Item: Justice overruled: Mother needs compassion, not punishment/D.F. Oliveria, Spokesman-Review

Kathy Plonka/Spokesman-Review

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. None of which has made an impression on the prosecutor's office, which got its wish in court July 19 that she be taken into custody to serve the remainder of a two-year sentence.

Original story here

Question: Should Kendra Goodrick be freed? Or should she serve out her prison term?

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