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I am in AA and one of the things that I do is take meetings into the women's prisons and jails. If I had to assign and arbitrary percentage I would say that 75% of the women in jail have addictions and mental illness. I would go so far as say that 85% are victims of domestic violence. One of the jails I go to is supposed to be a last chance stop before prison. Its supposed to offer these women mental health and addiction treatment. Everytime I go in after the security its like no one knows what to do with these women. They are jam packed and it is very loud. There is no consistency. When I listen to them share and hear their stories of bad men and losing their children it breaks my heart. So many of them are mentally ill and were influenced by nefarious men in their lives. Many of them tried to get clean but get sent back home to the environment they were in. So many of them want mental health treatment but when they get out they have no car and are far away from the agencies that could help them. Some try and get medicaid but cant get to their appointments. One of the mental health agencies that takes medicaid is a mad house. Crowed and the wait is hours just to see a different doctor each time. These girls leave with their prescription notes and cant get in right away and cant take their medication because they didnt see the doctor. Some of the ones who get to see the doctor cant afford their medication. None of these women want this or asked for it and many of them are good mamas when they are sober and treated.
What to do? Banning for-profit prisons would be a start. How can you say that the system wants you well if they make money off of having prisoners? There needs to be more psychiatrists available for them and better mass transit. The social services need to be quicker with their approvals for food stamps and medicaid. I could go on and on about what I have seen. I have given my number to a few women and picked them up in very bad areas to take them to meetings. Its just a S**t show.
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"I carried a watermelon?"
President of the no F's given society.
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