The New York Times

Mothers in Prison

Today, young women under 18 years of age often are caught in a jail more than men. This is the message from Nicholas Kristof in his New York Time’s article Mothers in Prison. According to Kristof, in Mothers in Prison, these are young women that are single moms. They want to study to be free  but what is their reason to live in a jail. That is alarming, we as a society can stop or limit the system of injustice.  

The problems of mothers being in prison are that prisons will affect their lives forever. First, most mothers in prison were born in a house that has a drug and alcohol system; this will have a bad effect on them. Drugs have harmful consequences, and you could be addicted. As for drugs, it’s  an important topic to talk about with a medical professional, in case your health and future could be at stake. Second, they were born in a country that has chaos and violence, which will cause the children to live a bad lifestyle. Third, they were born in a house where nobody took care of them. So if the child did something wrong, they would be known as criminals. Fourth, a  family’s financial situation would affect their lives because they have to work to earn money to buy items that they need. The children are too young to do that. “What job will they have?” There is no job for young girls and young boys to work for,  so they will sell the drugs or end up doing something wrong. Last, if these mothers in prison were born in the good family,

they would grow up with a good future.  These are problems that affect children because no one helps them with what they need when they are young.

We as a society could stop things or limit this injustice by making sure we do not make the same mistakes over and over again. I feel as if we should reflect on the things that we did. This would help better us, I feel if we want to improve we need to make sure to do better. We have to prove that we can do the job. If we want to stop things, we have to speak out so our voices could be heard. With mothers in prison, it would affect the children for their mother's wrongdoing. I feel the children should not suffer and that their mothers could make up for their mistakes somehow to prove that they can take care of their children with no trouble.

I agree with Nicholas Kristof about the problems of Mothers in Prison. When they do something wrong, they should be taken to jail to rehabilitate, not just to incarcerate. That’s why they should be able to return to their life. In jail, they study jobs, how to reflect on their lives, and how to be a normal person again. Unfortunately, after Mothers in Prison receive freedom, they are not admitted to society because they have a bad record. They will not have the opportunity to work for a job and they continue to do wrong, therefore the consequences would be a lot higher. So, Nicholas Kristof wrote this article to give people an understanding of the life of the mother in the prison before. He wants a society that gives moms the opportunity to start and they are expecting that good thing will come.

In conclusion, I think Nicholas Kristof is a good person because he wrote and explained the world problem in the  New York Times article. By using a famous newspaper that everyone knows about, he wants everyone to forgive the Mothers in Prison and help make society become a bit more just, therefore more mothers from prison will have  a bit more rights.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/opinion/sunday/mothers-in-prison.html