Community Chat

[Shorty2U]

Before reading this I will give you some back ground since this happened in my former hometown area and I have been following this online. The mom was 55, the 7 kids range in age from 12 to 36. She suffered from high blood pressure, bi polar, and anxiety. According to preliminary reports they don't know how she died yet but there is word that the prison NEVER gave her meds to her. To add- The father died in 2011 so he was not in the picture.

This story has saddened me. It is my opinion that CHILDREN who don't go to school should be punished NOT the mom or dad. In this case they lived in poverty and the mom didn't even drive or work. The neighbors say she was a nice friendly woman. LAWS are now trying to be changed so parents don't go to jail for truancy. I agree do you, after reading this story? And PS the way I understand the children are of course devastated and feel guilt that this happened because they didn't go to school.

A woman sentenced to two days in jail for not paying $2,000 in fines after her kids skipped school - died in her cell.

Guards at Berks County Jail in Pennsylvania found Eileen DiNino, 55, of Reading, unresponsive in her bunk bed on Saturday afternoon as they checked blood pressure for all the patients.

She was declared dead shortly after at a local hospital.

She had $2,000 in truancy fines and Judge Dean Patton had to give her jail time, reported the Reading Eagle, but she “should not have died alone in prison,” he said.

She had nine active cases and 55 citations between 1999 and last year, the Eagle wrote.

There’s no evidence indicating a suspicious death, investigators said, but they’re waiting on toxicology results.

An autopsy was inconclusive.

The Eagle reported that the majority of truancy cases deal with overwhelmed mothers.

“The people home taking care of the children are mothers,” Richard Guida, an ex-truancy lawyer told the Eagle. “And some of these kids are no angels. They’re teenagers and they’re sullen. But then mom ends up in court.”

The prison warden referred all questions by the paper to Berks County Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt, who is also the chairman of the prison board.

“This women died in prison - away from her family - and for what?” Barnhardt said. “What did she learn from this?”

[pinkskates4]

The story I read indicated what you said about her bi-polar etc., and said the prison didn't "administer" any meds to her, but it didn't say - or imply - that they withheld her meds.

I thought the meds comment was to indicate that they didn't do anything that might have caused her death.

Do you have info that they refused to allow her to take her meds?

Additionally she had 55 violations since 1999 and the judge had been trying to work with her. While he realized she was unable to pay the fine, he needed something to justify that and asked her for bills etc., and she did not cooperate with him (maybe due to her bi-polar or other problems). He reduced her sentence from 45 days to 48 hours - which would have wiped her slate clean. He, also, is opposed to the law requiring jail time as a final recourse when nothing else is working.

While her situation is indeed tragic, it is also sad that she had seven kids with all these truancy problems and seemed unable to cope with it. You wonder how the kids fared otherwise.

[tansy]

I hope this case forces a change in the laws, Shorty. To top it all off, her husband and the children's father died around the time things went truly south for the family.

[pinkskates4]

Another wrinkle to this, is that apparently states base funding on student population- and many base this on daily attendance - meaning that truancy costs the school state funding.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/jun/27/chronically-absent-students-cost-county-schools-mi/

I read somewhere that this applies to Federal funds too.

This could inspire the schools to push for laws against truancy - with harsh consequences - for reasons other than just concern for the kids.

[Q_spirit]

my this is tragic. and complicated. i will read the full articles. so sad this is.

[Shorty2U]

Dagna I am not saying they deliberately denied her meds, I just read they hadn't given her the meds. Be it a mistake or whatnot is unknown. I guess as the investigation continues everything may come out.

[MikafromTopeka]

1999 was 15 years ago now so I would imagine most if not all of those 7 kids are adults by now. You would think that at least a few of them would have grown into decent enough human beings that they'd try to help their mom out of this mess instead of letting her go to jail over fines. **I've only heard bits and pieces of this story.

[terrier3]

I don't see how fining parents will solve this problem.

PA jails many people for other strange fines. One guy was jailed for catching a large mouth bass during small mouth bass season.

In my county in NY, a woman was jailed for having two overdue library books. She had been stopped for having a taillight out and when the police found the warrant for her arrest, she offered to pay for the books - $85 total (including fines). The police told her it was too late to pay and she was brought to jail. They denied her insulin, even though she complained, and she had a stroke. She is now suing.

It costs MORE money to process these people owing civil fines, jail them, etc.

Then they have to deal with being criminals...who wants to hire people who served time in jail, even if it was only for a few days?

It affects poor people much more often and is a waste of time & money, IMO.

[pinkskates4]

On 6/14/2014 kaybee said:

1999 was 15 years ago now so I would imagine most if not all of those 7 kids are adults by now. You would think that at least a few of them would have grown into decent enough human beings that they'd try to help their mom out of this mess instead of letting her go to jail over fines. **I've only heard bits and pieces of this story.

Unless they didn't graduate and don't have jobs.

If they are working, of course, they should have helped her.

[kingtut]

On Dr. Phil yesterday there was a mother and aunt and grand mother and two teen age girls who were very wild and refused to go to school. The mother was told she was supposed to enforce them going but actually how can anyone do that. they need help.