A Michiana mom says she has been repeatedly jailed for something she didn’t do.

The Kosciusko County woman is breaking the silence that has surrounded her case for more than three years now.

What Jennifer says she won’t do is take her now 7-year-old daughter to prison to visit the girl’s father.

By her own count, that "mother knows best" mantra has cost her 32 days in jail.

Jennifer says it was about this time last year that she took her then-6-year-old daughter to meet the girl’s father for the first time. The encounter occurred behind the walls of the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility as ordered by the court.

“When I took her there, she just clenched to me, had her arms around my neck, wouldn't look at him or talk to him," Jennifer said. “He tried to force her to, you know, like hug her and kiss her and stuff, and he was sitting there making remarks and when he gets out of jail, 'You will be with me.'”

Jennifer called the experience terrifying and vowed not to visit again. She says that stance has landed her in contempt of court—and in the Kosciusko County Jail on three separate occasions, where she’s served a total of 32 days.

“Oh yeah, I just broke down in tears, and I just couldn't believe it. I have never spent any amount of time in jail.

In sharp contrast, the father—Samuel Davis Jr.—has shown “no significant period of law abiding behavior,” according to an Indiana Court of Appeals opinion that cites more than a dozen criminal convictions.

Davis is now serving a 15-year sentence for driving drunk during an accident that killed his girlfriend at the time, 22-year-old Victoria Anderson in March of 2010 (about two months after his daughter with Jennifer would have been born).

“We don’t seem to have a lot of case law directly on this subject,” said Melissa J. Avery, Of Counsel at the Fellow-American and International Academy of Family Lawyers. “I think what probably happens in a lot of these cases is that one parent gets incarcerated, and even though there is a parenting time order, the custodial parent stops complying with it, and the incarcerated parent doesn't have the resources or the wherewithal to actually initiate that enforcement piece.”

In the Kosciusko County case, Samuel Davis Jr. is representing himself in his paternity case.

It’s hard to tell if prison visitation orders are common or rare since paternity proceedings are private—open only to the parties involved.

Jennifer felt the need to take her plight public.

“I just want justice for myself and for my daughter, because this can't be right. Everyone I've ever told this story to, they can't put their head around it, they can't see why,” Jennifer said. “When it's the best interests of the child -- not only one of her parents but both or her parents are in jail, how does she supposed to feel about that?”

The Code of Judicial Conduct prevents the judge in the case from commenting, however the case docket shows that his visitation order appears to date back to December of 2014—more than three and a half years ago--so it was ignored for a long time before jail time became part of the equation.

The case docket also indicates that in March of 2017, a Guardian Ad Litem was appointed to represent the best interests of the child.

According to Melissa J. Avery, “We have a statute in Indiana that basically applies to all parents that says in order for a parent visitation or parenting time to be restricted with their child, the court has to make a finding that exercising that parenting time would present a substantial risk of physical or emotional harm to the child.”

When asked if the prison environment itself could inflict emotional harm to a 7-year-old, Avery said, “Certainly I think there are arguments to be made on both sides.”

Avery concluded, “Our courts are always looking at what's in the best interest of the child, but of course weighing perhaps what their contact has been with that parent leading up to the circumstance. What the crime was, how long they are looking to be incarcerated, how to maintain that relationship if they're going to be getting out at some point in the future.”

Prison records list the earliest possible release date for Davis Jr. as November 1 of 2019.