The WELL: inkwell.vue.324: Silja Talvi, "Women Behind Bars"

#58: Betsy Schwartz (betsys) Wed 23 Jul 08 22:05

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:05:00 PDT

<scribbled by betsys Wed 23 Jul 08 22:05> [Read entire topic]

#57: Betsy Schwartz (betsys) Tue 20 May 08 22:44

Tue, 20 May 2008 22:44:00 PDT

Reprint from the Boston Globe, courtesy of www.truthout.org :

For Women Addicts, Jail Can Replace Treatment http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/051608WA.shtml

Kelsey Abbruzzese, Brittany Peats and Jordan Zappala report for The Boston Globe: "Men who are civilly committed in Massachusetts are sent to a treatment facility on the grounds of MCI Bridgewater that is large enough to house 250 men and has not resulted in space issues. However, a chronic shortage of beds for women in the same circumstances means that some civilly committed women are sent to MCI Framingham, the state's only women's prison." [Read entire topic]

#56: Silja Joanna Aller Talvi (sisu) Wed 16 Apr 08 16:41

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:41:00 PDT

Thanks for the plug, Jack! I'll see you in Tucson next week for my readings there, yes?

Cynthia, thanks for having me here. This discussion has been very rewarding and intellectually stimulating for me. I will, indeed, continue to stop by.

And Maria, I'm so relieved to hear that. Truly. What a relief.

God Pod and Shipping Out Women's Bodies explanations still to come! [Read entire topic]

#55: Jack King (gjk) Wed 16 Apr 08 10:00

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:00:00 PDT

I need to add one thing -- buy the book! [Read entire topic]

#54: Cynthia Dyer-Bennet (cdb) Wed 16 Apr 08 09:06

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:06:00 PDT

That's very good news about your sister, rosmar. Wishing her strength and courage as she faces the difficult but important task of staying clean.

> then this great two-week discussion will apparently come to a close

Silja, it's true that we've just launched a new author conversation here in Inkwell, but that doesn't mean this one can't go on. The topic will remain open and available for futher posts indefinitely, so if you can, we'd love to have you stick around.

If you have other demands pulling away, I want to thank you for joining us these past two weeks. I also want to thank Jack King for leading the conversation. This has been a difficult, sometimes chilling, and definitely eye-opening discussion and I applaud both of you for the remarkable work you do. Thank you sharing so much information with us. [Read entire topic]

#53: Maria Rosales (rosmar) Wed 16 Apr 08 07:29

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:29:00 PDT

Wow. That is a powerful and upsetting story.

Good news about my sister--she is out of jail, and has only three months of classes and drug tests. If she stays clean, they will take it off her record. [Read entire topic]

#52: Silja Joanna Aller Talvi (sisu) Mon 14 Apr 08 18:20

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:20:00 PDT

That's good to hear. Being superstitious myself (well, to an extent), I had to make sure!

If you have the name of the PD, I may be able to find out how good that person's rep is. Is your sis already thinking whether she wants to plea or take it to trial? As you know, most of these kinds of cases are handled with plea bargains, to the point that it's really rare for me to even talk to any n/v drug offenders (or their attorneys, to be more specific) who want to risk a trial. If this is her first-time offense, an offer should be on the table pretty quickly if the lawyer's even just a half-wit.

Prop. 36 could also apply b/c of the meth addiction, but I don't know the specifics of her case.

I'll stop here w/ the advice and such. It sounds like you've got a good head on your shoulders about all of this. And there's nothin' better than having a few good lawyers on your side. I sleep better at night knowing, push come to shove, that I'll have some kick-ass attorneys to call. (Then again, they could always decide not accept my collect call!)

So, the piece I've been working on for the last few weeks, on and off, is about a 34-yr-old woman and mother of two who was murdered in a solitary confinement cell in a Nashville CCA prison. I was on deadline last week, was ready to go with it, but I couldn't file the damn thing. By Sunday morning, O as seized by this compulsive sense to rewrite the damn thing, to turn the story into what it really NEEDED to be all along. So, from 1,500 to 4,500, and a whole different kind of fire burning under the story.

Estelle's story has never been told in any great depth. When I first came across a brief news report about the autopsy finding confirming that she was murdered, I had the sense that I *had* to write about her. That there was an imperative to do so. I kept her file active, and moved her file over to my book project, in an RIP section that served as a constant reminder of the women who *didn't* make it it out, through no fault of their own.

But the lawyers on her case never got back to me. The next I heard, the guards indicted for homicide had gotten all of the charges dropped. And the Richardson family couldn't talk, b/c of the conditions of the CCA settlement.

I still didn't put her file away. I just didn't know where to go with it. And now I have that chance. From a 1,500 wd assignment as a web exclusive, this morphed into an extensive investigative feature, which I'm really going to try to push into a longer print version. I've been researching, interviewing and writing nearly non-stop for the last two days (ok, with small 15-min. breaks, a couple of cat naps, watching ridiculous reality television in the background, drinking tea, or scarfing down whatever old remnants of food I could find in my frig), and I'm still not done. I'm on my 20th hour, I think, and I'm bloody exhausted. But I'm still in that priceless writing zone that I'm not going to drop out of until it drops me.

I haven't felt this fired up since I wrote the last chapter in the book, when I was finally able to sit with Gina's pictures around me and pour out her story. Even after I finished, in a blur of exhaustion and grief, I couldn't get her face, the image of her thin arm cradling her young daughter, the sight of a body consumed by the spread of cervical cancer that could have been treated, successfully, just a few months before it destroyed her. The LA County Jail system and the state prison system failed her at every stage.

In that photo, she was still locked to the hospital bed from which she couldn't even get up. When that photo was taken, Gina was just a few days away from her death. Because her mother refused to give up, she died in surrounded by her family's love instead of a dismal community hospital, and her death became a rallying cry for other families and advocates who insist, rightfully, that a prison sentence cannot become a de facto death sentence when the prison health care system decides to dismiss the lump in a woman's breast as a harmless cyst. Or when the Board of Prison Terms and/or the governor decide that giving a dying woman her wish to be with her loved ones, to not die behind barbed wire, is to capitulate to "criminals."

But now, at least, Gina's spirit is free. And so is Estelle's. I'm trying to bring part of that spirit back, so to speak, to draw attention to what it would mean for the Senate to confirm a multimillionare, wholly unqualified CCA attorney for a lifetime judicial position, knowing that it was he who swept her murder under the rug with a wink, a nod ... and a nice settlement check into the hands of the atty. who was supposed to have been looking out for Estelle's two children.

I'll come back again to talk a bit about those two chapters later tomorrow, and then this great two-week discussion will apparently come to a close. I'll still be stopping by Inkwell, though. After all, it's what brought me back to the Well. [Read entire topic]

#51: Maria Rosales (rosmar) Mon 14 Apr 08 07:08

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:08:00 PDT

Thanks, <silja>. I was kidding about this topic jinxing me--I'm not really that superstitious. It was just a strange coincidence that, right after I said that all the people in my family who had gone to jail had been men, my sister was arrested.

The bail is highest for the meth--50,000. All the other charges together add up to 6,000. This is in California. (I don't mind sharing this information, because it is all public info, anyway.)

I've talked her husband into at least giving the public defender a chance. If the PD comes up with a deal that doesn't seem acceptable, then maybe a private lawyer. (He can't afford a lawyer at all--he has $400 to his name at the moment.)

My partner has a couple of lawyer friends in San Francisco, who have given us good advice and will refer my sister to another lawyer if a private lawyer becomes necessary.

I'm sorry about your own partner's situation, and the absurdity of the laws. [Read entire topic]

#50: Silja Joanna Aller Talvi (sisu) Sun 13 Apr 08 21:33

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:33:00 PDT

This is horrible to hear. Please don't think this topic jinxed you. In fact, I think that you're going to be armed with more information and, most certainly, some people to talk to about this who genuinely care and don't judge. On the contrary, I'm outraged that this happened to her. If she's smoking meth/ice, she's hurting terribly. Prosecuting people like this, as many of you have mentioned, is absolutely senseless.

My heart goes out to you. Please let me know if I can help somehow with advice or just emotional support.

W/r/t the money the husband is asking for, I do have to ask this: how high is her bail? In which state was she arrested? That might help me give you some more information. Also, do you know who this lawyer is that the husband has retained? (Moreover, *has* that lawyer been retained?) Is public defense even on the table, or is he ruling that out?

Jack, I'm blown away by what you've told me about Macedonia. I have to look into that more. How interesting that that country--not exactly known for progressive policies in general--would be light years ahead of ours in this regard.

Linda, I still owe you a response. Things have been a bit hectic over here. My own partner is still under correctional supervision, and the ever-present, daily stressors of our struggles through his two-year jail/prison sentence; his employment hurdles related to a felony record; steep LFOs (legal financial obligations, including *paying for the sting/snitch operation* that got him arrested in the first place); and the ongoing, everyday possibility that his parole could be revoked for any number of things including drinking any kind of alcohol (although his n/v offense had nothing to do with that); or even *walking* through a Seattle "drug zone" without an official reason for being in such an area, can technically get him locked up again.

And get this. Most of central/downtown Seattle is classified as a drug zone. My apartment is in this zone, as well, which is incredible to contemplate. Technically, he could be arrested if he's standing at the bus stop outside. Now, in real life, that's unlikely to happen, but that's how absurd these laws are.

Again, Maria, you have my empathy and compassion ... and I truly feel for your sister. :-( Clearly, she needs help. In cases like this, sending someone away to a jail or prison term isn't just cold-hearted, it's bound to hinder her own shot at recovery.

That said, some women I've interviewed have certainly told me that were it not for an arrest, they wouldn't have been jolted out of a self-destructive spiral. I hope that the latter ends up being true for her, and that you can serve as a support to her in that process. [Read entire topic]

#49: Jack King (gjk) Sun 13 Apr 08 17:49

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:49:00 PDT

Some years ago, during the second Clinton administration, the State dept. used to bring defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges over here to the USA, particularly from the former Eastern Block. The reason I mention this was a public defender from Macedonia, circa 1996, was horrified that we lock people up for possession of small amounts of drugs. In Macedonia, possession of 14 grams of heroin or cocaine or a half kilo of opium is treated as a public health problem. You only go to jail if you refuse treatment, and if you are jailed for refusing treatment, you get out the day after you agree to treatment.

Under state and federal law here, possession of a half ounce of cocaine or heroin, or a pound of opium, is an automatic term of years, no treatment alternative available. [Read entire topic]