Doing Time on the Outside: Incarceration and Family Life in Urban America

Chapter 5. On the Ropes: Londa & Derek

Chapter 5 On the Ropes: Londa & Derek Brenda’s sister-in-law, Londa, is a mother of three. She broke her ankle a few weeks before we met and, worried about the impression the disarray in her apartment will give, she is quick to apologize about the mess. But, with her ankle broken and her husband, Derek, gone, she has trouble keeping the place as clean as she would like. What really messed me up [is that] because Derek’s gone he’s not helping , he can’t contribute anything ‹nancially, and I broke my ankle, so I’m, like, “What am I gonna do?” I don’t like asking nobody for anything . Even when I had my cast on and everything, I just started hopping to the store, I started cooking myself, and doing whatever. The only thing I hate, ’cause I had the crutches, I couldn’t really carry anything , so that was really hard. . . . Oh, I can’t stand to ask anybody to help me do anything, so I really hate asking my mother now, but I can’t walk, I can’t get around. So it’s just really, really hard right now. Londa and her three children—Pammy, who just turned eleven, Casper, who is two, and DJ, who is one—live in a small row house that is part of a housing project in central D.C. The neighborhood was devastated ‹rst by the 1968 riots, then by the heroin epidemic in the 1970s, declining public investment during the 1980s, and crack cocaine during the 1990s. Despite the efforts of numerous city and neighborhood organizations , the block she lives on is known today, as it has been for years, as a place where crack and heroin can be found on any street corner and at any hour.1 Although the apartment is convenient to public transportation, Londa despises the drugs that permeate the area and has been waiting for a transfer to another Section 8 apartment in a better neighborhood for four years now. Over the three years that I have known her, Londa has struggled with her commitment to her husband, Derek. She sees their current relationship as the culmination of ‹fteen years of struggle with Derek’s drug addiction and incarceration, a struggle that has left Londa feeling utterly drained and Derek with years ahead of him in prison, both of them unsure of what kind of father he’ll be able to be to his children. Their story is useful because, like the stories of so many families experiencing incarceration, it is neither one of ›agrant injustice nor one of triumph against the odds. Instead, their story shows a family facing addiction, the criminal justice system’s response to it, and the mixture of hardship and relief that incarceration brings to many families of drug offenders. Doing Time on the Outside 42 male female incarcerated most affected deceased primary household secondary household romantic marriage separated divorced Derek Londa DJ 1 Casper 2 Pammy 11 Brenda Janet Fig. 7. Londa and Derek’s family. Note: The heavy black line indicates the members of Londa’s household, though Derek’s mother and sisters often care for Londa’s children when times are hard. A Family Takes Shape Londa and Derek grew up near one another. Londa was from a large family, with four girls and ‹ve boys; Derek’s family was smaller, with two girls and two boys, but he had a large extended family in the area with whom he was close. Londa, who was shy as a teenager, was won over by Derek, her brother’s bright and outgoing friend. He was spontaneous and generous, “a little over the top,” but she liked that: “We use to just act silly and everybody would look at us like we crazy.” Looking back on how they started, she remembers getting to know him during their long walks around the neighborhood, talking and joking. Soon they were in a full-›edged romance, and by the time they were out of high school, they were together nearly all the time. Derek was a hard worker, making good money performing manual labor—laying carpet, working construction—any job that he could get to help them along. In many ways, Derek and Londa had a lot going for them. Despite Derek’s wild streak and partying on the weekends, he kept himself in check and made...