I stumbled upon this article and even I (who am rarely surprised anymore) was stunned by this…

Last year, a teenager was incarcerated for refusing to visit his father. What is going on here? I have been railing about the criminalization of children and youth for years but this is really LUDICROUS.

A 14-year-old boy was thrown into the county youth home overnight and handcuffed for about four hours after refusing to follow a judge’s order to visit his father, as part of an ongoing custody case.

The boy, Jacob Mastrogiovanni of Warren, was ordered Thursday to spend three days in the youth home by family court Judge John Foster, who lifted the sentenced Friday following protests by his mother and a night of incarceration for her son.

The following sentences are perhaps the most troubling of the entire article:

Jacob said despite disliking his stay in the youth home, he vowed he will not comply with the visitation order.

“As terrible as a place as that is, I’d rather be there than” visit his father, he said.

When a 14 year old would rather be JAILED than visit his father, one would think that we would be more concerned about the father than the young man’s refusal to visit him. Unconscionable…