Friday, March 12, 2010

Child Neglect Bill Vote Today in House

Our favorite Delegate Jill Carter reports that the House is scheduled to vote today on HB 962, which would make child neglect a felony:
"We will vote on this today in the same amended form we passed in 2008. I believe the Senate killed the 2008 bill that passed our committee and the House."
... MD is the only state that doesn't currently consider child neglect a felony.
Critics say the bill will make family members less likely to report neglect. Jessamy's office opposes the bill. Julie Drake told the CP's Erin Sullivan, "So you're saying that rather than provide substance-abuse treatment to the parent, you want the parent to sit in jail."

.. maybe we could compromise and say jail is the substance-abuse treatment?

UPDATE: Reports Carter, "Bill was held."

9 comments:

Cham said...

Do you really want to anger and alienate abusive parents? After all, the parents vote and those little toddlers whose skull they crush.....well, don't. Politicians should always keep their eye on the ball.

Anonymous said...

Instead of providing substance abuse treatment, how about we give the citizens of baltimore some tax relief, and maybe some small business incentives. Let the churches and medicare provide treatment.

Anonymous said...

Stop them from having babies.....

John Galt said...

Not my grandson,...

he's a GOOD boy.

Cham said...

The grandson may have been a very good boy, when he was in the presence of hid meemaw. I don't doubt it for a second. It was just when he was around his fellow Bloods that his behavior allegedly went south.

I really wish the media would quit quoting family members of the accused. It's an exercise in futility.

buzoncrime said...

There was a stupid movement begun in journalism a few years ago, where it was deemed "important" to get "both" sides of a story--no matter how ludicrous one side was. It left journalists and newspapers (and other outlets) pretending to be impartial and thus eroding any values they might have.
Thus, a reporter was forced to go out and get quotes from people who had an obvious bias in what they were saying, and it seemed to somehow equate with a "balanced" picture of events.
Interviewing close relatives of suspects is a perfect example. Often that relative will have little or no information reflecting on the incident at hand.
During barricade or hostage situations, it is overwhelmingly not recommended to bring a relative or "loved one" to the scene to help negotiations: often they're part of the problem to begin with.

As far as substance abuse for neglectful parents, it's been my experience that no druggie will willingly undergo treatment without some kind of underlying external pressure to do so. (of course, there's always exceptions, but extremely rarely)
In this case, there's usually pressure from Child Protective Services: get treatment or not get your child back---or, if not already taken away, you might lose your child.

Cham said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ppatin said...

Speaking of both sides of the story...


I was reading some of the Sun's old Palczynski articles last night and saw that after he was killed his mother was complaining that the cops didn't have to put 27 bullets into him. Perfect example of someone whose side of the story does NOT deserve to be reported!

Cham said...

With Palczynski the mother was a big part of the problem. She had a soft spot for him and she refused to admit he was crud. She was the one that was constantly bailing him out, providing him with money and a place to live. She helped to perpetuate his idea that he did no wrong. Palczynski had several siblings, and if you read the interviews done with them none of them thought he was a saint.

Even after Palczynski was killed the mother was caught revisiting the hostage scene and leaving stuffed animals on the front lawn. Very creepy. She's not too different from some other mothers you hear about from time to time, the have a complex about the innocence and sweetness of their sons when it is overwhelmingly evident to the contrary.