Mother Dies In Jail Over Unpaid Truancy Fines.

[Lace Neil Singer]

At one point during my lovely foray in the state-run foster care system, there were kids dropped off at school, that would walk in the front doors and continue right out the back doors. Short of armed guards or chaining them to their desks NOTHING could prevent their truancy. They were actually removed from their homes for truancy, and foster care was actually no better, but the parents were blamed and painted as "bad parents" because the kids were truant.

Agreed. I used to cut class at school, cuz I was being bullied and felt it easier to just avoid the lessons where the bullies operated, due to ineffectial teachers and the like. My parents had no idea that I was cutting, and they couldn't have stopped me anyway, since they both worked. I used to escape down an alleyway and head into town to buy cigarettes and hang out in the park. Short of barricading all exits, nothing could have stopped me.

[Kristev]

But don't forget that in America, the alleged land of the free, most people are locked up for very unimportant matters, and nearly as many locked up for crimes they didn't do but were railroaded into with plea deals and poor defense lawyers.

The name of the game is essentially criminalizing the poor so that politicians can claim to be "Tough on crime" to win votes.