Prison's Children

Prison’s Children: Kids and families swept up in the wake of a mother’s incarceration

by Tim Covi

photographs by Ross Evertson

FEATURESTOR Y

July/August 2008 Denver VOICE 13

In a span of three months,

Pamela Clifton lost her husband, her children, and almost nine years of her life to a 90-day drug problem. She was 34 years old when she was arrested and sentenced to a 9 year term, 6 years in prison with 3 years of probation, for possession of 1.5 grams of meth-amphetamine.

That was the winter of 1997. Looking back at that time, Clifton openly says she needed help, but believes prison wasn’t the answer. “Oh! I had a big problem. My husband had just died and I had lost my mind. I needed to go to treatment really, really bad.”

But she said there weren’t many options for a person of her means. “I tried. I looked for treatment. Problem was I had a house. I couldn’t afford treatment. If I would have had the

money to hire someone to watch my kids, take care of my house and put myself on a sabbatical for 60 days at Betty Ford, none of this would have happened.”

Clifton said her options were a $30,000 residential treatment program, or an outpatient program available in Fort Collins. She took the outpatient program, but after missing 3 hours of classes when she had the flu that winter, was removed from the class.

She continued in a downward spiral between October 1996 and February 1997. Recounting her husband Greg’s death and the events that led up to her arrest, Clifton

said: “Greg was in Lutheran Hospital after being taken there from the Arapahoe House Detox center. I went and picked him up to take him to treatment in Greeley but we were short the $78 needed to go in. We went home so that he could make a court appearance and so I could get the money we needed to get him into treatment. All of his things were actually at Island Grove when he died at home.