wfn.org | Justice system treats women unfairly, pastor says

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

April 2, 2003  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
10-71B{200}

By Frances S. Smith*

CLAREMONT, Calif. (UMNS) - Ten thousand women currently are incarcerated in
three California prisons.

In a forum titled "I Was in Prison and You...",  about 90 women and a few men
gathered to discuss issues facing imprisoned women, as well as the need for
improving the criminal justice system. The March 29 forum at Claremont United
Methodist Church raised concerns that could apply to the prison system of any
state.

The Rev. Rosemary A. Davis, program minister of the church, outlined the
purpose of the forum. "The criminal justice system is not working, especially
for women," she said. "Our church has been doing acts of mercy such as
writing to women on death row, tutoring and taking children to visit their
mothers. 

"But Micah 6:8 tells us to do justice. We need to work to impact a system
that is unfair especially to women."

Keynote speaker at the conference was Gloria Killian, 56, who was released
from the California Institution for Women in Frontera after serving 16 years
on a charge of murder. Killian had always maintained her innocence, and last
year, evidence of perjured testimony at her 1986 trial emerged. Finally,
after her lawyer exhausted state court appeals, a federal court overturned
her conviction, and she was freed.

Killian, who had studied law before her incarceration, told the forum that
she had worked as a law clerk for 14 years while in prison. Now she advocates
for women she knew while in prison, especially those who had been battered.

The speaker related the heart-rending story of Maria Suarez, kidnapped off
Los Angeles streets at 16 and sold to a 68-year-old man who beat, raped and
tortured her. Suarez was implicated in the death of her abuser, Killian said.
Now, after 22 years in prison, she has been found suitable for parole.
Killian urged forum participants "to let Gov. (Gray) Davis know you support
parole for Marie."

After the keynote presentation, five interest groups examined politics,
funding, legislation; what happens to children; aging and health; education
and rehabilitation; and re-entry into life. A recorder from each group
summarized the discussion for the whole group.

The health and aging group reported that until 1970, the prison system's goal
was rehabilitation. Many women received indeterminate sentences and were
evaluated periodically to see whether they were ready to return to society.
Some people opposed this, and periods of detention became definite. Section
11 of the Penal Code now states the purpose of incarceration is to penalize
not educate.

The average cost to maintain a woman in a California prison is $26,000 a
year; for an older woman, $69,000; for a woman on dialysis, $300,000. And the
number of older women is increasing. "The day the criminal justice system
runs out of money, women will be 'rehabilitatable,'" Killian said.

Children with a parent in prison feel a sense of guilt and anger, according
to the interest group on children. Through a mentoring program, young people
ages 18 to 25 mentor 10- to 17-year-olds. Claremont United Methodist Women
will again participate in a program to take children to visit their mothers
in prison around Mother's Day.

A woman leaving prison receives $200. Often she has no place to live, no
clothes or job, and must provide for her children. The nonprofit organization
Crossroads in Claremont helps women on parole re-enter society. 

Sister Terry Dodge, leader of the interest group on re-entering life, said
the key element of Crossroads was allowing women to get a vision of what life
may become and to see the changes needed to nurture that vision.

The legislation interest group stressed the need to expand the drug treatment
program. Since 1991 first-time offenders guilty of a nonviolent crime can get
drug treatment. According to the California Department of Correction, this
has reduced the female prison population by 10 percent.

"Awareness is beginning to spread that even people with long-term drug
addiction need treatment," Killian said. Drug addition is an illness, she
added. "Women in prison want to change, to give up drugs, but they need help
to do it."

A parole agent in the group said prisons don't have enough treatment beds.
"We're not as committed to drug treatment as we are to building new prisons,"
he said. "People who want to bring about change must tell their communities
to support more treatment centers."

This interest group agreed that California's "three strikes" law needs to be
changed. Under this law, those convicted three times - even for nonviolent
crimes - must be incarcerated for life.

Forum participant Carolyn Francis summarized the day. "We have gained new
insights and information regarding the human costs and tragic realities of
the U.S. criminal justice system ... especially the system in place in the
state of California," she said. "I invite each of you to consider specific
ways that you might address this critical issue of incarcerated women."
Reading off the names of women on California's death row, she invited those
who knew the women to stand. 

Then all stood to symbolize commitment to continued involvement in the issues
of women in prison.
# # #
*Smith, a retired United Methodist News Service writer, lives in Claremont, 
Calif.

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United Methodist News Service
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