From Sentences To Paragraphs: My Drive Behind It All….

For almost a decade, I have been the person people call when someone they love is sentenced to prison. A friend, a cousin, a neighbor, someone always seems to find their way to me asking the same kind of question. “My son is going to prison and I don't know what to do. My sister was just sentenced and I don't understand any of this.” Over and over again, I found myself answering questions that no one else seemed equipped to answer.

When I started my Bachelor's degree in Social Work, something clicked. I had always had a pull toward criminal justice, but I did not fully understand why until I began studying it formally. That pull sent me down a rabbit hole, researching, learning, and asking myself what kind of impact I actually wanted to make. And somewhere in that search, it hit me. There was so much support available for people after they are released from prison, but almost nothing for the families left behind while their loved one is still serving their sentence.

That realization stuck with me. These families did not commit a crime. They did not make the choices that led their loved one to Perryville, yet they are the ones left carrying the weight of it, the confusion, the shame, the isolation, all while trying to navigate a system that offers them no roadmap and very little compassion. I have a tender spot for these families, because I have lived on both sides of it, as the woman inside, and now as the woman helping others find their way through from the outside.

Because I still visit my sister-in-law at Perryville, I am not relying on outdated memories or information that has changed since I walked out those doors. I am staying current, learning alongside the women who are living it right now, so that everything I offer families is accurate and real. My goal has never been just to answer a few questions and walk away. I want to be with these families from the moment a sentence begins, all the way through to release, and eventually, I hope to build a program inside Perryville itself, pairing incarcerated women with a family member for peer support, helping stabilize those relationships from the very beginning. Because family support should not be an afterthought. It should be the whole point.