When police asked Samura Jenkins whether she thought it was a good idea to chain her 11-year-old to a bed while she was at work, the mother answered no.But the girl told police her mother had done it three times, Indianapolis metropolitan police said Monday.
Police discovered the girl's plight at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at a Far-Northside apartment in the 9200 block of Chesterbrook Court.
Jenkins, 39, Indianapolis, was preliminarily charged Sunday with neglect of a dependent child and criminal confinement, a felony, according to a police report. No court date had been set Monday.
Lt. Jeff Duhamell, an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesman, said the mother chained her daughter to the bed while she was at work because the girl had behavioral issues. Court records show Jenkins works at an agency operating group homes for the mentally disabled.
"Instead of hiring a baby sitter, this was her solution," he said.
A padlock secured the chain to the girl's ankle, but the chain was long enough that the daughter could get to the phone and bathroom. She also had food and water in the room, Duhamell said, and the apartment was very clean.
If there had been a fire or other emergency, the mother told police, the girl could call and then Jenkins would tell her daughter a key was in the bathroom to open the padlock.
The girl called a friend Sunday night and said she was chained to the bed. The friend's father came over to inspect the situation.
But the 11-year-old couldn't reach the front door of the apartment to open it, and a building maintenance key didn't work because the lock had been changed. The girl had a key and threw it out the window to the friend's father, and he opened the door.
Jenkins was arrested after police called her to come home from work. The girl was taken into custody by Child Protective Services.
Gary Staver, 41, lives near Jenkins. He said the daughter seemed well-behaved and always played with the other young girls who lived at the Ashton Brook of Nora community.
----------------------------I have a problem with this kind of thing. True , the mother should have made other arrangements. but what do you do when you have a hot little girl, don't want to listen. Think she is grown , doing who knows what while the mother is away from home . And if she is the only child, then what there are no siblings to tell what goes on.
Who knows how many time this mother has had to miss work because of a disobedient child. They may be living paycheck to paycheck. and maybe one more absence, or one more time you have to leave work and this is it.
So now, that this mother is lock up she may not even have her job now.
Indianapolis is a mess, instead of getting the murders, robbers and the home invaders in check. The police thrive on putting parents behind bars. For trying to have a home where children obey their parents. At lease this women did not beat her child, kill her child, touch her child in an un-Godly manner.
** AND AGAIN LET ME REINTERATE..."NO A CHAIN WAS A BAD CHOICE"...BUT WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE HELP...
I've been there and it's wrong to judge someone, especially when you have not walk their walk...
The police want to get her ....Now get the cops who beat up that young man.........I'M JUST SAYING
