Sixty-six percent of women in prison have minor children. Eighty
percent of women in prison have addictions. If you understand, as the
medical establishment does, that addiction is a disease, rather than a
moral failing, it will be as hard for you as it is for me to wrap your
head around punishing mothers--and their children--by putting them in
prison and their kids in foster care in response to that disease.
Small
programs throughout the country are trying alternatives to prison. One
such program in California helps women get clean and sober while living
in group homes with their children. Filmmaker, Sheila Gantz, spent
three years with the women in the program documenting their stories and
their struggles. You can see a trailer of Moms Living Clean below.
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