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Maggots in My Sweet Potatoes: Women Doing Time
By Susan Madden Lankford
ISBN-10: 0979236614
ISBN-13: 978-0979236617
When I received my copy of Maggots in My Sweet Potatoes I thought that this would be an easy read, a simple read. Firstly it looks a bit like a coffee table book. I thought that this would be something to browse, but just a harsher subject matter.
Boy, was I fooled.
Susan Madden Lankford was not there at the jailhouse in San Diego simply to snap photos so that we could see “the inside”. She followed many of the prisoners and even some former prisoners who shared their stories and experiences in raw detail. This book left quite an impression on me. I took it with me to Jomtien, a beach community in Thailand, to read over a weekend. I found myself staying up late into the night to get through the stories this book contains.
It should be of no surprise to the reader to find that most all of the women who were researched and interviewed for this book came from broken homes and the majority of them saw drugs and prostitution as the only life they could live. Susan Madden Lankford doesn’t leave this entirely to the study of these female inmates. She does give us background information about the status of the jails and prison systems in America.
One of the tragic women in the book has been haunting me since reading this book. Her name is Kristina Edwards.
To look at the photos of Kristina Edwards you would think that she could even be the girl next door, yet we are introduced to her as a pregnant teen runaway (eighteen years old at the time the book was researched) who gave birth while incarcerated and was convicted of murder. Kristina is now doing twenty-five to life in a California prison and will never get the chance to raise her daughter. That job fell to her estranged mother, who wasn’t much of a mother to Kristina. Later in the week after returning to Bangkok I found myself doing a Google search on Kristina’s name and case – that’s how much this book can get under your skin. It can leave you with a feeling of hopelessness or, if you are that kind of person, it can make you appreciate what you have: a home to go home to with someone there who loves you.
The book is well photographed and well written. The author did a very professional job and I hope she continues on this path. Susan Madden Lankford is telling many of the stories that we ignore to our own detriment.
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