Posted on 06/13/2014 8:39:25 AM PDT by Rusty0604
PHILADELPHIA – A growing number of Americans are expressing outrage that a Pennsylvania mother of seven died in jail last weekend while serving a 48-hour sentence over unpaid, school truancy-related fines.
DiNinoEileen DiNino, 55, was found dead last Saturday in her jail cell. Authorities don’t know the cause of death yet, they have ruled out suspicious behavior.
DiNino was being penalized because several of her children routinely missed school. According to the Associated Press, “She had racked up $2,000 in fines, fees and court costs since 1999...
The fines related to school truancy are quite small – perhaps $20 – but it’s the court-related costs that are most expensive, sometimes reaching $150. Such costs add up quickly and make it nigh impossible for low-income parents to pay.
In the county where DiNino lived, roughly 110 parents of truant students are jailed every year.
Americans of all political stripes are denouncing the practice and likening it to the debtor’s prisons from the nation’s Colonial days.
(Excerpt) Read more at eagnews.org ...
So, no more requirement that all children be educated, either by schools or by parents? Is that what you're saying?
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.
So what do you suggest we do when people don’t pay the fines? Fine ‘em again?
“How about no one can be jailed for truancy. Fines yes. Locked up no.”
Ultimately the threat behind every fine is prison.
One wonders what the little darlings were doing instead of going to school.
Why bother with the fines if you aren't going to enforce them? They tried fines with this woman. She thumbed her nose at them. You'd just say 'OK' at that point?
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.
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.
‘Immaculate conception’ has is not about conceiving babies, it means born without original sin.
The court costs were higher than the fines, and jail is for those that are unable to pay. I thought court costs were paid with taxes.
That would be a viable alternative. But then you'd have the screeching from those property rights stalwarts who say that the government can't seize property. It would just be "another form of tyranny."
And I would be one of those.
“So, what do you suggest? That all laws be “suggestions?””
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.)
Translation: they didn't see any obvious stab marks or bruises. Doesn't prove that somebody didn't suffocate her with a pillow.
Like the IRS, they probably wait for penalties and interest pile up before taking action.
For the most part, debtor prisons have been eliminated from our legal system.
First of all, this woman has zero chance of making money to pay these fines, while sitting in a jail cell. And, some jails actually charge you - so she may even get a bill for her 48 hour stay.
There are other ways to collect a debt in our society - garnishing wages for example. And, since this was a government fine, there is a chance of intercepting tax refunds, etc.
And there is good ole property seizure - a court can order her possessions be sold off to pay the debt.
Some of these are heavy handed, and I don’t necessarily endorse...but they are examples of other ways to collect on a bill.
Specifically dealing with truancy...perhaps a forgiveness program if the kid attends summer school to make up for lost time, or something like that?
Frankly, when they start locking up parents, it looks like nothing more than a money making scheme.
There is the possibility of unknown medical causes.
No, I don’t think her death was of “natural causes”. ...I live here and figure it was from lack of legal medications she was not available to. However, a person who can’t control her own spawn and can’t get the father(s) to help control them shouldn’t be lauded as a victim.
How about community service..house arrest. I can’t believe all the tough guys on this thread who want to lock this woman up.
Since the fines were due to the kids' behavior, how about you punish the truant kids instead?
If theft under $20 is a misdemeanor, a citation, basically, then what happens when the offender, who is caught red-handed, ignores court orders to pay the fine, refuses to come to court when summoned, and consequently racks up other contempt charges? Call him a 'bad boy' and make it all good?
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