RISE, A Modern Guide for the Purpose Driven Woman Summer 2014 | Page 42

Voices of

JUSTICE
written by Hedy DiCarlo

This summer we at

Women Who Rise are focusing a lot of energy on
our Zen trip in October to
the Outer Banks. It has me
thinking a lot about Zen and
the inner spirit in all of us,
which drives our decisions,
good and bad, and ultimately determines the lives
we lead. I am beginning to
understand fully that when
you experience great torment
in your life and decide to rise
up to challenge a system that
will impose that on countless
others; it is also great torment. Perhaps the Zen for
each of us must lie daily in
the process of getting to the
solutions we desire, no matter
how far off they may seem.

I write a lot of commentary on
Crime & Punishment; I write
about what it is that I personally know and have experienced
and what I feel is unjust in our
system today. I have spoken for
months now about what is wrong
with this profit driven system
and yet again I have been faced
with another personal and tragic
story which I would like to share
with you.
I will change the name of the
woman in this story but she is
a very real friend and mother
whom I have spent time with in
jail. For the sake of this story,
we will call her Fiona. Fiona
has had a long and unfortunate
history with drugs. She has had
many minor drug arrests and
stints in court ordered rehabs.
She had been “clean” for over a
year and was 4 months pregnant
when I met her in October. The

arrest that she was being held for
when we met wasn’t for drugs
but rather for Obstruction of
Justice (this can mean an officer
attempted to serve a warrant and
you left the scene or you destroyed some sort of evidence etc.
It has very varied implications
from minor or something the
perpetrator may not have even
been aware of to a violent resisting of arrest.) Her obstruction
was for failure to disclose her status as a person on probation to
an officer arresting her for driving without a license, her second
charge then in this situation.
She was eventually transferred
from the county jail to a place
called “Mothers & Children”
which is a facility designed to allow mothers or pregnant inmates
to remain incarcerated with their
baby or in her case with prenatal care. She was extremely
fortunate to have a family on the