SAUNDRA AND ANTOINE
Saundra was 19 years old when she was incarcerated. For her, prison had a major silver lining: it was a place where she could escape longtime abuse from her son Antoine's father. “I knew I had a son, I loved my son, but I felt that if I stayed with his father, I don’t think I would be here today, I would be dead. The abuse was so bad I had black eyes for years," she says. "I began to feel safe when I was incarcerated because he could not get to me there."
But Antoine also ended up going to prison, and the two lost touch for more than 20 years. “I was, like, 8 or 9 years old. My mother was on the phone,” Antoine says. “She was incarcerated, I didn’t know what she was in for, how long she would be in prison, or anything. When someone asked, ‘Where is your Mom?’ I didn't know how to answer. I would say, ‘She’s in the house.’”
When both of them returned from prison and reentered the community, they had to work hard to try to get to know each other all over again -- a process that wasn’t always easy. Many families affected by incarceration have trouble staying in touch and then face serious difficulties reconciling after the prison experience. Lengthy sentences for nonviolent crimes are a major stress on families that could otherwise provide support and help their loved ones stay out of trouble.
