A strange and new form of heavy, helpless sadness overcame me during a recent tour of the Framingham Massachusetts Women’s Prison on April 18, 2010 as the most recent stop on the year-long Leadership MetroWest Academy . 

It began with the first stop where young women in their late teens to mid-twenties in blue jeans and MCI t-shirts were processed on their way to court - shackled, handcuffed, searched and loaded into the back of an unmarked white van.  A few made eye contact as if to look for someone to acknowledge their humanity.  Most never bothered to see who we were and went through the motions in a zombie-like way. What awaited them outside the prison walls, I did not know.

The sadness grew heavier as we toured medium and maximum security units. MCI Framingham was clean, the staff showed inmates respect and most of the staff smiled, were polite with us and the inmates, and traded light-hearted banter with the Assistant Superintendent (Warden) and guards who led us on our 3-1/2 hour tour.  The sadness came from seeing women confined with no privacy and very little ahead that promised to improve their lives. It grew with repeated references to recent suicides that the staff were shaken by because they could not prevent them.

The Superintendent dropped some stats on us that resonated all day long: over 600 prisoners in a facility designed for 450, average reading level is 6th grade, 85% of the crimes for which inmates were admitted involved substance abuse, over 70% of inmates on some form of mental health treatment plan.  Most had been subject to some form of childhood or sexual abuse. Of the 600+ inmates, the guards felt that maybe 120 or so were dangerous and were better off locked up for their own sakes and the public’s. Prisoners ages ranged from 17- to 78-years-old. Average cost per year of housing them: $45,000 per inmate. Average number of children per inmate: 2-1/2. Whoa.  That’s 1,500 children out there with their mom in prison.

The statistics helped explain but not lessen the sadness.

There were a few encouraging stops along the way - the program where six inmates are training puppies to be assistance dogs for disabled children and adults, the cosmetology and restaurant program, the industrial embroidery program and the GED and remedial classes. But for the most part, the sadness got heavier.

As a society, we must think about how we deal with illiteracy, learning disabilities and behavioral health.  For most of these women, responsible parenting, early childhood education, dropout prevention and early intervention in substance abuse and mental health would have set them on a different course.  This passage of health care reform is a step in the right direction - more working poor will have some coverage down the road and kids 18-26 will be able to stay on their parents’ policies.  But so much more is needed.

I hope that sadness is never one I feel for someone I know or love.  I also hope I never lose touch with that sadness and urgency to do something about it.