poverty in the district

Today I got a first hand look at poverty. I took a statement from the complaining witness in an assault with intent to kill case. She lived in the bottom floor of an apartment complex with her five young children. She is only 26 years old. During the course of the interview she kept the oven open so that the room would be warmed. When we walked in I immediately noticed large bugs crawling up the walls, her little girl sitting in a high chair missing clothes, and the lack of room and furniture in the dilapidated apartment. During the course of the interview the witness started crying. She told me that living is hard, she lost her mother less than a year ago and her baby’s father doesn’t support her in any way and it is so hard to take care of all of these kids by her self.
After the interview we had to take pictures so that we could photograph the crime scene, the kids had never seen a digital camera before. They all wanted their pictures taken. As I left I realized that the chances of these kids getting out of their current life and into a better one was limited, because of unequal and prejudicial school system they will never have the opportunities I’ve had. The inequality and racism in our system is an epidemic, it makes me very sad to see the tragedies associated with our societies failures.