Wanetta's Story by Amanda Kliner

Wanetta is 39 years old. Her husband is an ordained minister. She has two children, ages 11 and 19.

She exercises every day. She has an easy laugh, and speaks with assurance. She is from Oklahoma City, but has lived in Taft for the last several months.

This may sound like an unremarkable description of any woman in her thirties, but what makes Wanetta different is what she is doing in Taft. She is an inmate at the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center, finishing up a Substance Abuse Treatment program.

She entered Eddie Warrior six and a half months ago from a jail in Oklahoma City. She is here on drug and alcohol charges, grounds for a felony. She has been incarcerated since December 2006.

The inmates in the substance abuse program at Eddie Warrior have a different experience than those in the general correctional center. They are usually only held up to a year. Wanetta looks forward to her release, smiling as she explains that the date will be March 6 of this year.

For now, Wanetta misses her family, and the things that she looks forward to most while in the correctional center are mail, phone time, and the canteen on Eddie Warrior grounds.

Perhaps what is most interesting about Wanetta is her determination and ability to transform. She explains that many women who have been incarcerated do not want to change. They do not want to follow rules, and do not want to acknowledge that the lives they conducted before getting arrested were troubled.

Wanetta is just the opposite. She holds her time at Eddie Warrior as valuable, and knows that it was time for her to change perspective.

The youngest of six children, Wanetta says that her journey into the world of drugs and alcohol was “learned behavior.” Few siblings managed to escape the influence of the oldest sister, who introduced them to such behavior.

“Drugs and alcohol do not discriminate,” she says, almost laughing.

Listening to this woman, the wife of a minister, with greater determination and confidence than most college students I know, it is easy to see the statement’s truth.

“It is a blessing to be here,” Wanetta explains at the beginning of our interview. Her optimism and genuine determination are humbling.

It is sometimes difficult to remember stories of true human courage, and how they make us aware of the commonalities that bring people together from all walks of life.

But listening to Wanetta, it is harder and harder not to be aware of the ties that bind us all.

Amanda Kliner, shown above with Wanetta, is a communication student at TU.