Cathy

France and I spent time with Cathy
during the winter of 2005-2006. She had these
mugshots taken when she entered the Illinois
Department of Corrections on April 12, 2006.She
was living in a basement, supporting herself by
prostitution and using crack cocaine. There is much
more to her story, but here you can see how her
limited options devolved into a flakey proposition to
"work" for the police as an informant. When this proved
unproductive, she was arrested with results you can see below.

After 71 days in Cook County Jail, Cathy pled guilty to (POSS AMT CON SUB EXCEPT(A)/(D), that is, a pebble of crack.

In order to ensure her early release from incarceration, rather than wait months or years for an actual trial, she accepted a sentence of one year, which likely means she will serve a total of 132 days. Considering the Illinois Department of Corrections reports the "Average Annual Cost Per Inmate: $32,666.00," we calculate $11,813.00 for incarceration alone, excluding the costs of law enforcement and court services.

Cathy will leave state corrections with $10 in gate money and a bus ticket back to the place she was arrested. Good luck.

Our concern is that she will find herself back in the same situation when she is released as she faced the day she was arrested--homeless, no income and no prospects. What will she do to survive? We're going to mail her prescription glasses to her at Dwight Correctional Facility.

She had these mugshots taken when she entered the Illinois Department of Corrections on April 12, 2006.

UPDATE: Kathy has new mugshots, much like the old ones, except in a yellow jumpsuit. She also has been moved to Decatur Correctional and earned "goodtime" of 90 days that entitle her to release on June 13th. There is a problem with that scenario, since we have learned the court and her public defender neglected to clear a warrant more than a year old for a $1200 fine she failed to pay. She doesn't know this yet. Standard procedure dictates this is resolved when she is sentenced to prison time. But it wasn't. Probably she will be escorted to the gate for prison release and then handcuffed and thrown in a van back to Cook County Jail. Ha Ha.

Kathy is also bi-polar or manic-depressive, depending on the diagnoses. Frozen in a loop of immediate impulse thought patterns, she is nearly incapable of considering her future or potential consequences without medication.

Twice France sent her a list of halfway houses that might accept her upon release and twice corrections has sent them back. If she had the list, she could call for a phone interview, but she's told six weeks until release isn't enough time to arrange--a phone call. The prescription glasses we carefully bought in plastic frames and sent her were never delivered, so she can't read. I suppose she's lucky she's not in prison for anything serious.

I'm also not surprised she believes her tricks value her more than the entire police, court and correctional system combined. They've worked hard to earn it.