At Last: Parental Responsibility Court

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Mobile County Juvenile Court judge orders parents of offenders to appear

Thursday, March 19, 2009

By ROBERT McCLENDON

Staff Reporter

When troubled youths get arrested for breaking into someone's car or selling drugs out of a friend's house, people often ask, "Where are the parents?"

Wednesday afternoon, about a dozen were in Mobile County Juvenile Judge Edmond Naman's courtroom.

They were there because their children, convicted of everything from burglary to assault, hadn't completed the terms of their probation. So they were called in to Naman's recently created Parent Responsibility Court.

He ordered parents of 40 children to show up. Only parents or guardians in 11 cases appeared.

For the others, Naman signed arrest warrants.

"Do you know how many crying mothers I have to see in a week, in a month, in a year?" the judge told one mother who had failed to see that her son, convicted of several car break-ins, met with his probation officer.

"What real prospects does your son have at this point?" he asked the sobbing mother.

"We are trying to get him some help, but you've got to do your part," Naman added.

Most of the older teens who show up at Strickland Youth Center on felony charges aren't in trouble for the first time, Naman said. Almost all of them have been convicted of lesser offenses and have been sentenced at some point to probation — which, in the juvenile system, often requires counseling, drug treatment and a renewed focus on school or work.

The problem is, Naman said, parents don't help enforce those conditions or take their children's problems seriously until it's too late.

The names of the parents who appeared before Naman on Wednesday have been withheld to protect the identity of their children.

As the cases made their way before Naman, there were glimpses into the home lives of some of the children.

In the case of one 16-year-old girl on probation for domestic violence charges, she was represented in court by her grandmother, who has legal custody. Her mother, who also was in court, had to relinquish custody after she was put in jail.

The father, who didn't show, at one point had tried to run down his daughter in a truck, according to a police report read out loud in court.

Naman chastised another teen's mother for the condition of her daughter's living environment. One man committed suicide in their home, and in a separate incident, police found a robbery suspect hiding in a closet, according to Naman. His gun was poorly hidden in a toilet.

The girl's father, who doesn't live in the same home, told Naman he was hearing of these incidents for the first time Wednesday.

"You just blew me off my feet with what you just said," he said.

Naman did not have any of the parents arrested. He said he wanted to give them a chance to put their children on the right track.

"We have some great programs that can help your children," Naman told the group. "In a way, I'm really begging for your help. We can't do it all by ourselves.

"I will not be begging the next time."