As Tim Tesseneer and his wife were walking along Daytona Beach, they saw a minivan driving straight into the ocean. Tesseneer recalls hearing screams coming from the minivan, so he and a few other witnesses took off towards the van. Once they got there, they saw two children screaming in the back seat and one in the front seat trying to gain control of the steering wheel. The boys were pleading for help and screaming that their mom was trying to kill them. All the while, the woman in the front seat was trying to assure Tesseneer and the others that everything was fine and there was nothing to worry about.

After some struggle, the witnesses were able to wrestle the children out of the car before they were further submerged in water. Once the woman driving the minivan, the children’s mother, realized that her kids had been saved, she simply walked away, with what many described as a possessed look on her face. All of the children were fine, including the unborn child the mother was carrying.

Previous to driving her minivan into the ocean, the driver’s sister called police to let them know that she was concerned about her sister’s mental state. After talking with the sister, two officers found the woman and her children driving toward Daytona. When they pulled her over they noted that all of the kids were smiling in the back seat, and  that the woman stated she was leaving because she feared her husband would harm herself and her children. Concerned about her mental state, the officers spoke about the matter for a while before coming to the conclusion that under Florida law their hands were tied and they couldn’t take her into custody even though they were very worried about her mental state.

Two hours after being pulled over, the woman attempted to drown her three children, herself and her unborn child. The question then becomes: How do you handle this type of situation legally? Is this woman a criminal who needs to face jail time or is she simply suffering from a mental illness that clouds her judgement?

In search of an answer, we can look back to previous cases with similar conditions. The case that sticks out in my mind involved Andrea Yates. In 2011, Yates drowned all five of her children in their bathtub because she was convinced they were possessed by demons. When the tragic case came to court, Yates pleaded insanity. Her case was not convincing enough, and the jury sentenced her to life in prison.

Based on the verdict of the Yates case, if I had to make an assumption, I would say that the women who drove her vehicle full of children into the ocean will be shown little mercy and spend some time in prison. Is that the right course of action though?

Should this woman be punished for her actions? Most definitely, but I do not think punishment alone will solve the issue at hand. Witnesses, such as the heroes who saved the children and the woman’s sister will testify that this woman was not in her right mind as well as that there is a psychological component affecting the choices she made.

Putting a pregnant, mentally ill woman into a jail cell is not the best course of action. As of now the woman, whose name has not been released, has been charged with three counts of attempted murder, and it will be interesting to see what sentence this woman will receive when the trail comes to an end.

I think a vital aspect of cases like Yates’s and the mother driving the minivan is to realize that these women need treatment first and foremost. The point of our prison system is not only to take dangerous individuals off the streets but also to take individuals who have violated the law and transform them into law abiding citizens. It would be impossible to transform a person who likely suffers from some mental illness and help them become a model citizen if we do not address their mental state first.