The last time Misti spent the holidays with her son, he was a toddler.
Now he’s 8.
“Five Christmases, I’ve missed,” the 33-year-old mother of three said recently, perched on a plush chair inside The Next Door Chattanooga, a correctional release facility on Moccasin Bend where incarcerated women can spend the last few months of their sentences preparing for the free world in a supportive environment.
Misti, only identified by her first name to protect her privacy, moved into The Next Door Chattanooga this fall after serving more than two years in state prison.
Last year, she spent Christmas in that prison.