3 Strikes You’re Out!
A 12 Week Program
by
Joan Teresa Kloth-Zanard, MFT, ADA, GAL, RSS, ABI, LC
and
Catherine MacWillie, Retired LAPD and CEO Custody Calculations
Recommendations to Court to address Custodial Interference & Coercive Control
Consequences and Applications
Copyrighted Product
The courts have a very hard time determining what is truly going on in cases of custodial interference where there is coercive control and domestic violence by proxy. This is why we developed a program called “3 Strikes You’re Out”. This program typically runs 12-weeks and allows only 3 chances, known as strikes, for parents to comply with the court’s orders. Each strike garners a penalty that triplicates in severity. The 1st Strike is a $200 fine, and/or 5 days of community service with parentless children, and/or 5 Days of extra time to the deprived parent. The 2nd Strike, becomes $600 and 15 days while the 3rd Strike becomes $1800 and 45 days. Or a judge could use child support reduction as an admonishment if the offending parent is receiving it. A judge can use all of the penalties or some of the penalties. At the end of the 12 weeks, if there have been no strikes, this is like getting 3 months or 84 days of positive parenting time with the children. This, in turn, helps negate any further claims against the other parents and their parenting skills. If, at the end of the 12 weeks, the offending parent starts in again with alienating, the program starts all over and any previous strikes continue into Stage 2. But if a parent gets 3 Strikes, they lose custody and must pay for Intensive Reunification Therapy. Another bonus is that this is a great way for the courts to also make $2600 in fees from parents thus creating a further deterrent to impeding the relationships. This program can be tailored to fit any cases needs such as swapping out reunification therapy for High Conflict Institute’s “New Ways for Families:” program for the parents and specialized therapy to address the child/ren’s executive functioning and critical thinking skill delays.
