M.O., a 16-year-old, has a tattoo “Always and Forever” with a reverse ampersand - she got it last month.
At the time of this visit, she’d been at this facility for 2 weeks - her 8th time. She usually stays 2 to 3 months at a time.
“I’m waiting to try and find placement, group home that deals with rehab for drugs and alcohol. I was using E, but here they call it “THIZZOES,” the street name for E. I should be a sophomore, but I have no credits for school. The last grade I completed was 8th,” she says.
“My mom visits. She isn’t a parent; she’s a teenager in a parent body. She has 5 kids; one put up for adoption; one died; she was no job.”
M.O.’s Mom is 40 and into drugs and alcohol - she has a husband, but he’s not M.O.’s dad. Her dad died when she was 5 or 6 from a morphine overdose. She was abused by her mom, her mom’s husband, and her dad. She was sexually abused by her mom’s husband - he was charged but booked to Mexico.
“Always and forever means I’m never going to give up; I’m going to always try. I’m not done yet,” she says.
According to a 2015 study, “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story,” 39% of girls in the juvenile system have a history of being sexually assaulted, 40% are physically abused, and 56% are domestically abused. For many of these girls, there is a clear link between their experiences with abuse, the lack of appropriate trauma treatment, and the behaviors that led to their arrest.