A Call Away
An Oklahoma family is torn apart by the state’s “failure to protect” law, which prosecutes parents who fail to prevent child abuse.
Oklahoma is one of 26 states with a “failure to protect” law, which prosecutes parents who fail to prevent child abuse. The ACLU and other groups say this law disproportionately criminalizes female victims of domestic violence, leading mothers to serve harsher sentences than the child abusers themselves. A Call Away tells the story of Clorinda Archuleta, a mother of two and victim of domestic violence. Clorinda, who is currently serving three consecutive life sentences under the Oklahoma law, was arrested after doctors discovered her partner abused their children. A Call Away follows Clorinda’s struggle to have her sentence commuted and traces the cycle of family separation and trauma in Tulsa County.