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NEWS & LETTERS, June 2002
Ex-prison moms rallyChicago—Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM) held their annual Mothers' Day rally on May 10 to demand alternatives to incarceration for mothers. They are calling for community sentencing which would help moms and their children stay together. Currently over 80% of incarcerated women in Illinois are mothers, 50% with children under five years old. Many women in the crowd had been incarcerated. They held signs that read: "Mothers missing their kids," and "When you lock me up, you lock up my children." One woman spoke about being "sentenced" to ten years in abusive foster care after her mother was sent to prison. She said that the effects of that trauma remain with her in her adult life. The conditions of life, inside and outside (if there is such a thing for Black Americans) the criminal injustice system are tied together in a hideous way. Fifty-four percent of women at Cook County Jail were homeless at the time of arrest. When these moms are lucky enough to find someone to care for their children before they lose custody of them to the state, many can't afford to care for their children once they are released due to punitive laws which bar welfare payments to those who have been convicted of crimes. Diana Delgado of CLAIM is a survivor of domestic violence, a former addict and was separated from her children while incarcerated. Her daughter was born in jail. Diana said to the rally that a good drug treatment program "saved my life and the lives of my children." She said her family is still in need of long-term therapy because they never developed the bond they could have had due to incarceration. The rally ended with chants of "Rehabilitation, not incarceration!" "Mothers in Prison, Children in Crisis" was not just the theme of the rally, but is now a congressionally recognized day after the Illinois House passed HB 1961 in support of treatment alternatives to incarceration. (Apparently for every dollar spent in drug treatment another $7 is saved in "societal and medical costs.") The bill is now currently in the Illinois Senate. The women's demands to save their lives and families in the face of a genocidal attack go beyond Congress's narrow vision of saving the almighty dollar. —Sonia Bergonzi |
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