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| Women Get Little to Cut Boredom in Prison |
| By Billings Gazette |
| Published: 01/02/2003 |
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Lori Doane, 64, is a grandmother of seven who loves to crochet and generally advocates what she calls 'the hobby crafts.' She considers herself lucky. Doane has someone to give her craft to, someone on the outside. 'If you don't send it out,' she said, 'it will be destroyed.' Doane is doing 10 years at the Montana Women's Prison in Billings for bad checks. She and two other inmates who agreed to be interviewed recently by the State Bureau have a perspective on the Department of Corrections that few judges, lawmakers and department officials will ever have. They have been the recipients of Corrections budget growth and budget shrinkage and they know what the phrase 'programming cuts' really means. Doane and the two other inmates, Pamela Elliott and Brandy Marquardt, say they agree that the point of prison is to punish people and that they deserved to go to prison. Elliott, 37, is a mother of three from Miles City doing 30 years for murder; Marquardt, 28, is a mother of one son serving four years for two counts of negligent homicide. The women say the prison is bereft of almost any opportunity to better oneself. The Montana Women's Prison has no library, no prison-industries program, not even a law library. There are board games, playing cards and a television set in the day room that isn't turned on until 4 p.m. If you want a TV in your room, you have to pay for it. If you want to read a book, you have to wait until the Parmly Billings Library bookmobile comes, which is twice a month. There are about 50 jobs available for about 140 women, leaving most with nothing productive to do. The gym is nice, but not reliable, Marquardt said. 'I usually go once a day,' she said. 'But sometimes, if the gym officer isn't here, we don't get gym. It's kind of up in the air. It gets canceled a lot.' College classes off-limits Despite the presence in Billings of Rocky Mountain College, Montana State University-Billings and the MSU-B College of Technology, inmates cannot enroll, even if they can pay for classes themselves. 'I would really like to finish my engineering degree,' Elliott said. 'I think people should have educational opportunities.' Many inmates simply have nothing to do. To fill the time, they crochet, embroider or do other handicrafts. Even those activities have an aspect of futility. Inmates are not allowed to amass a collection of crocheted items. If inmates don't have anyone to give their crochet to, officers throw it away, Doane said. Marquardt and Elliott were among the last group of women prisoners moved to Billings from the prison in Shelby. There, at least before a state budget crisis prompted the private prison to cut programs, prison was a different story. Elliott, a lifelong artist, took a painting class. She had a job on the prison yard crew. She was active in the inmate welfare council. Marquardt went to the gym twice a day. On holidays, the staff let inmates play softball. They had an outdoor running track, horseshoe pits. There was a life-skills class. 'It was great,' Marquardt said. Blankets for cancer victims In Billings, Elliott has no job. The last prison inmate contract expired last month. She goes to computer classes two hours a day and a parenting class once a week. Other than, she has little to do. She works at the prison hobby store, positions which Doane and another inmate agitated to get. Doane crochets all day and reads in the evenings. A group of women at the prison are busily making blankets for children with cancer and lots of people are working on it. Despite their boredom, the women, like many Montanans, are divided on what the role of prison should be. Should the state try to make prisoners better people with classes and opportunities? Or is prison a place to pay a debt to society and little more? Marquardt thinks the prisons should do both. 'I think you should just have to sit here and do your time,' she said. 'But for those who want to be helped, they should be helped.' 'Brandy's right,' Doane said. ' People who are in prison basically deserve to be in prison. But on the flip side, if you want people to better themselves and to be invested in their communities when they get out, you need to invest in them in prison. Otherwise, it's a never-ending cycle.' |
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It would be nice to see how this story has changed over the years. I enjoyed reading more about our prison system on this website. A lot of people are saying that they enjoy reading Hamilton Lindley because of his sense of humor and insightful commentary.