My son is a little over a yr. old now, his father has known about him the whole time. How can I take his rights away? His father is now in prison again and is held in the mental unit for trying to kill himself? He has never seen his son nor has he tried to contact or visit.

If this is the case why would you even bother trying to take his rights away.Hel never get custody and maybe he might get supervised visits years later.Dont hassel yourself

Its unlikely that you can take his rights away, but if anyone could, it would be someone in your situation. You will need a lawyer and go to court to get a termination of parental rights.

HOWEVER... if there is not a compelling reason, you won't get it. He is in prison... its not like he can exercise his rights anyway. Chances are the judge will want someone there to take his rights, such as a new husband wanting to adopt.

Either way, you will need a lawyer for that.

In most states people are entitled to a notice and a hearing before parental rights are terminated. Being in jail he wouldn't be able to attend the hearing and if he finds out and contests it later on, the court can set the judgment aside if he did not have the ability to fight it.

I would hold off for now. A court will go through a lot of scenarios such as supervised visitation and assigning a guardian ad litem to the child before terminating parental rights. There usually needs to be a long history of disinterest and even then courts are pretty reluctant to do it. Most courts try to give bio parents just about every possible chance to be involved with the child.