When my daughter was four-months-old, I experienced another loss, my father died. Fifteen days later, I received a phone call from an attorney telling me my mother had given my baby to the state, and I had to be in court in three days. The reason my mother gave for her actions, she “would not raise a half-black baby by herself.” In her selfishness and prejudice, she forgot about the innocence of her granddaughter.
After that first court hearing with a court appointed attorney, I fought for two years to keep my child. I turned to other family members, but no one wanted to get involved. I had no one to turn to.
Michigan law states that if a parent is incarcerated for two years, their parental rights can be terminated. According to the law, I “neglected” my child because I was in prison, and I couldn’t get out. I have been in front of the parole board three times, only to be denied release each time.
True to the word of the law, my parental rights were terminated in September of 2000. I appealed the court’s decision, only to be told by the court appointed appellate attorney, that if I did not stop the appeal, the Family Independence Agency, would place Helen with a family who would adopt her immediately, the file being sealed. I would not know the whereabouts of my child. I stopped the appeal, by signing an affidavit, out of fear of never knowing where my child was.
My daughter’s foster parents adopted her, and I was lucky to get a good family to raise her. They were allowing me to stay in contact through phone calls once a month. She doesn’t know who I am, but she will talk to me.
Recently MDOC has joined in with the phone company, Sprint, in a money-making operation. Families and friends of prisoners must make a $50 deposit to Sprint in order for us to call. Some are barely able to pay the high costs of the existing phones calls, much less a $50 deposit and the cost of the phone bill. If the deposit is not paid, the phone number is restricted from being reached.
This is what has happened to my phone calls. I have written letters to the family, explaining the new Sprint system. They have not responded and I have not spoken to my daughter in three months. I fear that the adoptive parents no longer want me contacting her any more. The state has terminated my parental rights, per the law they have every right to stop our phone calls. With the new Sprint system, MDOC has stopped a lot of parents from speaking to their children.
I am currently in the process of starting an organization called The P.A.C.K. (The People Against Court Kidnapping). The state has made kidnapping of innocent children legal as long as they do it. It will be an organization of support to incarcerated parents. The kidnapping of children is not only happening in Michigan. Incarcerated parents across the U.S. are forced with the struggle and pain of never seeing their child(ren) again. Pregnant mothers sitting behind bars have no one to turn to, to raise their newborn child. At times when mothers are forced to leave their newborn, they have no idea where the baby is going. The P.A.C.K. will support these parents.
At times I am able to see the pregnant women walking the walkway inside the prison. The numbers go up and down, but there are always pregnant women here. It makes me wonder how many pregnant women are sitting behind prison walls across the U.S.? How many mothers, as you read this, are leaving their newborns at hospitals, only to be returned to prison? How many parents, mothers, and fathers are fighting desperately inside America’s courthouses for the right to keep their children? How many will never see their children again?
This is my voice, one that is screaming out for help in fighting this unjust system. Where are their voices?
By Kebby Warner is incarcerated in Michigan. After losing custody of her daughter, Helen, she became active in the struggle against the prison-industrial complex and is forming an organization called PACK (People Against Court Kidnapping) to protest incarcerated parent’ lack of rights.
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