MS. Monique,I think u did a great job! I heard u mention O.R.W. in Ohio. I was one of those ladies.I have been out 6yrs. why is it so hard out here . I am currently in school (criminal justice&parallegal with law document) It has been so hard for me to get a job. I went to O.R.W in 99 due to a trafficing charge i went to bootcamp(much love to my LTS) I was troop 111 we r all #1 that was our thing. I got out ,thank God I had a great support system. I was all pumped up to work but society would not give me a chance.All i was hearing was no felonys.How are we supposed to make it out here if no one will give us a chance? I am the youngust of 4 had two parents in the home very involved in the church.I got married had two girls.My ex-husband is still locked up won’t be able to walk free until 2012 so i get no help. I have stayed out of trouble scince i have returned to society 6yrs ago.I still can’t get a good job.I’m a very hard worker but, no one will give me a chance. The place I live is called Findlay,Oh we call it “cuff em& stuff em Hancock county”It’s a all white town. I got a great education tho. We didn’t even get the movie “Waiting To Exhale” but Mississippi Burning sure came. A Republican town with lots of old money. Ohio was the final state to decide if our wounder president Bush was President What a mistake! I am a black woman with a felony. I struggel everyday its brings tears to my eyes cause no one will give me a chance.Why isn’t there more programs to help people with felonys get a job that can pay their bills? My mom is so scared that i will go back to “Grindin” I have thought about it many many times but I don’t want that lifestyle any more I always worked But that extra money was nice “easy come easy go”. I just want some advice.I heard you say on the B.E.T. Awards “we are all one mistake away from the wrong mistake”or something to that effect, that is so true . The one question i have is we made a mistake when do we (felons) get a second chance? I had heard that our grest pres bush would give companies tax breaks if they would hire felons, but their liability insurance is so high what company wants to go through all of that just to hire 1or 2 people.I thought that everyone deserves a second chance,I must be wrong. Monique, what do i do? where do i turn for help? I was so inspired by you mentioning woman in prison, its nice to know that someone out there gives a damn! Our government doesn’t care it’s all about the $ but we as black women& men its almost like we don’t have a chance after our mistakes. we need more people like you out there to held our men &women we are the majority in the prison system why do you think that is ? I bet we can come up with the same few reasons. I need some kind of guidence I am about at the end of my rope please give me some kind of hope that there is light at the end, cause right now I just can’t see .I’ve done all the right things but it seems like I just can”t get a break. When im done with school in 9months I hope that I can help people in their defense cases but, the question is will someone give a black woman with a felony a job? Did i do all this schooling for nothing Mo please help!
Thanks for your time
Danielle