At first blush, 38-year-old Tim F. looks like he must have had an All-American childhood growing up in a small town in Delaware. But looks, in this case, are deceptive. He grew up in a working class neighborhood where, he says, getting drunk in high school was the norm. Unlike his peers, he was one of the few to attend college after graduating high school. He is now a successful editor in the publishing industry.

In many ways, he succeeded despite great personal obstacles. His father abandoned the family and his mother’s attention shifted permanently to his younger brother who became addicted to heroin and crack as a teenager. Four years younger than him, his brother was often dumped on the front lawn of their house when he overdosed on heroin—at one point, three days in a row.

When his brother was 18, he was sentenced to prison for the crimes he committed to feed his drug addiction. He spent the next 10 years in and out of prison, but “more in than out,” says Tim.

• Part I: Crack & Heroin (10:16)
• Part II: A Brother’s Take (9:40)
• Part III: Rebuilding Trust (9:50)
• The complete interview (29:00)

The story of Tim’s family is similar to that of an untold number of families in the United States. A study published in April 2007 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that in 2004, 17 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal inmates said they committed their crimes to buy drugs to temporarily satiate their addictions. These numbers represent a slight increase for federal prisoners (from 16 percent in 1997) and a slight decrease for state prisoners (from 19 percent).

In this raw three-part audio interview, Tim describes how his brother’s addiction and incarceration altered his relationship with his mother; he shares how he realized that prison was the best and only option for his brother; and he contemplates whether he would trust his brother today now that he is out of prison and clean.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: What role has drug addiction played in the incarceration of your family member? What advice do you have for others based on your family’s experience?

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The New York Times had this piece and is related to my previous post: Vietnam veteran’s Posttraumatic Stress Disorder rips family apart.

This piece is about Lance Cpl. Walter Rollo Smith, who was “profoundly shaken by his experiences in Iraq.” He returned from Iraq, and “disintegrated psychologically and ultimately killed his girlfriend and the mother of his twin children.”

Read the article here.

This is part of a series about of articles and multimedia “about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have committed killings, or been charged with them, after coming home.”

Part I: Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles.

Part II: An Iraq Veteran’s Descent; a Prosecutor’s Choice

Kelly, 36, had slowly lost touch with her father after her parents divorced when she was a child. A few years ago, she tried to track him down hoping to reestablish a father-daughter relationship. But she could not find a trace of him in any phone directory or on the Web.

Then a year ago, she received a call from a relative around Thanksgiving informing her that her father had been incarcerated in a prison in Florida for the past few years. Despite the nature of his crime, she traveled from Seattle to Florida in an effort to reconnect with him.

As Kelly got to know him again, she says she realized that his explosive temper and alcohol abuse she remembered from her youth were symptoms of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder he lived with after he fought in the Vietnam War.

In this multimedia interview, she describes the impact of her father’s crime and incarceration on her life and his family, and wonders what similar effect the Iraq conflict will have on returning soldiers and their families. This interactive media player also provides links to Web resources, facts about PTSD, and data on veterans who are incarcerated.

Interactive Interview & Resources

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: How has PSTD affected your family?

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Listen to this excellent collaboration that gives voice to 12-year-old Payton Smith during her two-year separation from her incarcerated mother. It is very powerful!

Carole Eady

Carole Eady paid a high price for the 12 years she spent addicted to drugs. She lost her children, was in and out of jail, and ended up surrounding herself with johns, dealers, and other addicts to feed her habit.

Back in the 80s, she got into drugs as a way to cope with a childhood of abuse and abandonment. She came to New York from the South to be a singer, and the city’s exuberant nightlife became an accomplice to her descent into addiction. What started as occasional dabbling in the party scene grew into an overpowering dependence on drugs that drove her to homelessness and crime, and left her unable to care for her children.

She took her daughters to live with relatives because the strength of her addiction made it impossible to provide a good home for them. But she believes that the legal system cheated her out of her being a mother to her son. When she was pregnant with him, and about to go to jail, a federal law was passed that made it easier for states to terminate parental rights. There was little Carole could do from behind bars to fight for her son, even though at this point she was making progress in a rehabilitation program and was about to get out of jail.

When she got out, she set out to start a new life free of drugs and the demons that had accosted her for so long. She went back to school, got a master’s degree in forensic psychology, and focused on healing her relationship with her children.

At the moment, Carole is an advocate for individuals who, like her, have fallen into drugs. She has traveled around Europe advocating drug reform and locally she tells her story to those struggling with addiction as an inspiration to change their lives.

The following interviews are a continuation of her advocacy work. In her own words, Carole discusses her life as an addict, an inmate, and a mother. Her stories are vivid accounts of what happens in jail and on the street, what has to be done to survive, and how she left it all behind.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: What impact did incarceration have on your addiction or your family member’s addiction?

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Ana Maria Toro, a graduate student at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, has joined Lives in Focus as a multimedia reporter for the summer. I would like to thank the school for allowing her to meet the internship requirement by working for the “Family Life Behind Bars” project.

Ana will be reporting and producing pieces using audio, video, photographs and text to help broaden the coverage.

Ana has been a student of mine for the past two semesters and independently of this project has been covering the criminal justice system. She is a determined reporter who has some experience working for the Spanish language press in New York. (Click here for her bio.)

The summer always winds up flying so I plan to keep her very busy. I know she is going to get a lot out of this experience. But more than that, Ana is also actually getting paid by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism (as are other students at non-paying internships) so there is no exploitation involved!

Ana’s first piece will be posted later today.

Help spread the word about this project by linking to it from your site. You just have to copy the code below and paste it into the HTML section of your website or blog. Once you publish the code on your site, you will see the above promotional graphic appear on your Website.

Please let us know if you do place this promotional link on your site by emailing your URL to info@livesinfocus.org.

If you have any trouble getting this to work, just send an email to the same address.

Thanks for helping Lives in Focus inform others about this important topic.

Here is the code (it only looks scary).

Lives in Focus plans to cover an event at Rutgers that has a similar ring to it: “Behind Bars: The Impact of Incarceration on Women and Their Families”

While our work is based on journalism-style interviews, photographs, audio and video, this conference convenes a group of academics and practitioners to explore the impact and legal implications of incarceration on women and their families at the 2007 symposium of the Women’s Rights Law Reporter at Rutgers School of Law–Newark.

I urge those interested in the topic to attend. The conference will take place from 12:30 – 4 pm on Wednesday, March 7, in the law school’s Baker Trial Courtroom. More info on their website.

Professor Brenda V. Smith of Washington College of Law, American University, will be the keynote speaker for the first panel, which will focus on women’s issues while incarcerated.

Professor Philip Genty of Columbia Law School will keynote the second panel. This panel will consider the impact of a woman’s imprisonment on her family.

click image for audio slideshow

When a lover is freed from jail after many years, the anticipation of the reunion can hold more pleasure than the reality. Take the case of Dannette Giglio, a 56-year-old woman, who waited faithfully for Orlando, her fiance, after he was incarcerated for six years for possession of stolen property and endangerment.

Just months after his release last year, their relationship turned into a grim shadow of what Dannette had expected. Orlando, 44, had trouble adjusting to freedom, says Dannette. His job search led no where. The couple began to argue and fight. In December, when we went to interview Dannette, Orlando had just stormed out of her apartment. She said she had called the police because he had threatened to kill her.

Orlando moved to Virginia, says Dannette, where he lives with his mother. Despite the turmoil, she clings to the hope that it had been worth waiting for him for six years. She said she plans to visit him in Virginia to patch up their relationship.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: What keeps you standing by your loved one when he or she is released from prison? Where would you draw the line for supporting him or her?

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George crossed a line that even hardened criminals and unrepentant murderers find repulsive. About seven years ago, he drove to a mall in New York state to meet a 15-year-old girl, even booking a room at a local motel. He was surprised and snared, instead, by a state trooper.

George was incarcerated for three years for possession and attempted distribution of child pornography. Needless to say, his crime tore his family apart.

In this interview, George, 52, recounts his life prior to his crime, his close encounters as a sex offender in prison, his attempt to re-establish family bonds and make new friends, and his constant fear that someone will “out” him.

• The Complete Interview (31:02)

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: How would you help a family member who has served time for this type of crime?

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