Alisha reflects on the importance of visitations and the heartbreaking reality of being kept apart from loved-ones, she sent us this statement today:
My family is everything to me. They we’re the push behind my hustle, and my motivation to keep pressing through hard times. No matter what I do or where I go my family is always there to have my back and support me. My family is far from perfect, but each one has a love so deep for each other and a loyalty that is never ending. When I feel that loneliness that comes with being in prison, and I call my mother, she knows just the right memories to laugh about to bring me out of my darkness. She’s my strength when I don’t feel like I have any left. But my family is more than happiness they are who I can vent my anger to— because I know they will understand it and bear it, then forget about it, because no argument is stronger than our love. Yes we can be a dysfunctional unit, but we belong to each other and no prison will break that unit, that love, my family. It’s been very very hard not seeing my family. I haven’t seen my mother in over two years due to the prison’s policies that got her background confused, and even now with it fixed, I haven’t seen any of them due to financial issues. The live 8 hours away from me and live in a household of 6: two babies, my nephews, my teenage brother, my sister are going to school (she’s working a full-time job plus caring for two babies), my mother who can’t find good paying work because of her background, and my step-father who should be retired but needs to keep providing for his family, he works odd jobs to cover the expense of bills and rent. Things are hard. So visits have not been an option. I have never seen my youngest nephew Jahari. He is 9 months old, I only can picture his features from listening to his giggles through the phone. My older nephew Yavoni is 1 year 11 months and I haven’t seen him since he was 4 months old. Although i can start a relationship with them through he phone, they do not know me, or what I look like. My little brother Derrick Jr. Is 13. I raised him. From the time he was done nursing, he was attached to my hip. We need each other. This separation threatens to destroy us. It’s what the prison wants, to break us down. Family is one part of maintaining my sanity. And with out them I wont make it in here. Help me, help my family fight this isolation. Help me beat back the prison that’s trying to tear us a part. Please consider sending a donation so that they can see me, touch me, and I can hold my nephews. The collective I’m in is working hard to raise the funds needed to support me, my work in here and my fight for freedom. This is part of my fight. Help me stay connected to my community.
Until we are all free,
LeLe