Story here. All it took was an op-ed in the NYT, and bingo, the relocation was stopped. Yet male prisoners relocated routinely away from convenient travel distances for family members are... just not that important. Excerpt:
'The author of the prison memoir "Orange Is the New Black" is relieved that federal prison officials have halted plans to move 1,000 female inmates from Connecticut to a prison far from their families in Alabama, but questions the "rationale" for wanting to send the women far from their homes in the first place.
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Kerman wrote a New York Times op-ed earlier this week criticizing the Board of Prisons plans to transfer the female prisoners incarcerated at the Danbury facility to Alabama.
It is important, she told ABCNews.com, that incarcerated women stay close to their homes and families.
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"It's possible that no one speaks up for these women … It's hard for me to define the rationale of the BOP. I think they should comment on that. It would be important," Kerman said.
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"It makes such a difference, she said. "The things you are working through when serving a sentence -- a lot of guilt and shame, and a lot of consideration of what put you in, and a loss of confidence in what you can or cannot achieve in this world … Connection to folks that are pulling for you, on your side, your team, is really powerful to reinforce that you are going to be able to move forward in your life," she said.'
