The Long Goodbye

The article, “The Long Good-Bye: Mother's Day in Federal Prison", by Amanda Coyne discusses how her Mother’s day visit with her nephew to see her sister in Perkin, Illinois Federal Prison Camp. The focus of “Long Goodbye” is on the relationship of separated children and their incarcerated mothers. The women in federal prison were caught doing things for people whom they loved and had no idea what they were doing was illegal, or simply just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Coyne by citing Toby’s desire to be like his mom and his misunderstanding of whether or not she’s “good” or “bad” Coyne highlights the fact that families are effected by the mother and that when the mothers figure is absent, society loses a certain empathy …show more content…
The victim of circumstance was named Stephanie and Coyne’s sister. She was arrested for conspiracy to selling drugs and Coyne’s sister was arrested for calling four times for someone she loved, she had no idea she was committing a crime at the time. They were both accused for criminal behavior and charged as criminals for crimes they had nothing to do with. “All she did was sit in the car while her boyfriend ran into the house. She didn’t even touch the stuff. Never even handled it,” Stephanie’s mother states. (Coyne 3). This shows that Stephanie had no clue of what was going on. She had no idea that there were enough drugs to make her look like a drug dealer, and she had no idea she was sitting in a car full of drugs. This is an example of being a victim of circumstance because due to the time and place all the evidence was pointed right to her and found guilty for something she had no association …show more content…
Coyne feels sympathy for these women; she doesn’t look at them as criminals. She looks at them as mostly young mothers in jail away from their children. She feels sorrow for them because they cannot be there to watch their children grow up. Coyne states, “You can spot the convict-moms here in the visiting room by the way they hold and touch their children.” (Coyne 1) This quote means, just because they committed crimes doesn’t mean they’re any less human than we are. They still feel emotions and human connection. They love and care just like us; they aren’t complete cold-hearted criminals. Also Coyne states, “He uses one of his hands to swat at her. She grabs the hand and he swats with the other. Eventually, she pulls him toward her and smells the top of his head, and she picks up the cards or the toy herself.” (Coyne 3) This women is in jail but it doesn’t sound like she is a criminal by the way she allowed her son to treat her. All she cared about was holding him and spending time with him. Even though this woman is a criminal for committing a crime, shes not a violent person, not a person you need to be worried or afraid of. She’s just like us, she still has emotions just like us and this goes for a lot of people in jail. Based on this information I do not feel that just because these women are in jail they are criminals. These women may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. You can tell that they