Once a prisoner, now a poet

It was during a time while sitting in the county jail for 14 months when Kara Chapman made a life-changing decision.

The mother of four from Duncan had been convicted of meth possession in 2018 and now she had to choose a path.

“There’s nothing to do in county jail but think,” Chapman said. “So, I really had an opportunity in there to say ‘Okay, how did I get here?’ And what am I going to do about it?’ And there was definitely a moment where I had been praying and believing actually that God was not going to send me to prison. So, when I was sentenced, I was like, oh, no, I’m definitely going to prison.”

So her path to choose was to either give up or learn from her mistakes. She chose the latter.

“As soon as I got to (the state prison), I went to sign up for college classes. I signed up for as many classes as I could and went to chapel. I did not want to waste any time.”

She went on to get her Associate’s degree.

Like so many other incarcerated people, going to prison was never in the plan.

“I lived my whole life in Duncan and I was pretty much a stay-at-home mom,” Chapman said. “I homeschooled my kids and then I went through a really rough time and ended up becoming addicted to meth. It only took seven months of addiction for me to end up in county jail on a child neglect charge for having drugs in my home.”

She was sentenced to seven years, of which 85 percent was mandatory before she could be eligible for parole.

“While I was at Eddie Warrior Correctional Center, I did a lot of work on myself because I didn’t want to end up in the same situation again,” Chapman said.

One of the classes she took was called Poetic Justice, a creative writing class, and it helped shape her future.

“I just really loved and enjoyed it,” Chapman said. “I found a lot of healing through writing.”

After five years in prison, she tried to get her sentence commuted.

“I went before a parole board and there had been a statute change that limits the state’s ability to charge people with child neglect simply for having drugs in the presence of a minor.”

Because of the statute change, her sentence was reduced to five years, which she had already done.

“So as soon as the governor signed (the commutation), I was out of there,” Chapman said. “When I found out I was leaving, I talked to the people at Poetic Justice and they said they had a program called a re-entry journal.

“It was just people writing five or 10 minutes a day about what it was like trying to get back to your life and get back into the world,” Chapman said. “And they said they would pay me. I thought that was awesome and that I would love to do it.”

Right before she left prison, they had a professional photographer come in to take portraits for those involved in Poetic Justice.

“They took these big, beautiful black and white photos and gave them to us so that we could have some pictures of us other than mugshots,” Chapman said. “And then we each wrote a poem to go along with it.”

The pictures and the poems were displayed at a Poetic Justice exhibit at Oklahoma City University on Nov. 9. There was also a panel in which Chapman took part. She was joined by Tricia Everest, the Oklahoma Secretary of Public Safety, Ellen Stackable, the head of Poetic Justice and one other former inmate.

“We told our stories and answered some questions,” Chapman said. “It was a beautiful thing about policy change and kind of how they’re trying to bring about a lot of changes in DOC to where there’s more rehabilitation instead of just punishment.”

She considered it an honor to be selected for the exhibit and panel.

“It was so empowering and it was amazing,” Chapman said. “Getting there and meeting all these other successful and powerful women and they spoke to me like I was on their level. They didn’t look down on me for being an inmate. They were excited to see what I had done. It made me feel like I mattered. Like maybe I can do something good with my life.”

Chapman is now living in Comanche as part of the Heather’s Hope community. She gets to see her children every other weekend as she seeks to rebuild bonds with her children who range in age from 12 to 6.

Even though she was from Duncan, she had never heard of Heather’s Hope Housing. It was her children’s guardian that told her about it. She became involved with the program in August.

“I had been looking into a lot of other sober living homes because I knew I wanted to go somewhere where I could get assistance,” Chapman said. “I needed to get my life back in order. So I knew I wanted somewhere close to my kids so this is what I chose.”

And the experience has been a good one.

“It was really difficult at first getting out and having restrictions and not being able to do whatever I wanted,” Chapman said. “But, I got used to it and started building relationships with everybody. It’s really setting me up to be successful. They make sure I have clothes and food and helped me find a job and make sure I get to the visits with my kids. They provide you everything you need getting out of prison that you don’t have. I walked out with nothing but the clothes on my back.”

It’s not just the physical support that has been helpful.

“They’re just so supportive, they just really gather around you and make sure you’re doing okay and ask you how you are doing,” Chapman said. “They ask how you how you are feeling and if there is anything they can help you with. It’s awesome.”

Then there are the benefits of the use of the food pantry and clothes closet where she also volunteers.

“It gives opportunities to kind of serve the community because that is something really important to me because it gives life more purpose when you can pour into other people and help other people,” Chapman said. “It makes you feel less like a victim.”

She is also gainfully employed as a waitress at Bob’s Landmark Eatery in Meridian.

Chapman’s philosophy may be best summed up with a line from her written work titled, “Fairer.”

“I am of this so-called weaker sex, but I will never answer to ‘weak’ again.”