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December 14, 1995 AUGUSTA FOCUS
4
Missing sons
Barbara Stewart is drawn to
the empty bedroom once occupied
by her son.
She gazes at the green pants
and green-and-beige shirt he neat
lylaid out on his twin-sized bed for
school the next day, as if staring
hard and long enough will bring
her son back after almost a year.
“It's been 10 months, but it’s
still hard for me to believe my son
is in prison,” Mrs. Stewart said.
“Just the word prison is hard to
say.
“This is a hard pill to swallow. I
mean, it took a long time before 1
could even say to myself, ‘l've got
a 17-year-old son in prison.” The
word prison is hard,” she said,
choking back tears.
Thinking of the unworn outfit
Leon Bennett had prepared the
Thursday night before his Jan. 6
sentencing, Mrs. Stewart
poignantly explained why the shirt
and pants are just as they were
almost a year ago — ready to be
worn.
“I feel like if I put them up,
that’s just going to be it for me.
Everyday I go in there and I look
at them, and I just still can’t be
lieve it,” she said in a controlled,
yet scared way.
“They are still just the way he
left them, and I won't let anybody
in my house touch them,” she add
ed with determination.
Eric Mullins’ unlawful behav
ior has landed his mother, Debra
Jackson, in the same desperate
situation.
Much of Ms. Jackson’s behavior
falsely suggests all is normal with
Eric.
“It’s just like he’s not gone any
where,” Ms. Jackson said of how
she conducts conversations with
people who innocently ask how
'Eric is doing. Few people know
‘the boy is doing time.
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But even her talks with Eric
during expensive collect calls from
jail are under a comfort-seeking
pretense, as they are dominated
by everyday things like the condi
tion of his favorite tennis shoes
and what girls have called him.
The sight of her son in jail —
clad in his blue and white stripes
marked by an identifyving number
—-makes it hard to pretend, how
ever.
A Serious Mistake
About 11:15 Sept. 6 a year ago,
long-time friends and neighbors,
Leon and Eric, both Academy of
Richmond County students —
along with three others, accord
ing to police reports — robbed a
Papa John’s Pizza delivery wom
an of four pizzas and two 2-liter
sodas at gunpoint.
The police came for them a week
later.
After a brief return home on
bond until sentencing, Leon and
Eric were taken away to begin the
next 10 years of their lives —
behind bars. They were only 16
and 17 years old.
A Mother’s Grief
Nomatter how depressing Leon
and Eric’s situation may be, it is a
familiar story that often fails to
evokesympathy. Butanevenmore
disheartening, yet seldom-told
story, is that of the mothers’ grief.
Mrs. Stewart and Ms. Jackson
have been consumed with fear,
worry, anger and a sense of help
lessness knowing that in the year
2005, instead of celebrating Leon’s
and Eric’s job promotions or mar
riages, they could still be worry
ing about their survival in jail.
They don't suggest that their
boys shouldn’t be punished. They
do, however, believe the time is
too harsh for the crime, especially
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considering the boys’ youth and
previously clean records.
They, too, are being punished
for their sons’ screwup.
They’re miserable at home with
out them, but visits don’t soothe
their crying hearts.
Visits With Humiliation
The tiring three-hour drive to
Alto, Ga., about 75 miles north
east of Atlanta, ends in no relief.
The ominous cemetery across the
street from Lee Arrendale Correc
tional Institute sets the sceneforthe
remainder of the visit.
The razor-sharp barbed wire
that encages their sons.
The slamming of iron doors and
the quiet, yet deafening clicking of
locks along the walk to the wide
open visiting area where officers
hover like flies.
The sight of officers peeling off
latex gloves just used to strip
search inmates returning from
visits.
It all makes them sick to their
stomachs, Ms. Jackson’s and Mrs.
Stewart’s disgusted expressions
say as they struggle to describe
their visits.
“I've been humiliated. I've gone
down there for nothing,” Ms. Jack
son said angrily. “I can remember
going one day and I had to sit up
and wait for about an hour be
cause they felt his work in the
kitchen was more important than
a visit. These are the kinds of
things you have to put up with
when you go to visit.”
Eric, who dreams of attending
Florida State University to major
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Mothers of incarcerated teens wrestle
with a different kind of daily challenge.
in computer science, was pulled
out of school where he was work
ing on his GED and thrown into
kitchen detail. He hashad tofight
alot with other inmates.
Leon, who aspired to study elec
trical engineering at Augusta
Technical Institute, was forced to
give up auto mechanics classes so
he could do outside detail.
“People arealwaystalkingabout
the prisoners getting treated so
well, but they just don’t know.
They need to go take a visit them
selves,” Mrs. Stewart said, think
ing of the useless tasks to which
the boys are assigned.
Although their sons aren’t un
der their roofs, the mothers
haven’t been relieved of many fi
nancial burdens that come with
caring for their children.
“The only thing the prison sys
tem providesis the blue and white
stripes and thatslop theycall food,”
Ms. Jackson said.
The mothers regularly send toi
letries, underwear, T-shirts, mon
ey — little things that quickly add
up.
The Hope
What could ease these grieving
mothers’ pain now?
“All I want is for them to come
out of Alto because my son wasn’t
acriminal before he wentinthere,
but if he stays up there, those
inmates are going to teach him
how to be one,” Mrs. Stewart said.
As mothers often do, Mrs.
Stewart and Ms. Jackson spoke
fondly of their sons, painting a
picture that hardly captures the
features of a criminal.
“Leon is quiet. He’s a very lik
able person — anybody can tell
you that. He'sjust a quiet, easygo
ing young man who never bothers
anybody. That’s why it was so
surprising when this happened,”
Mrs. Stewart said. !
Of Eric, Ms. Jackson said, “If
you ever met him, he’d keep yop
laughing all the time because hels
still like a young boy — playing,
laughing, kidding around.” i
The boys try to preserve this
picture-perfect image for thei!'r
moms — trying to protect them
from their ugly reality. 1
“Leon puts up a good front, bu
I can see it in his face. It's @
sadness,” Mrs. Stewart said, e-spe%—
cially when she leaves him unti!
the next visit. {
And semetimes Loon breakg
down. |
“He tells me on the phone soma
times, Mamma, I can't take it. |
Jjust can’t take it no more.” And o
the days he has his down days, I
have mine,” Mrs. Stewart said. !
“Mine says, ‘Don’t worry mam|
ma, I'll be all right,” but T know
better,” Ms. Jackson said. i
Although he sugarcoats it {;i
his mother, Eric tells it like it is td)
his 12-year-old brother. ‘
“He tells his little brother thaj
the only thing in prison s violencg
and homosexuality and it's ng
place he’'d want to be,” Ms. Jack|
son said. l
Mrs. Stewart worries about pris
on violence. Asked her worst feat
of what could happen to Leon no
that he’s in the system, she quick
ly replied:
“He’s going to get raped, beat, of
killed. Those are my three wors
fears. Every time my telephond
rings, my heart’s beating fast a m‘
I'm thinking somebody’s going t 4
tell me something has happenecl
to my son,” she said.
Even if Leon escapes the vin‘
lence, there is a concern.
“I hope he comes back home wit!
the same mind he left with,” Ms
Stewart said, hoping that Leor
won't return a skilled criminal