My cats are super freaks

Short post today. Just need to record that I had a paper clip and an empty glass of milk lying on the coffee table before I got up to take a shower, and when I returned, the paper clip was IN my empty milk glass. I'm home alone.

Coalition for Women Prisoners Legislative Advocacy Day

It seems like we'd been planning and fundraising and talking about it forever, and the day finally came! Yesterday, members of the Social Work and Law Caucus crew and myself took a bus trip to Albany to lobby with Senators and Assemblymembers on behalf of the incarcerated women in New York State. We were joined by other students and advocates as well as formerly incarcerated women and women currently residing in Therapeutic Communities (or Alternative to Incarceration programs), and together met with 140 state legislators about 5 winnable issues for incarcerated women.

I think these issues are of critical importance to civil rights and gender equity within the Department of Corrections, and hope you don't mind that I share them with you.

1) Reform of the Rockafeller Drug Laws.

These laws allow for long, manditory sentencing for drug offenders, and retract judicial discretion. This means that judges are no longer allowed to divert female offenders to ATIs (Alternative to Incarceration programs, which treat addiction and the underlying problems these women face), even if the offender is a single mother and primary caretaker with no history of criminal behavior. In many instances, these women were selling drugs for survival, and would benefit more from addiction treatment and skills training than 15 years in prison separated from their children and family. Repealing these laws would allow judges to use their discretion in sentencing women involved with drug offenses. With the proper treatment, these women can return to their children and their communities with the skills and resources needed to stay clean and sober and become a productive member of society. Reforming this law would also benefit the state financially: incarcerations costs are $37,000 annually, while ATIs are just $17,000 annually.

2) Increased funding to keep children and their incarcerated mothers connected.

There are currently 5 all-female prisons in New York, only one of which is located in New York City. Because most of the women who are incarcerated in the state are from NYC, their children are forced to travel up to 8 hours to visit their mothers. And as you can imagine, there is a dearth of foster parents and social service agencies willing to travel with these children, and even less funds to support this endeavor. Additionally, foster care agencies are required to terminate parental rights if a child has been in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months. Because the average sentence for women is 36 months, incarcerated mothers whose children are in foster care are at an elevated risk of losing their parental rights.

3) Require the state to suspend, not terminate, Medicaid coverage for incarcerated women.

Currently, federal law mandates that Medicaid coverage be suspended for women entering prison. Because of oversight, the state is not in compliance with this law, and Medicaid benefits are typically terminated for incarcerated women. Imprisoned women are not allowed to file for Medicaid coverage, and because applications take 45-90 days to process, women often have a lapse in healthcare coverage for this time period, immediately following release. Because the rates of HIV and Hep C are significantly higher in prison than in the general population (with 14% and 23% of incarcerated women infected, respectively), serious health problems may arise without medication to treat these viruses, which then becomes a public health issue. Additionally, a disproportionate number of prisoners are mentally ill, and require psychotropic drugs in order to remain stable. Without these medications, which are critical in reducing recidivism, women are practically set up for rearrest.

4) Require NYC Department of Health to oversee prison medical care.

It's that simple. Department of Corrections does not have Department of Health oversight, unlike all other hospitals, private practices and community health centers. As a result, women in prison are subject to sub-standard health care (including gynecology) in an environment with high rates of HIV and Hepatitis C.

5) Allow merit time for survivors of domestic violence.

Many women are incarcerated for violence against their abusive partner. Because they are violent offenders, they are ineligible for merit time, which would reduce their sentences for good behavior. This revictimizes survivors of domestic abuse, who have been twice failed - by their partners, and then by the judicial system. Women who fight back against their abuser and are convicted of a violent crime as a result, serve long sentences with no merit time, and are forced to abandon their children, who are then often left parentless. 93% of women convicted of killing their intimate partner were abused by an intimate partner in the past.

Since I don't have a personal connection to this issue, the most enriching part of this experience for me was to hear these women's stories, and witness their empowerment from having been given a voice and a second chance. Alone, our voices were small. But together, we had the resources to be heard loudly and by 140 members of state government. Each lobbying group of 5-7 people purposely had a mix of formerly incarcerated women and advocates. The education, advocacy skills and rhetoric of the advocates would have been nothing without the experience and wisdom of the other women, but together we made an unstoppable team.

My lobbying team was comprised of myself, our 25-year old team leader who works for a related agency, a 41-year old woman who also works for a related agency and is a domestic violence survivor and recovering alcoholic, a formerly incarcerated woman in her mid-40's, a formerly incarcerated crack addict and domestic abuse survivor who now works at the ATI program from which she graduated, and a 54-year formerly incarcerated, recovering addict who currently lives at a residential ATI treatment facility.

These were some of the sweetest, coolest women, and I'm so glad that I got to spend the day with them, listening to their stories and speaking out about the issues that mean something to them personally. Right now I'm a little burnt out on writing, but I think I'll follow up soon with some more stories and reflections. Stay tuned!

Tomrrow is my birthday!!