By Radley Balko | July 14
Washington Post

A couple of themes we explore here at The Watch are the increasing criminalization of just about everything and the use of the criminal justice system to address problems that were once (and better) handled by families, friends, communities and other institutions. A few examples from recent headlines show those themes intersecting with parenthood.

The first story comes from South Carolina, where a mother was jailed and charged with "unlawful conduct toward a child" for . . . leaving her 9-year-old daughter alone to play in a park. Lenore Skenazy of "Free Range Kids" comments: