Mothers In Jail

Mothers in jail; Former detainee speaks, by Rebecca Sullivan

Diana Delgado spent almost six years in and out of state prison and county jail, but her real punishment began when she was release in January and her eight year old daughter refused to live with her after she was released.

Women like Delgado are filling jails and prisons throughout the country, state and county at an alarming rate. Nationally, the number of women in prisons has grown 6.3 percent annually since 1990. In Cook County Jail, the number of women detained increased by 89 percent between 1993 and 1999. Latino women accounted for the sharpest increase at Cook County Jail, their numbers doubling between 1993 and 1999.

Drug offenses are the main reason why women 'mothers' are locked up....l
The jail population in the United States is expected to reach 2 million US makes up 5% of the total global population, it now accounts for 25% of the world's prisoners.

Studies estimate that 50% of elderly American are victims of financial explotation while only 4% to 15% case are ever reported and rarely prosecuted . Financial swindles are one of the fastest growing forms of abuse of the elderly according to NCEA , the other 85% to 96% cases of elder financial abuse victims that are never reported go totally without protection.

March 28,2007 AP attacks on a 101-year-old Queens woman as she walked to church and on an 85-year-old woman beaten by the same mugger a half hour later. The brutal attacker could face only a misdemeanor, punishable up to a year in jail.

"The way that society doesn't value these people is reflected in how we have been investigating and prosecuting these cases," said Deputy Prosecutor PageUlrey.

"It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped." -Hubert H. Humphrey (1911 - 1978)