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“Mothers in Prison,” by Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times, November 25, 2016

An article about women in prison in Oklahoma.

 

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This searing article depresses me and makes me angry.

Many of the women got pregnant young. Many were abused by boyfriends or raised in horrible conditions as children.

Most are in prison for drug offenses. They should not be incarcerated. There is no reason for it. Perhaps drug treatment would help them. But drug abuse is a victimless crime.

The other crimes described in the article – committed by these “horrible creatures” — seem almost petty.

The woman prisoner mentioned at the beginning of article was “shackled to a wall” during the interview.

She and many of the other women have been cruelly separated from their children. It’s a system that perpetuates abuse and cruelty and that causes a continuous cycle of misery, from generation to generation.

Abuse – if not barbarity — by the “corrections” system is monstrous and unremitting.

And, we profess to lecture other nations about respecting the essential worth and dignity of each individual and adhering to the doctrine of human rights.

 

— Roger W. Smith

  November 26, 2016

 

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“I know some of you are glaring at this article and thinking: It’s their own fault. If they don’t want to go to prison, they shouldn’t commit crimes!

“That scorn derives partly from a misunderstanding of drug abuse, which is a central reason for mass female incarceration in America (and a major reason for mass incarceration of men as well, although to a lesser degree). As Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the surgeon general, noted in releasing a major report this month: “It’s time to change how we view addiction. Not as a moral failing but as a chronic illness.” In short, we should think of drugs not primarily through the criminal justice lens but as a public health crisis.”

— Nicholas Kristof