BlogHer Contributing Editor and Sister blogger Nordette interviewed me for an article "Baby and Me Behind Bars: Number of Moms In Prison Grows" she penned for BlogHer. It is about Mothers in prison raising children. It is an amazing piece of writing and I am so way over the moon with honor that she wanted my opinion on this subject.
Take a read and comment there and here. Also if you are in the mood for some fine writing check Nordette at her blog Whose Shoes Are These Anyway?
Happy Birthday #54 to ME!
9 months ago
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7 comments:
Babz, I was very interested in reading your interview because first of all you are the last person in the world that I would associate with having served time in jail.
I know that you are an incredible mother, an educated woman, and were in political standing at the time of the incident.
I am sure that many mothers and fathers have been charged with things similair to what you were charged for, and I found it very interesting that mothers can raise their children while serving.
I thought you raised a very important question about why the government can have a program like this while women are in prison, but does not provide such a program for women in the first place- which may have prevented them from landing in prison (for more serious charges).
Thank you for sharing your personal story, I admire you on so many levels and give you props for informing those around you about this important topic.
Morush4evr,
I appreciate the sentiments. I am glad you had time to read it. I thought Nordette did a great job. Talking with her was a wonderful experience...she was very passionate about the subject.
I am so tired of programs coming on the backside. Why can't we get in front of things.
Again thanks for the kind sentiments.
LOVEBABZ & MORUSH4EVER: That Babz having served federal PRISON time ("jail" is something diffferent) would in any way reflect on her education, mothering abilities, or clout is reflective of an American pathology: the need to punish others to cleanse one's own feelings of corruption in addition to every other bad thing you can say.
Babz, I give you the world of credit for discussing this openly knowing how much negativity and calumny from enemies and "friends" alike you can expect. I'd like to see you back in politics some day just for that reason alone.
Few are the voices for proportionality in sentencing, demilitarization of corrections, privatization of corrections, or even a rational discussion of the purpose of punishment.
Barack Obama could more easily promise to raise taxes or even stop the wars than he could promise to rethink criminal justice priorities. The best he could do is make someone of good conscience like Holder, Patrick, or Vinegrad his AG.
I cannot think of a single other country in the developed democratic world which would have incarcerated LOVEBABZ for this. In most countries, it would not even have been a criminal or civil offense.
No other country run for-profit prisons. I doubt there is one Western country which has the death penalty. There are none which incarcerate juveniles with adults. There are few which even incarcerate juveniles at all. There are none which give judges so little flexibility.
There is only one Western nation with the GITMO system. You live in it.
This is why I have found this presidential election so very laughable in a very bitter way. Go on to a criminal justice reform site and find out exactly where Barack Obama stands on these issues because there's some sort of MSM/Obama campaign agreement not to bring this up for the sake of not embarrassing either.
McCain, of course, is for MAXIMUM PUNISHMENT WITHOUT ANY SENSE OF FAIRNESS. The only difference between him and Obama on this is that McCain's views on the subject are a featured part of his campaign and a hidden part of a very murky Obama platform.
There are only a handful of districts that will send a Represenatative to Congress who is merely opposed to the death penalty. If there are 10 districts which can elect a Representative to Congress who's in favor of reform on the kinds of of issues LOVEBABZ takes up in the interview I'd be surprised.
Every American owes it to himself or herself to take a deep look inside and ask themselves is this kind of barbarism is what he or she wants thier country to be famous for.
Every Obama supporter (I can't vote, but I am one, for the record) has to be aware that despite his overwhelming approval ratings versus McCain in the rest of the West, Obama himself could not get elected anywhere else, merely for his views on punishment.
Take a real bastard politician in a big foreign, Western, nation. How about Jean Marie Le Pen? His views on crime and punishment are more compassionate than Barack Obama's are. Full stop. No doubt. No argument. If he ever became a leader of France he would not reinstitute the death penalty under any circumstances.
That's bad thing to contemplate. It's a crucial thing to contemplate. I don't raise this to trash Obama. Hardly. He'll have other PRIORITIES than maximum incarceration. He just won't CHANGE anything or CARE.
He's by far the BEST of the two on this issue.
Don't answer me on this question. I don't live in the US. And you know my views. Ask it of yourselves. Ask it among yourselves.
It may be that the consensus is so overwhelming in favor of the system as it is or perhaps wants it even tougher, that a further discussion is meaningless. If so, Then that would be a rock-bottom, unchangeable foundation of the American social contract.
If that's how it is, then take Obama's views on the subject and make them part of a unifying, cross-racial, cross-ethnic point of pride and togetherness in the very brutality of the system.
It's not for me to judge. I merely add an international perspective.
NUTMEG: I've passed along a blog award for you. THE KICK ASS BLOGGER boot.
Well deserved.
hey, i wanna seee the blog award folk congrats
Good for you...
Hey Torrance!
It's UP! Thanks!
No regrets,
Thank you!
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