Mother’s Day has a special place in the heart of a Michigan woman whose mother’s incarceration kept them separated for decades.
Jen Szénay says in 1990 her mother was sentenced to life in prison for the death of her husband, in a murder-for-hire case. Szénay says her mom is a domestic-abuse survivor who didn’t feel protected by the law.
However, Szénay’s mother was given a commutation from the governor and released from prison last March. She shared what that first Mother’s Day with her mom was like after three decades apart.
“Overjoyed to be together, but it was just like so much shock still surrounding me,” Szenay said. “We had been apart since May 24th, 1990. So just to be able to like sit with her and hold her hand, it’s weird to talk about because there’s so many little things that you don’t realize that you miss in a person until you don’t have it.”
Szénay is with the Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration, an organization advocating for second-chance legislation. It would pave the way for those serving a long prison sentence to re-enter society if they’re deemed to no longer pose a risk to the community. Incarcerated individuals would need to petition their sentencing judge for a reduction of their sentence.
Michigan has roughly 44,000 people confined or detained, and the state spends nearly 20% of its General Fund on prisons, adding up to more than $2 billion per year.
