This blog was created solely for my students to generate intellectual dialogue with their classmates. Reach one and teach one. Peace.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Should she go to jail?
A 21-year-old Jersey City mother was sentenced to three years in prison March 11 for leaving her three young children alone while she went clubbing in Manhattan last summer.
The logic seems screwy: After one night without their mom, the kids (3, 2 and 7 months at the time) now get three years without her. Probably a lot more. The children, who were in good condition when the state took custody, have been in foster care since July.
Jessica Figueroa acted immaturely, selfishly and stupidly when she went bar-hopping — and she was underage at the time, to boot. A single mom with three children by the age of 20, she needs guidance with personal judgment.
But putting her in prison doesn’t help her become a better mom or keep the family together. The state’s strategy of incarceration and foster care is far more costly than a program of counseling and strict supervision.
There’s no excuse for her behavior. She invited tragedy. When police called her about 10 p.m., Figueroa needed three hours to find a ride back to Jersey City. So Superior Court Judge Sheila Venable was correct at the sentencing when she said, “We are very lucky you are not standing before me on a much more serious charge.”
But three years in lockup is excessive, especially when there is no evidence Figueroa had done this previously.
Sarah Hines, a Flanders mother who left her 12-year-old daughter alone for a week last June to get married in Idaho, received three years’ probation in January — a more reasonable sentence.
Jailing Figueroa won’t give her the parenting tools she needs, and it won’t give her kids the mother’s love they require. She needed Super Nanny, not a super-sized sentence.
The logic seems screwy: After one night without their mom, the kids (3, 2 and 7 months at the time) now get three years without her. Probably a lot more. The children, who were in good condition when the state took custody, have been in foster care since July.
Jessica Figueroa acted immaturely, selfishly and stupidly when she went bar-hopping — and she was underage at the time, to boot. A single mom with three children by the age of 20, she needs guidance with personal judgment.
But putting her in prison doesn’t help her become a better mom or keep the family together. The state’s strategy of incarceration and foster care is far more costly than a program of counseling and strict supervision.
There’s no excuse for her behavior. She invited tragedy. When police called her about 10 p.m., Figueroa needed three hours to find a ride back to Jersey City. So Superior Court Judge Sheila Venable was correct at the sentencing when she said, “We are very lucky you are not standing before me on a much more serious charge.”
But three years in lockup is excessive, especially when there is no evidence Figueroa had done this previously.
Sarah Hines, a Flanders mother who left her 12-year-old daughter alone for a week last June to get married in Idaho, received three years’ probation in January — a more reasonable sentence.
Jailing Figueroa won’t give her the parenting tools she needs, and it won’t give her kids the mother’s love they require. She needed Super Nanny, not a super-sized sentence.
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