Incarcerated Women: Theological Reflections On Their Stories -- By: Margaret English de Alminana

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 24:2 (Spring 2010)
Article: Incarcerated Women: Theological Reflections On Their Stories
Author: Margaret English de Alminana


Incarcerated Women: Theological Reflections On Their Stories

Margaret English de Alminana

Margaret English De Alminana currently works as Program Coordinator of the graduate and Jerusalem studies programs at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, where she also is an Adjunct Professor of Theology and Ethics. She is formerly Senior Chaplain of Women at Orange County Florida’s Female Detention Center, and has written numerous books and articles.

During the past several years, I worked as senior chaplain of women at one of the nations largest jails in Orlando, Florida. My experiences have left me with many conflicts and questions that I am still sorting out about women, our world, and the role of faith in it.

Madison’s story (not her real name), and those of so many like her, helped create my conundrum. She was beautiful: tall, extremely thin, with lightly toned African American skin. With such striking good looks, she could have walked off the pages of a glamour magazine just as easily as into the chaplains office. She sat down where dozens of troubled women, young and old, came every day. Barely old enough to be in jail at all, Madison’s wide eyes looked deep into my own as she began her session with a question: “Can I be a prostitute and a Christian at the same time?”

She began pouring out a story, pieces of which I had heard hundreds of times. She had been raised in foster homes throughout her life, and, when she turned eighteen, she was sent out on her own, alone, with no resources, home, support structure, education—nothing. This beautiful child immediately fell into the sights of one of the many human merchandisers who prowl the back corners of our world. Baited with promises of fame and hopes of love and family, this child took the inducement.

With the casualness of discussing nail polish or favorite hair styles, she turned around and lifted her shirt to show me a back that looked like a scene from Roots. She revealed hundreds of ugly scars from beatings—violence that forced her submission and sent her into the dark streets of the sex trade, selling her body and soul because she believed she had no choice. Just as certain as the slavery in Roots, she, too, was a slave. With genuine sincerity, she wanted to give her life to Jesus Christ, but she considered that she had no life to offer, that her will was not her own.

This inmates story might have been little more than another sad footnote to one more harrowing day if it did not represent the overspill of a terrifying and rising tide of human suffering. A modern sexual slavery industry is not only flourishing in Asia and Africa, but right here in our own American communities.

Human Trafficking

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