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<blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 3643616" data-attributes="member: 20741">Punishment of that kind would lead to the following:1 - Enforced separation from the children for longer than a family court might otherwise order as appropriate;2-&nbsp; A felony conviction which would almost certainly put an end to the mother ever getting back the children, relegating them to a lifetime of foster care (the elder child at least). The tragedy of that outcome is quite a sad one, let me assure you;3 - Even if the mother would regain custody of one or both, her employability with a felony conviction would be far less in most states. It is a lifetime economic sentence, again punishing the children indirectly. For negligence? Harsh indeed.And so I put it to you that such &quot;justice&quot; would be far more likely to wreak long-term harm and do little to repair the situation or give the parent or the children the best chance of salvaging something from all of this. As matters currently stand, a MMO addicted parent is no harm to others in society, generally.&nbsp; The question is whether she is a harm to her children - and how best to address that.&nbsp; Treatment as a condition of regaining custody ensures that the treatment will be sought and recieved - or the children will be gone.On the other hand, the very real harm to both parent and child that would accompany imprisonment is exceedingly clear.Punishment for punishment's sake may appeal to a need to mete out some &quot;justice&quot; - but the consequences of it are rarely addressed. Imprisonment and felony convictions usually end up doing more harm than good. For a first offender and for mere negligence? Not a wise course. Anyways - I think we've strayed well into social commentary here, comparitive justice between Canada and the USA is a paragraph or two away and that's a toll-free call to politics. Let's leave it be.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Steel_Wind, post: 3643616, member: 20741"] Punishment of that kind would lead to the following: 1 - Enforced separation from the children for longer than a family court might otherwise order as appropriate; 2- A felony conviction which would almost certainly put an end to the mother ever getting back the children, relegating them to a lifetime of foster care (the elder child at least). The tragedy of that outcome is quite a sad one, let me assure you; 3 - Even if the mother would regain custody of one or both, her employability with a felony conviction would be far less in most states. It is a lifetime economic sentence, again punishing the children indirectly. For negligence? Harsh indeed. And so I put it to you that such "justice" would be far more likely to wreak long-term harm and do little to repair the situation or give the parent or the children the best chance of salvaging something from all of this. As matters currently stand, a MMO addicted parent is no harm to others in society, generally. The question is whether she is a harm to her children - and how best to address that. Treatment as a condition of regaining custody ensures that the treatment will be sought and recieved - or the children will be gone. On the other hand, the very real harm to both parent and child that would accompany imprisonment is exceedingly clear. Punishment for punishment's sake may appeal to a need to mete out some "justice" - but the consequences of it are rarely addressed. Imprisonment and felony convictions usually end up doing more harm than good. For a first offender and for mere negligence? Not a wise course. Anyways - I think we've strayed well into social commentary here, comparitive justice between Canada and the USA is a paragraph or two away and that's a toll-free call to [I]politics[/I]. Let's leave it be. [/QUOTE]

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