"Well, our question was: What's home? Let's try to answer that."

December 26, 2017 2:53 PM

This is the story of a dozen women who aren't waiting for the end of the prison sentences imposed on them to start building their new lives.

To be clear, that wasn't a metaphor: the building process will involve concrete, heavy machinery, and pink hard hats.

posted by queen anne's remorse (5 comments total)

This was great. Thank you.
posted by greermahoney at 5:04 PM on December 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I really appreciated this. This snippet, though:

The women are concerned that officials will implement it for the state’s male inmates.

Combined with the reality that this program might not actually get funded for the women just pisses me off that it’s even a possibility. I mean, ya, let’s get male inmates help too. But. I just can’t even.
posted by bilabial at 6:49 PM on December 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

That was the line that stuck with me, too, because the situation has so many opportunities for standard gender bias to take over. Constructing houses? Men's work. Doing the hard behind-the-scenes work, then a man steps in and takes credit? Old story. More men in prison, of course, so it's just numbers, right? And men out of prison need to provide for their families, so .... call me cynical, but I have a bad feeling about this.

I loved the line from one of the inmates about it taking her to be in prison to realize what an involved citizen can do.
posted by Dashy at 7:06 PM on December 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Thompson, whose own 18-year-old daughter was so moved by what her mom has accomplished that she plans to visit the prison in the coming months; when they last saw each other, she was 3.

Oh, man.
posted by praemunire at 7:18 PM on December 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Having seen this happen is really fascinating as an Indianapolitan.
posted by koavf at 10:05 PM on December 27, 2017