Welcome to PJP’s newest special project, “Love, Mom.” For this collection, we have invited mothers to share their perspectives and experiences surrounding incarceration. We hope that this project will give you, our reader, a better understanding of the impacts of incarceration on families across the country. To view more pieces from the “Love, Mom” collection, please click here.
Shattered. Completely broken on my cell floor. I lost everything: my freedom and my life and my children, who were placed with strangers by the system, a system as broken as my soul.
Lonely is a mild description compared to what I really feel in prison. No contact with family or friends. I am surrounded by strangers — broken, traumatized strangers.
Immersed in this unbearable loneliness, I dive in, taking a complete moral inventory. I do the only thing that will change my outcome. I seek help to overcome this pain through education and spiritual growth.
Reconciliation begins with letters written in a journal. I pour out my heart to my children, even though I cannot mail these letters. A year’s worth of letters piles up.
Suddenly, one is slid under my door. A Thanksgiving gift — a glorious surprise! K. reached out. I am overwhelmed with joy, the fulfillment of my hopes and prayers streaming down my face. She desires to know me right where I am.
As my oldest, she is taking the initiative and will be the doorway to my other two someday. Now we write weekly, embracing the gift of a mother-daughter relationship in unique circumstances.
My transformation is slow and steady as I grow to become the best I can every day.
Being a mother while incarcerated is possible, and these circumstances cannot break this bond of love. To my children I am an example of strength, love and perseverance in the face of trials.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Here are our ground rules:
- You must credit Prison Journalism Project. In the byline, we prefer “[Author Name], Prison Journalism Project.” At the top of the text of your story, please include a line that says: “This story was originally published by Prison Journalism Project” and include a link to the article.
- No republishing of photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission. Please contact inquiries@prisonjournalismproject.org.
- No editing the content, including the headline, except to reflect changes in time, location and editorial style. For example, changing, “today” to “last week,” or San Quentin to San Quentin, California. You can also make minor revisions for style or headline size, and you can trim stories for space. You must also retain all original hyperlinks, including links to the Prison Journalism Project newsletters.
- No translation of our stories into another language without specific permission. Please contact inquiries@prisonjournalismproject.org.
- No selling ads against our stories, but you can publish it on a page with ads that you’ve already sold.
- No reselling or syndicating our stories, including on platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. You also can’t republish our work automatically or all at once. Please select them individually.
- No scraping our website or using our stories to populate websites designed to improve search rankings or gain revenue from network-based advertisements.
- Any site our stories appear on must have a prominent and effective way to contact you.
- If we send you a request to remove our story, you must do so immediately.
- If you share republished stories on social media, please tag Prison Journalism Project. We have official accounts on Twitter (@prisonjourn), Facebook (@prisonjournalism), Instagram (@prisonjournalism) and Linked In.
- Let us know when you share the story. Send us a note, so we can keep track.