by Ximena Ramirez

Created on: July 23, 2008

Til Death Do Us Part

For many girls, the notion of marriage and motherhood is instilled from a very young age. Little girls dream of their wedding day in great detail picturing and planning what they will wear, where they will wed, and of course, who will be there to greet them at the end of the aisle. In a world where more than fifty percent of women experience some sort of abuse, marriage is not always the "happily ever after" we've dreamed up. In Sisters in Pain: Battered Women Fight Back (2000), Elisabeth Beattie and Mary Angel Shaughnessy detail the dark reality of domestic violence by telling the story of nine women imprisoned in Kentucky's Correctional Institution for Women for killing, attempting to kill, or conspiring to kill men who tortured and battered them for years. The book documents these women's stories, their journeys to obtaining parole, life after prison, and finally reaching some sort of normalcy and safety after til death do us part.

Of the entire nation, Kentucky is the state to have enacted the most progressive laws concerning domestic violence. These laws however, like in many other states, are not enforced. As a result, abuse in many marriages goes unnoticed, that is, until it is too late. In the mid-nineties the problem exploded in the state of Kentucky. In fact, in1993 a woman died every four days as a result of domestic violence in the state and in 1994 the Kentucky State Fair displayed a quilt created by inmates of the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women with patches depicting the violent assaults they had faced in their previous relationships, assaults that landed them in jail for defending their lives. The quilt was created by members of the prison's Battered Offender's Self-Help Group (B.O.S.H.), which was created at the request of two inmates. Chandra McElroy, one of the inmate's counselors, agreed to create and lead the group. For the first time these women, who were silenced for years, were able to share their stories with other women who survived similar, if not worse, experiences than them. Together the group formed strong bonds with one another as they embarked on the process of healing.

In sharing their stories, the Kentucky inmates found a number of common experiences. For example, many of the women did not seek help or call the police. Why not? Well, because their husbands were often police officials themselves. Sherry Pollard's husband was a policeman and her father-in-law was the chief of police. When she finally

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