When April sees only two backpacks in her aunt's hall, she knows Bella is gone. The grandparents have brought her. They got custody, put Bella in the car, they left the twins. They have another dad. They can stay with the aunt while her mother is in prison. Without letters. Without calls. Without any contact to the outside world. April experiences it only when she is outside.
In the beginning, April, when she first gets clean, when she's done the parenting classes, the appointments with the social worker, the meetings with the anonymous drug addicts, then they'll give Bella back to her. They will allow her to see her daughter. Then hours pass in hearing rooms, argue lawyers. The parents of April's ex-partner do not give Bella. She lost custody through her stay in Oklahoma's maximum security prison. The hearing was simply held without them.
It's been six years since April saw her daughter for the last time. Six years in which April came out of jail, stopped the drugs and found a job, an apartment. There she is sitting at her new dining table this afternoon.
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April Weiss in her apartment in Oklahoma City.
April's two rooms are located in a residential complex in western Oklahoma City called Verde Vista. There is not much green on the four-lane road to see. There is a pool between the apartments, which almost exactly the same in size and features. On the dining table is a small Christmas tree. Between the remnants of a fast food menu April has laid her hands on the table. She had three hearts tattooed next to her right eye. One for each of her daughters. Bella's name is on her right forearm.
2.1 million people detained
That April has not seen her daughter for six years is a mistake in a system that separates mothers from their children. A system that imprisons a total of 2.1 million people. In terms of population, the US ranks number one in the world. In Oklahoma, some 43,000 men and women were recently imprisoned. About 3000 of them are women - in terms of population, there are nowhere else so many women in prison. That means: out of 100,000 women, there are 152.
This system has not calculated that many of them are mothers. That most mothers who go to jail are single. That the children often do not have anyone to take care of them. Regularly, mothers are permanently separated from their children in this way. The fathers almost never play a role in the stories.
The US judiciary is being heavily criticized: while crime rates in the US are lower than ever, prisons are overcrowded, especially with people detained for minor offenses and drug-related offenses. Another reason is the imprisonment before a conviction, which should actually take place only in exceptional cases. Because the question of guilt is not clear at this time. But in the meantime, so many people are "precautionary" locked away, that some of them are released directly after their trial.
Staying in prison is not only expensive - the institutions were never prepared for the large number of prisoners. Some states have therefore adopted reforms in recent years. The citizens of Oklahoma, for example, voted in 2016 that certain drug offenses, such as simple possessions, are considered lighter offenses rather than crimes. So far, however, these reforms have hardly led to a change.
In April's apartment, pop songs drone from the bedroom. The nine-year-old twins sing karaoke. Again and again April calls to the two girls that they should be quieter. April is tired. All day she sat on the forklift. She likes her work because it gives her a structure. She likes the artificial order of her apartment, she says. The dinette in the niche where her neighbor also has her dinette. The little Christmas tree. The new furniture. The big TV.
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Christmas tree on April's dining table on 21.11.2018
April's story that she tells here tragically sounds like many American stories. Her father dies of an overdose. At 19 she goes to the military. After a fight injury, she gets prescription pain medication - and becomes dependent. At some point she turns to heroin, on Chrystal Meth - then you slip away everything. She starts selling drugs, so she is arrested on her 28th birthday. She did not hand over the material to a buyer when the money was handed over, he displays it for robbery. In April, April takes a deal: She pleads guilty and gets a ten-year probation.
Most mothers in prison are single parents
Agreements such as these are one of the reasons Oklahoma has the largest female prison population in the US, says Jasmine Sankofa. The researcher interviewed 160 women in Oklahoma and found that many of them plead guilty and receive a high probationary sentence, even though they are not guilty or could at least negotiate a lower sentence.
Especially mothers make this decision so they can get back to their children faster. Mothers account for the largest proportion of imprisoned women: more than 60 percent in state prisons (prison) and 80 percent in local prisons (jail). If they are guilty of being guilty during their probationary period, they are soon behind bars again. Not infrequently it means for them that they lose custody of their children, as in April.
Experts therefore repeatedly demand that the entire system must change. That the bail should be adapted to the financial situation of the prisoners. That punishments are shortened. That therapies and integration programs must be promoted.
In her report to Human Rights Watch, researcher Sankofa describes what's going wrong in Oklahoma's prison system: women are too often imprisoned before their trial - and not as foreseen in exceptional circumstances. You can not pay your deposit. Worst of all were the prisons, which children did not allow as visitors in which physical contact was not allowed where no letters or phone calls were allowed. Often, women can not even raise the money for a phone conversation with their children.
After discharge, this burden does not stop. When women try to become better mothers, they are let down by the state, says Sankofa. They are often in debt. You will be charged for jail costs and security deposit. They have to fight hard to get their children back. It is difficult to find work and an apartment after a conviction. And: Children of parents who were in jail are more likely to come in, show trials.
April is not allowed to see her daughter even after her release. She completes the courses in which parents should learn again to be parents. She makes a withdrawal. She will be clean. Again and again she speaks to a lawyer in court. The judge demands a family therapy. But April's insurance does not pay for that. She can not afford one alone.
To support women like April, Oklahoma has formed a broad network of voluntary organizations and churches. In Tulsa, the lawyers of Still She Rises are fighting for fairer judgments. In Oklahoma City, the organization ReMerge seeks to replace pre-trial detention with a rehabilitation program before the trial, which aims to integrate women into society. "So far, we've saved the state $ 14.5 million," says the organization-by keeping 122 women out of jail. The prison problem in Oklahoma, they want to say, can also be seen and solved pragmatically.
In a small conference room of a brick building in Midtown Oklahoma City sits the head of the organization, Terry Woodland. She explains that in her opinion too much money in Oklahoma flows into the financing of prisons. Money that is lacking for education or health insurance. Things that would really improve life in Oklahoma.
Roadblocked for small offenses
Woodland describes it this way: "About 30 years ago we decided to prefer 'tough on crime' rather than 'smart on crime'." She refers to the policy under President Ronald Reagan, who raised the minimum penalty for drug offenses and put a lot of money in their pursuit. Even today, his policies are responsible for a large part of prison inmates.
"We started to jail men and women for small offenses, which is the part of the detainees we need to treat differently," says Woodland. It is also the largest part of the detainees in Oklahoma: 80 percent of the women in prison are not there for violent crime.
"They do not pose a threat to society, they need withdrawal, treatment, support, and there is often no rehabilitation program, especially in rural areas, where finding a good lawyer is difficult." At ReMerge, women catch up on their graduation, they learn what it means to be a mother, to organize their lives. 122 women have already finished the program. Some even started studying.
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Stormy at the NGO ReMerge in Oklahoma City.
On a Wednesday morning in November, the women are sitting in one of the classrooms in the basement of the building. It's the week before Thanksgiving, but many will not see their children on the family holiday. They still have to learn what it means to be responsible for a family and for themselves. They share what the past weeks have been, they give each other advice.
One of the women is the 21-year-old Stormy, who shows a prison photo on her cell phone. "My meth face," she says and tells her story that ends with Stormy being clean and her daughter living with her again, that she has a job as a waitress and does not have to strip anymore. It's a good story. Stormy likes to tell her.