Muppets go to jail.

On father's day, the Innocence Project paid tribute to the Diaz family, whose father, Luis Diaz was wrongfully imprisoned for 25 years. His three children fought for their father’s release and helped him adjust after he finally came home at the age of 69. His son, Jose, recalls his father’s arrest: “I remember them coming in and taking Dad.” 

It is a particularly egregious injustice to know that an innocent man was separated from his children for 25 years, released after his kids have grown and had their own children.  But wrongful conviction is just one cause of the epidemic of incarceration in this country. Isn’t it also an injustice when a guilty man is sentenced to spend years away from his family for a theft or for possessing a small amount of cocaine?  

Our justice system continues to view incarceration as the solution to all problems, from murder to excessive school tardies?  (And by “our justice system” I mean those prosecutors who advocate constantly for lengthy sentences and those judges who impose the sentences.) Our justice system thinks little of separating parents from children by locking up a parent-- or worse, endorses that result.  A judge infuriated me with his callous response to my concern that a proposed drug case settlement would separate my client from his small children for two years.  While sipping tea in his wood paneled office, the judge said dismissively “they’re better off without him.”

Better off without him? Two million people are in U.S. jails and prisons; one child in 28 has a parent in custody. It has become so “normal” that Sesame Street created a new kit “Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration” for children coping with having a parent locked up.  Muppet Alex now has a dad in jail.  It is shameful that it has become necessary, but bravo to Sesame Street for offering sensible, compassionate tools to let a child know s/he is not at fault and is not alone, and to help the child maintain a connection with an incarcerated parent.  Shockingly, the kit does not propose giving the kid a swift thump on the back accompanied by the remark “you’re better off without him.”