IF MOMS RAN PRISONS
“If moms ran prisons, they would take a deep look at the resources that governments can direct to improve the failures of incarceration. They would align those resources to keep their loved ones safe, and correct how incarcerated individuals live and relate to others. Departments of corrections would correct and public safety would improve. Period."
In a maximum level state-run prison sat a seventeen-year-old Carrington Frye sentenced to 8 years to serve 6 with credit for two years that he served in county jail. He was prepared to grow from his youthful mistakes, and wasn’t one to complain. Like many other incarcerated individuals, Carrington often talked with his mother about his fears, poor and unsafe conditions, and the chaos of incarceration that overwhelms any personal efforts of rehabilitation.
On March 20th, 2020 Carrington’s mom was notified, not by any prison official, but by another incarcerated person that Carrington had been found in his cell stabbed to death. In response to this ultimate systemic failure, a band of NIA moms launched the Carrington Campaign for Carceral Innovations.
When societies decide that individuals must be sentenced to prison, society accepts the responsibility of keeping those individuals safe and rehabilitating them so that when they return to the community, they are no longer a threat or a burden. Incarceration should, therefore, always be examined and re-examined to ensure effectiveness in reducing crime.
This initiative collaborates the ideas and experiences of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals and their closest family members to research, explore, test and present better operational approaches to how we incarcerate. They put activism behind those ideas, pushing them to authorities across several states.