I think in that one sentence "loved one" refers not to "boyfriend/lover/husband" but to "a person one loves" (including family members). But it is a little confusing and maybe still stretches credulity. The sentence reads "incarcerated loved one" but "loved one with a history of incarceration" would be more what I would expect.
For sure you're right, I just saw the joke and had to make it, ha. But I think even if you assume it means "anyone any of these women care about", 1/4 is far, far too high.
I'll have to dig deeper into how they calculate the statistic, but it doesn't surprise me. We invest more heavily in prisons than in schools in many communities, and our sentences are disproportionately long compared with the rest of the Western world. I spoke with one lady in Arizona who told me how the courts had trouble with jury duty selection in her community; nearly everyone who stepped up to the mic for voir dire the day she reported knew someone inside.
Also keep in mind many people don't talk about openly about their relationships to friends/family/partners inside because of stigma. I've met quite a few "closeted" white collar professionals.
I dug a bit deeper and found the source of that statistic. Essie Justice Group refers to Hedwig Lee et al., Racial Inequalities in Connectedness to Imprisoned
Individuals in the United States, 12 Du Bois Rev. 269 (2015).
From the Abstract:
"Using the 2006 General Social Survey, we fill this pressing research gap by providing national estimates of connectedness to prisoners—defined in this article as knowing someone who is currently imprisoned, having a family member who is currently imprisoned, having someone you trust who is currently imprisoned, or having someone you know from your neighborhood who is currently imprisoned—for Black and White men and women. Most provocatively, we show that 44% of Black women (and 32% of Black men) but only 12% of White women (and 6% of White men) have a family member imprisoned. This means that about one in four women in the United States currently has a family member in prison. Given these high rates of connectedness to prisoners and the vast racial inequality in them, it is likely that mass imprisonment has fundamentally reshaped inequality not only for the adult men for whom imprisonment has become common, but also for their friends and families."
I think you're probably right about the 'history of incarceration' distinction. Lifetime prevalence among males is about 10% in the US. If this risk were evenly distributed in the population, you'd expect almost everyone to have an incarcerated loved one at some point. But as it is, some people will have many incarcerated loved ones and many others will have none.
Found the clarification for this one! Quoted above. From Hedwig Lee et al., Racial Inequalities in Connectedness to Imprisoned Individuals in the United States, 12 Du Bois Rev. 269 (2015).
1. He is rich and able to spend six figures on lawyers, or whatever it takes to stay out of jail. Were he dependent on the PD, he'd be in San Quentin by now and I don't think he'd do well in prison.
2. In addition to property insurance, he had the best gun-owner's insurance he could get (his gun was legal). The property owner's insurance basically tried to prove that he was committing a crime, so that they wouldn't have to pay his defense costs. Gun-owner's insurance covered that, regardless.
He's fortunate indeed! Money and resources help a lot. I wish we did a better job funding PD offices. Some of the most brilliant minds are PDs, but the case load in most areas nearly guarantees they can't provide a quality defense to everyone who needs it.
No lie. But nobody of influence and authority is going to use the PD, so that will never happen.
I have long said that if anyone really were serious about criminal justice reform, I'd ban private defense counsel. Everyone has to use the PD. Bobby Banker's kid, Susie Senator's spouse, Bubba from the trailer park and Tyrone from Section. All have to take their chances with the PD. No favors, no special treatment.
Absolutely! Similar reason to why I support re-instituting a draft. And/or at least some kind of mandatory civil service. So many divides to be bridged when we step into another person's shoes.
Of course, like my PD fantasy, in either case, people of influence and authority would game it, make sure that the charges against their kids were dropped, make sure that Johnny's ADHD meant that he just couldn't be sent to the front lines.
This was a great review, Alicia! It truly deserves publication outside of this newsletter.
`re-instituting a draft'
We tried this experiment in Vietnam. The rich, well-connected, and privileged will always find a way to avoid dangerous service, as they have in every war.
In any case, I'm not terribly keen on giving the government the right to send our young men to possible death against their will. Their bodies and lives are the not property of the government nor the public's.
The populace of this country was more than willing to sacrifice our youth in Vietnam, influenced no doubt by media and government distortion of the causes and consequences of the war in Vietnam. As the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Ukraine, and Palestine have shown neither deserve to be trusted, even now.
Ha! "Juvenile lifer" is a term for someone who received a life sentence as a juvenile. Nothing to do with their current age. One wave of reforms we're seeing across the country is "second look" laws to re-consider these sentences. Many of these men don't pose the same threat in their 30s and 40s as they did at 16.
Love is not random. Sometimes, it's surprising whom a person falls in love with, but that's because people conceal surprising depths, quirks, and kinks, not because the process is random.
If you fall in love with an incarcerated person, there's a reason behind it. Maybe the incarceration itself is the reason. Maybe you have another reason that makes you willing to overlook the incarceration.
There are definitely all kinds of reasons in love! For me, personally, the visceral feeling of seeing someone who I consider fundamentally a *good* and wonderful human being in shackles and chains probably did initially heighten my feelings for my LO. You realize what you were taking for granted.
I met one woman who upended her life in Europe and moved to America to marry a man on death row. She had already been a staunch anti-death penalty advocate in her home country. I think that created a more spiritual bond of sorts with her husband; maybe the manifestation of her existing worldview.
Thank you!!
>The Essie Justice Group estimates 1 in 4 women in America have an incarcerated loved one.
Given that 0.7% of the *total* American population is incarcerated, these men have to be some of the greatest players of all time.
I think in that one sentence "loved one" refers not to "boyfriend/lover/husband" but to "a person one loves" (including family members). But it is a little confusing and maybe still stretches credulity. The sentence reads "incarcerated loved one" but "loved one with a history of incarceration" would be more what I would expect.
For sure you're right, I just saw the joke and had to make it, ha. But I think even if you assume it means "anyone any of these women care about", 1/4 is far, far too high.
The United States incarcerates more people than did the Soviet Union under Stalin.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-americans-in-jail-2012-3
Even taken as a percentage of population, the US prison population is obscenely high. "Land of the Free!" my tail.
I'll have to dig deeper into how they calculate the statistic, but it doesn't surprise me. We invest more heavily in prisons than in schools in many communities, and our sentences are disproportionately long compared with the rest of the Western world. I spoke with one lady in Arizona who told me how the courts had trouble with jury duty selection in her community; nearly everyone who stepped up to the mic for voir dire the day she reported knew someone inside.
Also keep in mind many people don't talk about openly about their relationships to friends/family/partners inside because of stigma. I've met quite a few "closeted" white collar professionals.
I think we aren't incarcerating enough.
Stalin could shoot anyone he wanted, anytime he wanted.
I think I prefer incarceration.
Way to miss the point.
I dug a bit deeper and found the source of that statistic. Essie Justice Group refers to Hedwig Lee et al., Racial Inequalities in Connectedness to Imprisoned
Individuals in the United States, 12 Du Bois Rev. 269 (2015).
From the Abstract:
"Using the 2006 General Social Survey, we fill this pressing research gap by providing national estimates of connectedness to prisoners—defined in this article as knowing someone who is currently imprisoned, having a family member who is currently imprisoned, having someone you trust who is currently imprisoned, or having someone you know from your neighborhood who is currently imprisoned—for Black and White men and women. Most provocatively, we show that 44% of Black women (and 32% of Black men) but only 12% of White women (and 6% of White men) have a family member imprisoned. This means that about one in four women in the United States currently has a family member in prison. Given these high rates of connectedness to prisoners and the vast racial inequality in them, it is likely that mass imprisonment has fundamentally reshaped inequality not only for the adult men for whom imprisonment has become common, but also for their friends and families."
I think you're probably right about the 'history of incarceration' distinction. Lifetime prevalence among males is about 10% in the US. If this risk were evenly distributed in the population, you'd expect almost everyone to have an incarcerated loved one at some point. But as it is, some people will have many incarcerated loved ones and many others will have none.
Found the clarification for this one! Quoted above. From Hedwig Lee et al., Racial Inequalities in Connectedness to Imprisoned Individuals in the United States, 12 Du Bois Rev. 269 (2015).
A human friend of mine just beat one set of gun and weapons charges in San Bernardino.
A stressful process I'm sure! Hope he's able to catch his breath.
My human friend is lucky in that:
1. He is rich and able to spend six figures on lawyers, or whatever it takes to stay out of jail. Were he dependent on the PD, he'd be in San Quentin by now and I don't think he'd do well in prison.
2. In addition to property insurance, he had the best gun-owner's insurance he could get (his gun was legal). The property owner's insurance basically tried to prove that he was committing a crime, so that they wouldn't have to pay his defense costs. Gun-owner's insurance covered that, regardless.
He's fortunate indeed! Money and resources help a lot. I wish we did a better job funding PD offices. Some of the most brilliant minds are PDs, but the case load in most areas nearly guarantees they can't provide a quality defense to everyone who needs it.
No lie. But nobody of influence and authority is going to use the PD, so that will never happen.
I have long said that if anyone really were serious about criminal justice reform, I'd ban private defense counsel. Everyone has to use the PD. Bobby Banker's kid, Susie Senator's spouse, Bubba from the trailer park and Tyrone from Section. All have to take their chances with the PD. No favors, no special treatment.
There'd be some changes, yo, tout suite.
Absolutely! Similar reason to why I support re-instituting a draft. And/or at least some kind of mandatory civil service. So many divides to be bridged when we step into another person's shoes.
Of course, like my PD fantasy, in either case, people of influence and authority would game it, make sure that the charges against their kids were dropped, make sure that Johnny's ADHD meant that he just couldn't be sent to the front lines.
This was a great review, Alicia! It truly deserves publication outside of this newsletter.
`re-instituting a draft'
We tried this experiment in Vietnam. The rich, well-connected, and privileged will always find a way to avoid dangerous service, as they have in every war.
In any case, I'm not terribly keen on giving the government the right to send our young men to possible death against their will. Their bodies and lives are the not property of the government nor the public's.
The populace of this country was more than willing to sacrifice our youth in Vietnam, influenced no doubt by media and government distortion of the causes and consequences of the war in Vietnam. As the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Ukraine, and Palestine have shown neither deserve to be trusted, even now.
This is great.
Thank you, Tana!
I love the line about the rap sheet/resume!
I have to admit that line made me really happy when it "clicked." I took a break when I was stuck and then that phrasing came to me in the shower. 😅
We're just gonna put "...she was dating a juvenile..." on the table and leave it there, huh?
Ha! "Juvenile lifer" is a term for someone who received a life sentence as a juvenile. Nothing to do with their current age. One wave of reforms we're seeing across the country is "second look" laws to re-consider these sentences. Many of these men don't pose the same threat in their 30s and 40s as they did at 16.
Israeli type incarceration: 7 year old little girls. God only knows the full extent of what they do to kids in prison. Disgusting.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7172282906780901377/
"It's true! I saw it on the internet!"
it's true and there are multiple incidents of israelis kidnapping kids!
Love is not random. Sometimes, it's surprising whom a person falls in love with, but that's because people conceal surprising depths, quirks, and kinks, not because the process is random.
If you fall in love with an incarcerated person, there's a reason behind it. Maybe the incarceration itself is the reason. Maybe you have another reason that makes you willing to overlook the incarceration.
There are definitely all kinds of reasons in love! For me, personally, the visceral feeling of seeing someone who I consider fundamentally a *good* and wonderful human being in shackles and chains probably did initially heighten my feelings for my LO. You realize what you were taking for granted.
I met one woman who upended her life in Europe and moved to America to marry a man on death row. She had already been a staunch anti-death penalty advocate in her home country. I think that created a more spiritual bond of sorts with her husband; maybe the manifestation of her existing worldview.
https://x.com/Kahlissee/status/1767636515033645465?s=20
So typical of Israelis to murder Palestinian kids, or jail them without/on false charges.