Have you ever felt like society was against you? Have you ever struggled to make it in society? Have you ever felt like you had no support from family, friends and the legal system because no one would give you a chance to prove yourself? Well, I fight against these perceptions every day because I am considered a felon. I’m considered a felon because of my criminal record for a crime I never committed but ran away from because I did not know what to do. I did my time, but society seems to continue to hold my mistake against me.
As a very young mother, I was in and out of a bad relationship. I tried to get away and provide for my children but guilt for leaving my children fatherless kept me coming back. I can remember the last time I returned to my abusive relationship, it became the beginning of the end for me. In an effort to protect and defend my children and myself, I committed an act that left my attacker seriously hurt. Rather than stay and face the music, I ran away. I later turned myself in but with no representation and my side of the story never heard, I was convicted of a crime I did not commit and given 10 years in prison with 5 years to serve.
Since getting out of prison, I have felt like society is against me. It feels like people I know along with the legal system keeps holding my criminal record over my head. Rather than helping me and my children to make a better life for ourselves, people continually remind me of what I did and that I am a felon. The legal system is no better. Instead of funding programs to help a person become a productive citizen, the legal system keeps pushing people back into the streets by not giving them a chance to learn how to survive once you have gotten a criminal record. Along with this, you have to struggle everyday just to make it in this society.
Living becomes an everyday struggle because you can’t