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Prison for parents?
HEART TO HEART
with Betty Ann Bliane
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Dear Reader,
The problem with politics is the tendency to reach for that which is popular and to speak what you think the people want to hear even when the evidence demands a more thoughtful and thorough approach. The propensity for the knee-jerk, quick-fix reaction continues to hold sway, and no matter how many mistakes have been made in the past, our politicians never seem to learn that what is popular and expedient in the short term may be costly and counterproductive over the long haul.
Education minister Andrew Holness has made himself the latest victim of what I call the "putrid politics of popularity and expediency". In responding to the fateful incident in which a schoolboy stabbed to death another student from Ferncourt High School, the minister called for a law that would prosecute parents for their delinquent children. He obviously was pandering to the crowds, knowing how emotive the matter of school violence is, and how anxious the Jamaican people are for finding solutions to the horrendous levels of crime and violence.
I admit that the idea of prosecuting parents is a tempting proposition, especially against the background of a growing culture of familial irresponsibility and outright parental delinquency. But for a problem so widespread and so entrenched, the notion that the state would want to prosecute, and by extension, imprison parents, seems exaggerated at best and impractical at worst.
The first question that must be asked is, whom is the minister referring to when he speaks about parents? Is he referring to the mothers or the fathers, or both? The question has to be asked because most of Jamaica's children live in single-family homes, headed by women, and in many if not most cases, the fathers are not only absent from the home, they are absent altogether from the lives of their children. So who would the minister prosecute, and if it is going to be the mothers, the question is, who would look after the children in the mothers' absence? Is Minister Holness prepared to hunt down the fathers and prosecute them as well? We might as well tell the minister that the job of holding fathers accountable is a tough one in an environment where our courts are struggling to enforce something as basic as child maintenance orders.
The argument about prosecuting parents seems perplexing in a country where more and more parents, and by our standards that means mothers, are begging the state to take their '"out of control" children. How could the state prosecute a mother who had been begging the government to take her child as they put it, "before 'im commit murder" and is ignored because the very state doesn't have the capacity to do so? There are countless cases of boys who have got into trouble even while their mothers were begging for help from the relevant authorities.
Then there are forces outside of the influence and control of parents that are contributing to the violence we see in children. Short of putting their children under lock and key, there is no way for parents to fully control the environmental factors, and let's face it, the current so-called cultural norms and practices are dangerous and deleterious to our children.
Is Minister Holness prepared to prosecute dancehall artistes for the undue influence their music has on the young, vulnerable minds of our children, or does he believe, like some of the country's intellectuals, that there is no correlation between violent lyrics and violent behaviour?
If we are prepared to prosecute the adults in the society for the children's delinquent behaviour, then we must go after those who, outside of government, own and operate the public transportation system as well.
At the earliest hours of the morning, school children are made into consumers of what I call, the "violence on wheels campaign" promoted by those agents of slackness - bus drivers, "ductors" and the like. Add to the decadence of the public transportation system, the steady diet of violence and porn available to children in both the electronic and print media, and in particular cable television, and the hazards of the internet and cellular phones, and what you have is a cacophony of "pushers" and "influencers", all of them having a clear connection to juvenile delinquency.
So while the idea of prosecuting delinquent parents might be an appealing one, I would encourage the minister to tread cautiously and to carefully weigh the pros and the cons. A more useful approach, it seems to me, is to put every parent currently on the government's PATH programme into a mandatory parenting programme. Not only would it be a powerful preventative programme, it would save the government tons of money to build prison space for the multitude of delinquent parents.
With love,
bab2609@yahoo.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...R_PARENTS_.asp
HEART TO HEART
with Betty Ann Bliane
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Dear Reader,
The problem with politics is the tendency to reach for that which is popular and to speak what you think the people want to hear even when the evidence demands a more thoughtful and thorough approach. The propensity for the knee-jerk, quick-fix reaction continues to hold sway, and no matter how many mistakes have been made in the past, our politicians never seem to learn that what is popular and expedient in the short term may be costly and counterproductive over the long haul.
Education minister Andrew Holness has made himself the latest victim of what I call the "putrid politics of popularity and expediency". In responding to the fateful incident in which a schoolboy stabbed to death another student from Ferncourt High School, the minister called for a law that would prosecute parents for their delinquent children. He obviously was pandering to the crowds, knowing how emotive the matter of school violence is, and how anxious the Jamaican people are for finding solutions to the horrendous levels of crime and violence.
I admit that the idea of prosecuting parents is a tempting proposition, especially against the background of a growing culture of familial irresponsibility and outright parental delinquency. But for a problem so widespread and so entrenched, the notion that the state would want to prosecute, and by extension, imprison parents, seems exaggerated at best and impractical at worst.
The first question that must be asked is, whom is the minister referring to when he speaks about parents? Is he referring to the mothers or the fathers, or both? The question has to be asked because most of Jamaica's children live in single-family homes, headed by women, and in many if not most cases, the fathers are not only absent from the home, they are absent altogether from the lives of their children. So who would the minister prosecute, and if it is going to be the mothers, the question is, who would look after the children in the mothers' absence? Is Minister Holness prepared to hunt down the fathers and prosecute them as well? We might as well tell the minister that the job of holding fathers accountable is a tough one in an environment where our courts are struggling to enforce something as basic as child maintenance orders.
The argument about prosecuting parents seems perplexing in a country where more and more parents, and by our standards that means mothers, are begging the state to take their '"out of control" children. How could the state prosecute a mother who had been begging the government to take her child as they put it, "before 'im commit murder" and is ignored because the very state doesn't have the capacity to do so? There are countless cases of boys who have got into trouble even while their mothers were begging for help from the relevant authorities.
Then there are forces outside of the influence and control of parents that are contributing to the violence we see in children. Short of putting their children under lock and key, there is no way for parents to fully control the environmental factors, and let's face it, the current so-called cultural norms and practices are dangerous and deleterious to our children.
Is Minister Holness prepared to prosecute dancehall artistes for the undue influence their music has on the young, vulnerable minds of our children, or does he believe, like some of the country's intellectuals, that there is no correlation between violent lyrics and violent behaviour?
If we are prepared to prosecute the adults in the society for the children's delinquent behaviour, then we must go after those who, outside of government, own and operate the public transportation system as well.
At the earliest hours of the morning, school children are made into consumers of what I call, the "violence on wheels campaign" promoted by those agents of slackness - bus drivers, "ductors" and the like. Add to the decadence of the public transportation system, the steady diet of violence and porn available to children in both the electronic and print media, and in particular cable television, and the hazards of the internet and cellular phones, and what you have is a cacophony of "pushers" and "influencers", all of them having a clear connection to juvenile delinquency.
So while the idea of prosecuting delinquent parents might be an appealing one, I would encourage the minister to tread cautiously and to carefully weigh the pros and the cons. A more useful approach, it seems to me, is to put every parent currently on the government's PATH programme into a mandatory parenting programme. Not only would it be a powerful preventative programme, it would save the government tons of money to build prison space for the multitude of delinquent parents.
With love,
bab2609@yahoo.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...R_PARENTS_.asp