To Whom it May Concern,
Walking around DPFC and seeing the faces in here is overwhelming, but what you don’t see is the burden we carry on our shoulders and does not show on our faces. What you see is a lot of different faces from different parts of the state.
But what our faces don’t show is the mistakes, fear, anxiety, depression, mental health issues, regrets, loss of faith in a system so broken, sadness, loneliness, how broken we are inside, loss of our homes and jobs, our pain for our family and children. The women, who have been behind these big concrete walls, some for long term, some short stays, or months or weeks and some for many years … Yet with our flaws, mistakes, pain, depression, anxiety, mental health and more we are only trying to survive this broken system and being behind these concrete walls.
As in our darkest time, we have lost the battle of rational thinking and made mistakes. We have a voice, but through the system, our voices are muted. We are mothers, sisters, daughters, and even grandmothers. The system dealt with by police/judges/courts etc. only see us as a danger to the community and society.
Remember: people at the other side of these concrete walls – you have not walked in our shoes and hopefully you are not faced with a family member or your children who might make a mistake and are put through our broken system!
How will you react?
For the faces of all women in DPFC.
