Pennsylvania mom of 7 dies in jail over unpaid school-related fines

A women sent to jail for unpaid court costs from a smaller truancy bill died in prison. While the story makes it look like she was pretty neglegent and entitled in her dealings with the court system, its a human tragedy and the sort of thing that we should try to avoid.

Freepers find it all really confusing. On the one hand, school is bad, on the other we need to be tough on crime. Mostly, this boils down to those who want draconian penalties for bad parenting and those who shout that shrinking government would solve this somehow.
Empathy, naturally, is lost in the mix.

NorthMountain has a solution - end education.

I suggest that government schools be abolished and the buildings razed to the ground.

Education is far too important to be entrusted to the State,

PapaBear3625 wonders if this was...murder.

Put a middle-age white woman in prison over unpaid fines. What could possibly go wrong?

No, I don't think her death was of "natural causes".

Vigilanteman recalls a scandal in Scranton that makes him think there's a conspiracy here:

In our village idiot's (Bob Carey Jr.) hometown of Scranton, we had a major scandal which broke the year or so before Jerry Sandusky kicked it off the front page: a Democrat judge was sending kids to juvenile detention for bullsh*t petty charges like this.

It turned out that he was being paid handsomely by the jail contractor (surprise! Another well-connected Democrat) who wanted to keep his detention facilities full so he could maximize the $300 plus per kid per day charge which was billed to the local county.

Given that this is Philadelphia, a city which makes even the sewage pond of Scranton look relatively clean, I've got to wonder if something similar is in play here.

Vigilanteman knows the problem is that liberals don't let you garnish welfare.

Excellent observations, all. To your list, I might add that she quite possibly was collecting a government check. Most people who have kids with severe behavior problems are. At one time, it would have been easy to deduct the fine from the check.

However, libtard courts have in many cases declared those checks to be inalienable rights which cannot be touched. Years ago, I worked in Californistan when an employee bounced a sizable check on our business just before quitting. We weren't even allowed to deduct the amount of that check from her last paycheck.

Such is the logic of libtard la-la land-- you can jail or even kill somebody which owes their government master some money, but you can't withhold it from their check!

staytrue knows liberals want reform. But not the general, empty proposals he has!

Michael Moore actually featured this in “Capitalism, a Love Story”

Of course his spin was “capitalism is bad and thou shalt not privatize prisons”

My spin is there should be a check and balance on the govt. specifically, the judiciary.

ottbmare seems to have forgotten about the original post.

There seems to be a presupposition by many on this thread that forcing students to go to government schools is a positive good, and the only topic of discussion is what means shall be used to compel parents to comply. I disagree with the fundamental premise. If anyone can show me the place in the Constitution that mandates public school education and attendance for all, I would be fascinated.

This country managed to grow and prosper for centuries before all children were forced by law to attend a school. I do not agree that the public schools are doing such a good job of preparing kids for adult life that everyone must be forced to attend on threat of death.

Blood of Tyrants hate public school with it's stringent attendance requirements:

I’m glad we send my daughter to private school. She misses numerous days each year due to sickness yet still maintains the highest average in her grade. In public school this would count for nothing because the school gets paid per student-day.

Carl Vehse blames the absent fathers.

DiNino had no ability to pay her $2,000 fine. She was reportedly unemployed, on welfare, and completely overwhelmed by her [SEVEN] children.

What?!? Had she claimed immaculate conception for the seven children, or was the court not able to find the children's father(s)?

fwdude unironically endorses debtor's prisons and Dickensian England - the pauper's paradise!

When do “debtors prisons” make a comeback?

I would welcome these. People who willingly enter into a contract and then refuse to abide by it SHOULD pay a penalty. It has become far too easy to just shirk off a debt obligation. That is one of the reasons we are such a society in which we find ourselves.

And you probably don't realize that the original "debtors prisons" was more like house arrest, where you were still allowed to interact with family. Dicken's father was one such example.

fwdude follows up by wishing more kids be taken from their parents. Small government, folks!

Don't us conservatives insist that that should be the PARENTS' job?

Perhaps since she isn't a fit parent, the kids should be removed to foster care. But then, there'd be screeching from that action.

If fact, there'd be screeching about ANY action taken.

I guess we should just leave unfit parents in charge of children to do with as they will.

Gen.Blather has no idea, but shrink government!

I don’t have a suggestion, but we are living in a vampire state that sucks money out of us. The cost of speeding tickets keeps climbing and they’ve lowered the trip point at which they right them to 7mph over the limit. This lady is facing the same thing. If the kids don’t show the school loses money, so they’re replacing it with fines. Probably she had no control over the kids. Two thousand dollars is more than most people, especially with seven kids, have in the bank. Seventy-five percent of wage earners are living paycheck to paycheck.

My first suggestion is to cut down the size of the vampire. We have way too many government employees. It’s not only their wages today but all the retired people and all the benefits and future retirees. We simply can’t afford such a large government (at all levels.)

PapaBear3625 - the problem is we don't beat our kids anymore.

in the old days, a defiant kid who didn't want to go to school was told "If you aren't dressed and on the bus in 10 minutes, your father (or "Uncle Joey", or whoever) will take a cane to your backside. But these days, even saying that will land the parent in jail and the kid put into foster care.

If the State removes parents ability to effectively discipline the kid, then the State should not hold the parent responsible.