ID: model probationer

From the Spokesman-Review:

Justice overruled - Our View: Mother needs compassion, not punishment

Kendra Goodrick, of Hayden, has sat in a Kootenai County Jail cell for more than a week, a pawn in a game of brinkmanship between 1st District Judge John Mitchell and Prosecutor Bill Douglas' office. She'll likely be sent to a women's prison in southeastern Idaho for at least six months while she waits to plead her case for release before the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole.

She admits she did the crime, involving felony meth charges, and she deserves the time. But she also has a good argument that she's straightened up and become productive in the 18 months after a legal snafu freed her from prison. She's drug free. She's married her boyfriend. She's given birth to a drug-free baby. She's gotten a job. She volunteers at the Humane Society...

Goodrick has conquered her addiction to date to such an extent that attorneys, friends and family hold her up as a model probationer. "We're taking someone who's dealing with a problem they haven't dealt with before and making a remarkable turnaround, and now we're looking at sending them to prison," said Chief Deputy Public Defender Lynn Nelson. "It just seems like an awful waste of resources..."

Via Huckleberries Online.