Mavis’ case presents the other side of the coin. She is an
attractive twenty-eight-year-old blond mother of three, with
eighteen months remaining on her sentence in the Henley unit. She
has a history of drug violations and is incarcerated for forging
checks. She is wracked with guilt and shame over the death of her
second child at the age of nine months. The two were sleeping in
the same bed, and when Mavis awoke, her child was dead. Although
an autopsy showed the baby died of sudden infant death syndrome,
Mavis’s abusive husband convinced her it was her fault. He told
Mavis that if she hadn’t gone to sleep, the baby would still be alive.
Mavis is filled with pain and remorse because she went to sleep! Is
she really responsible for her child’s death?