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Delphine Mitchell—Brown
I grew up in a loving home where both my birth parents were actively engaged in the welfare of Rodney, Ronnie ( my older twin brothers) and me. I was on the path to greatness or so I thought until ...view moreI grew up in a loving home where both my birth parents were actively engaged in the welfare of Rodney, Ronnie ( my older twin brothers) and me. I was on the path to greatness or so I thought until something happened. I didn't know how to channel my feelings of fear or guilt or shame so I left that path and moved on to something a whole lot easier. Something that would dull the pain and allow me to fit in with the (in crowd) . Matthew 7:13,14 says "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Women are the fastest growing segment of prison and jail populations (50%in the last decade). In 1970 there were 5,600 women incarcerated in the US. In 2004 there were 103,000. Seven years later you think the numbers a getting smaller? I think not.
African American women are more than 3 times as likely as Latino Women and six times more likely than white women to be locked up. Most women prisoners are mothers. 64% have minor children, and 60% were living with their kids when arrested.
California hold the largest number of women prisoners of the US State, and has the two largest prisons for women in the world in Chowchilla.
CA with 30 million people incarcerates 11,250 women. Germany with 80 million holds 800 women.
66% have been convicted of property or drug related crimes than have been convicted of violence.
There are no penal resources devoted to transportation of children to prison to visit their mothers. 54% of CA incarcerated mothers are never visited by their children.
There are 12,000 women on parole with 1,000 beds available for drug treatment as an alternative to re-incarceration for petty drug use or possession parole violations. Drug treatment could cut (recidivism-A tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior, esp: relapse into criminal behavior) by 80%.
I don't regret my past it is what it is but I'll use my past experience to help someone else not make the same mistakes I did starting with my family. The generational curse has to be broken. If not now, when? If not me then who? Hold your head up cuz the best is yet to come!
This is one of my favorite quotes by Joss Whedon: "When I say, "I love you, " It's not because I want you or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You're a hell of a woman."view less