Jail- optional?

After being in this job, I leared that jail is optional. I've had clients not report to jail as ordered. Who knew that you could bargin with a judge as to which day you're supposed to go in, and then choose to blow it off? Its interesting how optional a lot of things that I took for granted is. Maybe the jail figures that not having custody of one's children is punishment enough, but I sware some of these parents are happy their kids are in custody so they can have non-interupted partying (not that it seemed to really stop them before).

I guess I'm upset today because Jamie's dad was ordered 60 days for drug court non-compliance and got out only a week later on an ankle monitor due to crowding. This guy has learned there aren't any real consequences for continued criminal behavior. I'd rather one of my other drug court clients get out of early because they are more likely to seek out treatment. Well, in all actuality this is going to play against him because he will most likely continue to use. The parents have already waisted 3 months so they don't have much time to turn it around. I actually think the mom is more likely to turn it around as she is the "black sheep" of the family, whereas his behavior is not that atypical for his family. Still though, I'm irked.

I'm also irked because Greg just got kicked out of mainstream school. He full on hit a kid in the face after that kid refused to fight him. He'll still try to make this someone else' fault, but his foster mom won't even go there with him which is good.