Pubdate: Wed, 09 Dec 2015
Source: Walker County Messenger (GA)
Copyright: 2015 Walker County Messenger.
Contact:  http://www.walkermessenger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2755
Author: Lacey Gifford

TREAT ADDICTION, DON'T JAIL IT

Dear editor,

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a 
different outcome. Addiction is an obsessive compulsive behavior that 
interferes with everyday life. For an addict to change they must 
change their people, places and things. Government has become so 
focused on the war on drugs and forgotten about the ongoing battle of 
addiction. Probation is not designed to help. We are just another 
number; another lost cause in the eyes of the state.

Addiction affects everyone whether it is addiction to God or drugs, 
coffee or exercise, over or under eating. Addiction is an everyday 
battle. A successful recovering addict must change their people, 
places and things. Being incarcerated I am forced to form 
relationships with other addicts, in a place that makes me feel numb, 
and treated like an object. I am a number, no longer a person with a name.

Beginning early in adolescence, I started searching for a way to 
escape the guilt and shame caused by years of abuse. As soon as I 
took my first drug, I knew I had found the answer I had been looking 
for, or so I thought. Locking me away like an animal does not teach 
me to be clean. I cannot learn new coping skills. If the battle of 
addiction can be won, then the war on drugs can be conquered. I am an 
addict with a disease. Like someone with cancer, I must be treated. 
Treat the disease before it kills.

Probation punishes addicts by putting them in jail. We are numbered 
and sentenced the same. The same people keep coming back, so 
obviously something needs to change. I cannot vote to make a change 
because my voting rights have been stripped away. Probation doesn't 
help probationers find a job or try to keep them sober. I am a smart 
and beautiful young woman wasting away in the Walker County jail.

My children, ages four and six, are quickly learning to numb the pain 
of their mother being gone. Teaching them to ignore their "problem" 
rather then work through them. I am not a "problem." I am a person. 
Every day I pile on more shame and regret for the time spent away 
from my family. I feel hopeless and unworthy. Defeated before I 
begin. Who will stand up to make a change? When will someone speak 
for women and their families caught in addiction? I want to be the 
person I know I can be. I want to be proud of the woman in the 
mirror. All I want for Christmas is to hold my children. I want to 
hold my head high. Who will stand up for me?

Lacey Gifford, inmate at the Walker County jail
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom