Flag Day: Banners Are Symbol Of Liberty Their Seamstresses Hope To Regain

 

From the State House to the courthouse, the Stars-and-Stripes flying this Flag Day morning and throughout the year may be a symbol of “liberty and justice for all.” But the women who sewed them lost their liberty a good while ago in Maryland’s justice system.

The flags flown by government agencies in Maryland are hand-stitched by the inmates of the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup, women who expect their work will bring them closer to freedom .

Donna Cericole remembers what it was like to sew for her family many years ago, before she was matching seams on U.S. and state flags in prison.

“I think about it all the time when I’m sewing,” she said. “I have to concentrate on what I’m doing, but I always think about being home and picking up sewing again.”

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