What happens when one parent takes a child across international borders without the other parent’s permission? In 1980, the United States and international partners created a treaty that lays out the rules for what federal officials are supposed to do in such cases. Judges are instructed to send children back to their home countries – with very few exceptions. Lawmakers imagined the treaty would usually help left-behind mothers, trying to get their children back from abductor-fathers. Today, more than a quarter of a century after the U.S. implemented the treaty, the standard profiles of abductor and left-behind-parent have shifted dramatically. The majority of the taking parents – the abductors – are women. And most of those women are victims of domestic violence, fleeing their abusers with their children.

In California, there are hundreds if not thousands of people practicing criminal law though they’ve never passed a bar exam. They don’t wear suits. They don’t have secretaries. And they can’t bill for their time. They’re called Jailhouse Lawyers. They’re inmates who pursue the equivalent of a lawyer’s education and who work as lawyers from within prison walls.

It’s April and that means two things: spring and tax time! The US tax system is really, really complicated. Every time you do your taxes, you’re answering to multiple jurisdictions –– and all their laws about what you owe for what, and why. We’re taking a look at how our tax system got so complicated and how our attitudes about taxes have changed over the years.

We start with a story from Alisa Roth about a surprising group of taxpayers who live outside the law. Then we listen in as a group of scholars talk about how the tax system got so complicated, and how Americans ideas about citizenship and taxation have changed over the years.