Felonious housekeeping?

Nearly two years ago, Judith Scruggs of Meriden, Connecticut, suffered a devastating loss when her 12-year-old son Daniel hanged himself in his bedroom closet with a necktie. On October 5, a jury compounded the tragedy by finding Scruggs guilty of "one felony count of putting her child at risk by creating a home environment that was unhealthy and unsafe," reported the New York Times. Scheduled for sentencing on November 20, Scruggs faces up to 10 years in prison. Her crime, contends defense attorney M.H. Reese Norris, was "having a messy house."

"In convicting Ms. Scruggs, the jury decided that the defense's claim that Daniel's death was largely the result of bullying at school did not outweigh Ms. Scruggs's duty as a mother to provide a decent home environment," continues the Times account. "After Daniel hanged himself, the case gained national attention because of the school's failure to deal with the bullying. Witnesses at the trial testified that Daniel was punched, kicked and spit on as teachers failed to come to his aid."

On October 7, the state's Department of Children and Families (DCF)--which, like child protection bureaucracies across the nation, has a record of failures, errors and corruption--was placed under the supervision of a federal court monitor. The DCF opened an investigation into Daniel's death, but the details of the supposedly "horrific" conditions inside the Scruggs home were never made public. So the school where Daniel was bullied was let off the hook entirely, and the state child-protection apparatus was let go with a slap on the wrist.

Scruggs worked an average of 60-70 hours a week to provide for her family, dividing her time between a job as a teacher's aide at Daniel's school and an assistant manager post at Wal-Mart. She was reportedly beaten by her ex-husband, who abandoned the family when Daniel was three months old. Now, in order to preserve the prestige of the government school system and the child-protection apparatus, the grieving, overworked single mother confronts the prospect of years in prison.