Robert R Steadman, 33, of Sewickley Township, Pennsylvania, hung himself in
April, 2003 during his second imprisonment for failure to pay child support.
Since Robert was only one sentence of the story dealing with suicide watch
policy changing for that prison, it is unknown if this second jailing was a 90
day recycle. The recycle is a jail term of 90 days. After 90 days, the prisoner
is released, only to be greeted by another incarceration for failure to pay
child support for 90 days and the cycle is continued.
Every year 24,000 men commit suicide. Every 22 minutes one male commits
suicide. Based on the fact that a divorced male is 2.5 to 3 times more likely to
commit suicide than the average male, the estimate for divorced men, most likely
fathers since there is tremendously more trauma placed on them, committing
suicide every year would be 15,000 to 18,000 men.
When will it stop? How will it stop? Where is the men's backlash? Many
splintered equal parenting groups are asking the same questions.
One small group of 13 fathers, Hunger Strike for Justice, has pledged to
start a hunger strike on September 25, 2003 in an effort to break the media
blockade and the lack of government address of family, children and individual
rights. Their determination, resolve and effectiveness is yet to be tested, but,
they have had enough of injustice.
Felons can't vote. The dead can't demonstrate. Men running from incarceration
can't take legal remedies. Jail severely limits protesting and information
dissemination. Those that are stretched to their limit have neither the effort,
nor the time to do very much, except to be with their children when they can, if
they can. Many that would fight this deadly system see no hope and have been
crushed, emotionally, financially and spiritually. Many are afraid they will
lose the little access they have to their children if they make waves. Media
ignores the problems being caused and promotes the deadbeat bandwagon. The
government does the same, while spending billions more than they collect in the
child support scam and even more billions for those incarcerated. That just does
not leave many left to be activists.
It is estimated that the total national number of incarcerated fathers for
failure to pay child support is 250,000. Some believe the number is closer to
400,000. According to the Missouri legislative report, in 1998 there were 1,770
misdemeanor failure jailings and 900 felony jailings. Every year, there has been
more and more hysteria to lock up "deadbeats" by the states. The
author has seen similarly populated states in the 4,000 range in years 2000 and
2001. It's not hard to see those numbers could very well be true.
I just want to cry....do we need to escape fatherhood persecution and go find
a new land and take the kids with us??? AMERICA----> ONCE A DREAMLAND, NOW A
NIGHTMARE
http://www.angryharry.com/reNoNoteNeeded.htm
