No offense but I have to take exception by several of the ideas you are advancing. First of all, the people paying for other people's stay in prison are working tax payers, which is most cases is not the person serving time or their families.
Secondly, very rarely does someone do any significant amount of prison time for stealing food - unless they are a repeat offender - or there was some other element like drugs or weapons also uncovered, or use of violence during the crime.
Thirdly, no one is forcing someone to commit a crime. I resent people that try to make everything that happens to them in life about race when it is really about behavior.
Also, there is no good reason for anyone to steal food. Us working stiffs are robbed blind to support so many social entitlement programs for subsidized housing, food stamps, SNAP, EBT cards, medicaid ("free health care for non-workers), and on and on.
Instead of people railing about being "poor" and "forced" into committing crimes, maybe they should honestly take the time to look in the mirror and re-evaluate their own lives and how their own choices and behavior have contributed to their situation. With freedom comes responsibility. Work hard, be responsible and make wise choices and good things will come your way. Yes, life knocks us all on our asses at time regardless, but patience and persistence in hard work and good choices does eventually pay off.
The kid's dad went to prison. The mother went to find work, and the kids went to steal food and were sent to do time in juvie.
I understand that; however, it was the mother's bad decision to get knocked up by someone that didn't have a sense of morals or see fit to obey the law. There is an old saying: "Be careful what type of person you hitch your wagon to" and it applies with the person you marry or have kids with especially.
The mother also made the mistake of not teaching her children that it is wrong to steal, and compounded that mistake by leaving her kids unsupervised which allowed them to get into such a situation. I definitely applaud someone trying to find work, but leaving your kids to run free and get into trouble while doing so is a bad choice and shows poor judgement.
While I can empathize with people who find themselves in bad situations, I often find that their misfortune can be directly traced to a series of their own bad choices and irresponsible behavior.
As I mentioned, there are many programs to help people in need with everything from housing to food to even child care. There is really no good reason why someone needs to steal food. As I alos mentioned, unless the kids have a prior history of this type of behavior, they are not doing any significant time for an isolated incident. If anything, they could have said they needed the food because they were hungry and child protective services would have stepped in and take action. It sounds more like these kids were teenagers who definitely knew better and could even have gotten jobs and earned money to buy their own food. Sorry, tired of the excuses.