Best Interest of the Child - 3 Strikes (A Parallel View)

I was speaking with a friend recently and suggested that there ought to be a 3-strikes law pertaining to negligent/criminal parents who disrupt the lives of their children who have grown, matured, and thrived in their new environment.

Relative Foster Parents and Relative Legal Guardians are sometimes threatened with jail time - in a nutshell - because their relatives substance abuse problems. Jail time can be a consequence of being held in Contempt of Court for things such as not being able to attend court dates or other court-ordered appointments, evaluations, etc. because they have to work. Some Relative Foster Parents and Relative Legal Guardians have lost jobs, closed businesses, and otherwise had to give up income generating opportunities as a result of adhering to all the demands of DCF and the court system.

The fact that relatives have taken custody of a child/ren during the parents' (both parents in some cases) arrest and raised them for more than four (4) years seems of no relevance when the biological parents decide they want custody of their child/ren returned to them. This can be true even when all of the authorities and adults in the child/ren's life can attest to the magnificent, positive change in the child/ren as a result of being parented by their relative. The state does not terminate parental rights automatically when relatives become Foster Parents of Legal Guardians, but do so if a child is placed with non-relative Foster Parents for more than one (1) year. For Relative Foster Parents and Legal Guardians, the process can continue until the relative child becomes and adult. Biological parents' rights to petition the court for custody and visitation never seem to terminate, even in instances where one biological parent (that continues to have a substance abuse problem and does not work) wants to fight for custody, and the other parent only wants visitation because they realize how well the child is doing in their relative's care.

The 3-strike rule that applies to other crimes should be enforced where children are concerned as well because it is still a matter of human nature and the ability to rehabilitate, or not. Children should not be the (silent) victims of their biological parents' continuous substance abuse problems and inability to rehabilitate, regardless to whether they are placed in relative care or non-relative foster care.