how does going to jail help in any way? I wonder if the stress aggravated a condition, such as a heart attack.
I understand that jail time was introduced as a means to help people get fines off their record that they just could not pay. It was not intended to be a debtors prison. When someone cannot meet one punishment, a fine, then this offers another punishment, instead, jail time. The idea was that the poor should not avoid punishment because they cannot pay a fine.
The problem is that the level of punishment is different, and I do not know how to solve that. Perhaps community service would be a more reasonable alternative punishment for outstanding fines than jail time.
Lawyers, help me if I’m wrong, but do people go to jail if they accrue too many fines, or is it always a choice, fine or jail?
If the goal is to keep kids in school, then we need to take another look at how to accomplish that. Usually, I take the position that parents are responsible for their kids and their behavior. But I think jailing parents goes too far. I’ve known some moms with boys that were wild hares. They had a real problem with them ditching classes. Unless they literally held their teenager’s hand and walked them from class to class, they were at a loss as to how to fix the problem. Punishment, grounding, etc hadn’t worked. I cannot imagine jailing them.
For kids who are truant through there own fault, this could just be a hard lesson in responsibility. Skip school, don’t graduate, and then good luck getting a job that will support a middle class lifestyle. For kids who don’t go to school because of their parents – such as alcoholism or drug abuse, that’s a matter for CPS.
Karen, I restored your comment at 4:28.
That is so sad. Her poor kids. Does anyone know cause of death?
So scary it took my breath away…a “life sentence” for having irresponsible children? Schools are more like detention centers now, cops are called for everything a child might do and now a parent lives in constant fear of having their kids taken away???? Makes me almost glad I never got to have any.
Reprehensible.
Truancy laws in general are violations of prohibitions against involuntary servitude.
The demand is, the state has determined you MUST be educated, mandatorily.
Not being educated, is a crime that must be punished, upon you or your parent.
Someone being compelled to do something by the state is fundamentally wrong.
Crap like this death inevitably results from the law of unintended consequences.
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Ah Rafflaw, welcome to the “Prove you are a (insert profession)” club. Why is it necessary to question other commenters credentials? I find that to be quite uncivil.
Darren Smith, IMO You Are A Very Very Scary Man. Maybe you should investigate more and talk/write less! Go read the story of the New Jersey kid twirling his pencil in class. It has ALL gone too far.