Group to raise awareness for female inmates
Former jail chaplain Gail Hanson and a group of concerned residents will highlight the plight of female inmates from 8 to 9 a.m. today in front of the Cameron County Judicial Building on Harrison Street in Brownsville.
Sheriff Omar Lucio banned Hanson from ministering to women in jail, saying she was getting too personal with inmates and posed a security risk.
However, she continues her advocacy and plans to highlight the case of Carla Ramos, who has been in jail for nearly three years on a capital murder charge.
"My passion is for these women, whose children are without their mother," said Hanson, who feels that Ramos should be allowed to be with her children, pending trial.
Hanson said Ramos could be equipped with a monitoring device and under restrictions. Ramos has been in jail since her arrest in September 2006.
"We plan to stand in front of the courthouse with signs that try to raise the community's conscience," Hanson said.
Ramos, 26, is charged in the Jan. 24, 2006, capital murder of 76-year-old Carmen Jacobson.
Ramos's former boyfriend Alfonso Granados Lucas, 26, has been charged in Jacobson's strangling death, according to court records.
Ramos and her cousin Jose Luis Gutierrez, 24, were allegedly in a car outside, public records state.
Gutierrez also was charged in Jacobson's death.
Lucas faces a possible death penalty. Ramos maintains that she didn't know what Lucas was doing, according to court records.
The two men await trial.
