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qatarperegrineUsually I post Qatari happenings on my blog, but today I'm going for some all-American news: Jail, prison populations rise 2.6 percent. In a related article, Oklahoma tops in incarcerating women.
Between June 2004 and June 2005, the American jail/prison population increased by 56,428. The states reporting the most rapid increases in prison population say it's correlated with "a spike in methamphetamine addiction -- particularly among female prisoners."
Our country sure has a weird way of treating addiction.
The issue of incarcerated women is dear to my heart, since I used to be the volunteer chaplain for the women's intake pod at Allegheny County Jail. For a couple of years I made weekly visits to the pod, making myself available to women who wanted to talk or pray. It was an incredibly humbling experience, bringing me face to face weekly with people who faced hardships I could barely imagine.
Almost every woman I met in jail was a drug addict. And, of those who told me the charges against them, most were in jail for at least indirectly drug related crimes: if not possession itself, then illegal means of procuring money for drugs, e.g. prostitution, embezzlement, petty theft. A disproportionate percentage of the women also struggled with mental illness, often bipolar disorder. And, in an issue even closer to my heart, a staggering proportion (estimates range from 55-80%) were survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Though I don't wish to absolve people of responsibility for their actions, I have to wonder whether I'd have turned out any differently from them, if I'd faced the same conditions. And, while I shouldn't speak with too much certainty about U.S. drug policy when I know an expert in the field is reading this (hi Jon), I have to believe there's a better way for our society to deal with these women.
Earlier this month, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did a two-part series on women in Allegheny County Jail, which brought back many memories for me:
Praying with the women was hard for me at first; I'm more of a meditator than a pray-er, and to be honest I am skeptical about the efficacy of petitionary prayer. Plus, women usually asked me to pray for things I didn't feel comfortable praying for (e.g. that the judge would be lenient), and it took me a while to find ways of surreptitiously rephrasing their prayer requests (e.g. that the judge would be both compassionate and wise). I'm at least as skeptical of intercessory prayer now as I was then, but I find myself still praying for those women. I don't know what else I can do.
Between June 2004 and June 2005, the American jail/prison population increased by 56,428. The states reporting the most rapid increases in prison population say it's correlated with "a spike in methamphetamine addiction -- particularly among female prisoners."
Our country sure has a weird way of treating addiction.
The issue of incarcerated women is dear to my heart, since I used to be the volunteer chaplain for the women's intake pod at Allegheny County Jail. For a couple of years I made weekly visits to the pod, making myself available to women who wanted to talk or pray. It was an incredibly humbling experience, bringing me face to face weekly with people who faced hardships I could barely imagine.
Almost every woman I met in jail was a drug addict. And, of those who told me the charges against them, most were in jail for at least indirectly drug related crimes: if not possession itself, then illegal means of procuring money for drugs, e.g. prostitution, embezzlement, petty theft. A disproportionate percentage of the women also struggled with mental illness, often bipolar disorder. And, in an issue even closer to my heart, a staggering proportion (estimates range from 55-80%) were survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Though I don't wish to absolve people of responsibility for their actions, I have to wonder whether I'd have turned out any differently from them, if I'd faced the same conditions. And, while I shouldn't speak with too much certainty about U.S. drug policy when I know an expert in the field is reading this (hi Jon), I have to believe there's a better way for our society to deal with these women.
Earlier this month, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did a two-part series on women in Allegheny County Jail, which brought back many memories for me:
- When mom's behind bars
- When mom's behind bars: Staying out of jail is the hard part
- A nice narrated slideshow on Lydia's Place
Praying with the women was hard for me at first; I'm more of a meditator than a pray-er, and to be honest I am skeptical about the efficacy of petitionary prayer. Plus, women usually asked me to pray for things I didn't feel comfortable praying for (e.g. that the judge would be lenient), and it took me a while to find ways of surreptitiously rephrasing their prayer requests (e.g. that the judge would be both compassionate and wise). I'm at least as skeptical of intercessory prayer now as I was then, but I find myself still praying for those women. I don't know what else I can do.
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Date: 2006-05-22 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 02:47 am (UTC)