Did she make a mistake? Sure. The situation was the kids fault, though, and he escalated and could have killed one of them when driving off, but it was poorly handled in a number of ways, he shouldn't have been near the door, the cop didn't seem to be able to use the cuffs, etc. And at the end of it all, the kid decided to try to flee and escalated it all on his own.

So no, I don't think that prison is the right answer for her.