Maybe we should stop ridiculing 'Octomom' and think about what's best for her kids and society

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/15/octomom-nadya-suleman-welfare-fraud-prison-cost

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Much to the delight of her many critics, Octomom, Nadya Suleman, who has endured a string of humiliations since giving birth to octuplets in 2009 (despite barely being able to take care of the family she already had), may be headed for a lengthy stint in prison. The single mother, who has a total of 14 children, was indicted in Los Angeles County recently for welfare fraud and is facing a possible sentence of five years and eight months if convicted.

When this news hit Twitter and the blogosphere, it was met with a predictable mixture of glee that a single woman who dared to have children she couldn't afford to raise is getting her just desserts and some token sympathy for the poor kiddies who will be left without a parent when their mom is likely hauled off to jail. But before her detractors break out the champagne, they ought to at least consider the much greater cost to society her imprisonment would entail.

In the grand scheme of things, the charges brought against Suleman are relatively minor, although the punishment she is facing is anything but. Prosecutors allege she illegally received all of $16,481 in welfare payments ($6,667 in financial aid and $9,814 in food aid) during the first half of 2013, while failing to report income of $30,000. For this great fraud, she faces a possible sentence of nearly six years in prison. By any standards that punishment is outrageous, totally unnecessary and completely disproportionate to the crime or any harm done by it. Anyone capable of compassion should be able to see that as a struggling mother with 14 kids, she might actually be in need of the miserly benefits she received and a saner society would judge that simply making her pay it all back would be more than enough punishment. But when it comes to single parents on welfare, compassion seems to be out of fashion, so let me draw on some hard cold facts and figures instead.

According to federal guidelines, the poverty level for a family of 15 is $67,770 per year. Even when you add together the $30,000 Suleman allegedly failed to report with the small amount of financial aid and food assistance she received from the state, her income would have fallen well short of reaching even that pitifully low threshold. It's unclear from the reports of her indictment if she had any other earnings in 2013 but whatever she may have had, it can't have been much.

Her family home was foreclosed on at the end of 2012. In April of 2013, as was cheerily reported on websites like Radaronline and Perezhilton.com, who seem to delight in her every misfortune – ("Octomom and her kids facing eviction at xmas!" "Octomom looking at five year prison term!" are some of their more exuberant headlines) – she and her kids were evicted from their rental home for failure to pay rent. Around the same time she received treatment for anxiety, stress and exhaustion before facing eviction again in December and now she is facing a lengthy prison term. Whatever joy her haters may feel at the prospect of her being severely punished for allegedly defrauding the government out of $16,481, however, it should be tempered somewhat by the much larger bill that taxpayers may soon be landed with to cover the cost of her incarceration and the care of her children.

According to an analysis by the Vera Institute (pdf), the average annual cost per prison inmate in the state of California is $47,421. If Octomom gets the maximum sentence of five years and eight months, her incarceration will cost California taxpayers upwards of $250,000. Then there's the not so small matter of what happens to her 14 children. It's not unusual for children of single parents to end up in foster care when their primary caregiver is sent to prison. The per diem rate the state of California pays foster care (pdf) providers ranges from $21 to $26 per child depending on age and need. Using the lower amount, placing just one of Suleman's kids in foster care for a year will cost the taxpayer a minimum of $7,665. To place all 14 kids in foster care would cost at least $107,310 per year or well over half a million dollars for five years.

It's important to note also that these payment rates do not include administrative costs so the actual bill to the taxpayer would be even larger. If Suleman gets five years in prison and her children end up in foster care, it will cost taxpayers upwards of $750,000. That's a hefty punishment for allegedly defrauding the government out of a little over $16,000 and I don't just mean for the Octomom.

It would be encouraging to think that prosecutors and judges would look at the facts and figures involved and revert to common sense when deciding Suleman's fate, even if they can't muster up any compassion for her. She was indicted in California, however, the state that loves to incarcerate, so I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. As an alleged welfare cheat also, she is unlikely to be treated with kid gloves. Unlike the "too big to jail" bankers who caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs and homes before being bailed out by taxpayers, the single moms who steal food stamps for their kids are rarely afforded any sympathy.

I get it that Suleman messed up in a pretty major way by having more kids than she could possibly afford, but I'm going to refrain from heaping any more scorn on her. She has been subjected to enough mockery and ridicule over the past six years by a society that appears to be much more apt to punish people for their mistakes than it is to help them make amends for them. Suleman biggest miscalculation may have been her failure to anticipate the depths of anger that her folly would evoke. The person she has hurt the most by her foolishness is herself (and by extension, her children), but if society opts to heap on the punishment now, instead of trying to help her and her kids, it will be the ultimate loser.

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