Category Archives: injustice through jails

Abuse, Addiction, Inequality, injustice through jails, Social Issues

Interview on YouTube Kay Corbett Calla Lilies

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I recently was interviewed by Dianne King on Channel 10’s “On the Go With AAUW” in Fairfax, Virginia. It is a half-hour interview about my book, Calla Lilies: A True Story of Four Sisters and Their Struggles to Survive Abuse, Addiction, and Poverty in America. The interview covers many social issues that we need to address in our society today including childhood physical and sexual abuse, lack of education, lack of health care, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse in order to cope, the injustices of the penal system, and poverty to name a few.

Just go to YouTube and put in Kay Corbett Calla Lilies.

injustice through jails

Keeping Up with Tina

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Tina did finally go to rehab for three weeks.  I told them at the rehab the court sent her to that three weeks would not be enough to help her.  It wasn’t.  She relapsed and did not report when she was to be tested for drugs.  Now there is a warrant out for her.  I was so hoping that the rehab would miraculously help her, but when one has been so abused, a band aid doesn’t do much good.  I am really worried about her.

Most people don’t realize that anyone can get on the Tuscaloosa Sheriff’s website and check to see if anyone is in jail or has a warrant for them.  It even shows what their bond is and gives the charges against them, as well as a mug picture when they were arrested.  I’m not sure if that should be allowed.  It seems like a terrible invasion of one’s privacy, and the person may not even be guilty of the charges.

People are sent to rehab free if  they are sent by the court.  By that time, the short rehab stay doesn’t have much affect.  If you could send people to rehab before they are ever arrested for anything, maybe the rehab would do some good.  But rehab for an individual outside the court system costs the individual about $25,000 for a month–and that probably isn’t enough time to do any good.  If you are sent to rehab after you are in the court system, you now probably have a felony on you that will follow you the rest of your life.

We need free rehabs for individuals to enter before they get involved in the penal system!

injustice through jails

Tina and the penal system

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My Calla Lily, Tina, was in jail for four months waiting for a bed in rehab. A friend drove her to rehab about two hours from Tuscaloosa but they would not accept her because she did not have all her prescriptions and medications. The jail should have provided this for her to take to rehab. So she returned to Tuscaloosa and was fancy free for about three weeks. During that time she fell off the wagon but did go to a Detox Center there in Tuscaloosa and then they sent her to another rehab. She had a tantrum and left that rehab after about three days and returned to Tuscaloosa. Her sister, Teresa, got her back in the Detox Center in the Tuscaloosa area. I think Tina finally realized she was going to go to prison if she didn’t follow-through on the rehab. The court sent her to another rehab in a nearby state. She stayed for the three-week requirement in rehab and then caught a bus back to Tuscaloosa. I am very concerned that three weeks is just not enough time to meet her many needs. She is supposed to go to court soon with a $5000 fine to pay. Of course, she cannot pay this fine so she may end up back in jail to “sit it out.” We will see what happens next.

The court does seem to be more flexible than usual and to be giving Tina many chances to straighten up her act. We will see if the court continues to work with her when she goes to court. At this time she is homeless and living with different friends. Unfortunately, most of her friends do drugs, so I am very worried about her. Tina has a long history of physical and sexual abuse in childhood, and the aftermath has been devastating for her.

Tina is one of the four sisters in my book, Calla Lilies: A True Story of Four Sisters and Their Struggle to Survive Abuse, Addiction, and Poverty in America.

injustice through jails

The injustice of the penal system

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One of my Calla Lilies, Tina,  was sexually abused from the time she was 7 until 14 years of age, when she reported the abuse and was removed from the foster home.  She has had a difficult time with illegal drugs or legal drugs without a prescription for years.  Tina has been under probation for using drugs and failed her urine test.  So she was sent to jail for four months waiting for a rehab bed.  When a bed became available, a friend took her to the rehab about three hours from Tuscaloosa; she was told she would have to go back to Tuscaloosa and get some prescriptions she needed before being admitted to rehab.

We have someone who has been locked up for four months suddenly out and about waiting to go to rehab.  She went to the doctor and got her prescriptions, but meantime, she was admitted to the hospital for some serious stomach problems.  She was admitted twice in about two weeks.  She was supposed to go to rehab again last week, but the rehab was sending its staff to some training conference and couldn’t take her until Wednesday, October 15.

She has now been out of jail and waiting for rehab for three weeks.  We in the family have all been worried that she would mess up, and I think she probably has because she did not go to rehab yesterday as she was supposed to.  Now we will have to see what the court is going to do.  Will they still allow her to go to rehab or will they revoke her probation and send her to prison?  Her offenses have all been related to drug abuse.

One statistic I mention in the book is that victims of sexual abuse are 26 times more like to suffer from drug abuse than the average person.  So now we wait to see what the penal system will do with her.