Arizona ranks ninth in the U.S. when it comes to the number of incarcerated women. Most are moms, and many have histories of drug addiction, mental illness and physical or sexual abuse. And when it's time to come home — and many will — the work to repair those bonds can feel impossible without support.
In this second installment of “Beyond the Gates,” we shares this story of one formerly incarcerated mother and the power of second chances.
There’s a line in the popular Apple TV show "Ted Lasso" in which he says, “I hope that either all of us or none of us are judged by the actions of our weakest moments, but rather by the strength we show when and if we're given a second chance.”
But second chances don’t always come easy — especially for the mothers who leave prison or jail with hopes of reunifying with the children they left behind.
A life turned upside down
Magen Turnbo was one of those moms. She struggled with addiction and that led to other crimes, including fraud. In 2015, police raided her home. Magen was arrested and went to jail.
Her youngest son, Kameron Turnbo, was 9 at the time.
“And the thing is that I remember it — like it's, it's vivid,” he explained. “I was in bed when I heard the door come down, kind of thing. And I was coming downstairs to figure out what was out. And all of a sudden you see fully tacked out SWAT guys, like it’s an experience. It's shocking."
Kameron went to live with his grandparents.
Their story isn’t unique. According to The Sentencing Project, about half of incarcerated people in the U.S. are parents of children under 18 — and a disproportionate number are mothers.
Incarcerated women are the most traumatized group
Dominique Roe-Sepowitz is a professor at Arizona State University and the director of the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research there. She’s been studying incarcerated women at Estrella Jail and recently released a first of its kind survey of inmates at Perryville women’s state prison in Goodyear.
“What we found was, overwhelmingly, that this is probably the most traumatized population in the United States — incarcerated women, women behind bars," Roe-Sepowitz said.
Roe-Sepowitz found extremely high rates of both childhood and adult victimization among the women she surveyed. And more than 70% struggled with addiction.
But when she looked at their family histories, the data was eye-opening.
She said “55% had been kicked out of their home as a child."
"So that lack of stability, that lack of relationship; 65% had been in a relationship with a domestic violence offender. Big histories of violence. And then 78.2% of them had at least one child. And of those, 45% had at least one child under the age of 18," she said.
Parenting, she said, isn’t a natural experience for everyone. And for mothers with histories of addiction or trauma — especially those reentering society after incarceration — it can be incredibly difficult.
Magen said she went to jail roughly a dozen times.
“Yeah, getting your children taken, and then having to try to go through DCS, and jump through all their hoops, when you're trying to get sober … you have to go to classes, you have to get a job, you don't have a car, we lost our house, so we're homeless," Magen said.
Magen eventually got sober. Today, she works at New Freedom — a 90-day reentry program that offers mentorship, job training and trauma support for people leaving incarceration.
And her relationship with Kameron — now 20 — is healing.
“My son works at New Freedom. That's my baby,” she said proudly. “So it took a while, but we were building that relationship.”
'Do the crime, do the time' is not always the answer
But we live in what Roe-Sepowitz calls a moralistic society: a world that’s not so forgiving, especially toward moms — the ones who were supposed to protect their children from harm.
“Unless you're perfect, unless life has been really excellent, no one has ever victimized you and you've never victimized anyone, our moralistic society isn't terribly kind,” Roe-Sepowitz said.
That’s why, she says, the solution isn’t just, "do the crime, do the time" — it's to help people heal from their trauma so they can re-enter society as a better person.
“And what we are asking for in our recommendations — both in the jail study and the prison study — is to provide parenting support,” Roe-Sepowitz explained. “Teach parents how to have those relationships, how to talk so children listen, understanding how a child's brain develops, so they can be the parent that they should be when they are released from incarceration.”
And aside from learning how to parent and processing old traumas, for so many mothers like Magen, it’s about being able to forgive themselves and to let go.
“I think that's a big, big part of it,” Magen said. “Because for a long time, I was ashamed of losing my kids and, and who I was — so that's a big part of it, too — because if you can't forgive yourself, then you're always going to feel like you're worthless."
And the risk of turning back to those old habits is much higher.
-
A first of its kind collaborative is looking to provide learning opportunities for women who are incarcerated at Estrella Jail, Maricopa County’s only all-female jail. -
KJZZ explores the barriers and risks incarcerated women face as they prepare to leave prison and start their lives over again. -
Women are a small but growing segment of the state’s prison population, and their needs are distinct. Yet, many of the programs designed to prepare them for release were primarily tailored for men.There are efforts in Arizona aimed at giving incarcerated women a real second chance. -
For two hours, students in a Phoenix college class — many studying criminal justice — will try to navigate life after prison. It’s a simulation, but it doesn’t take long to feel real.
