By Christy Ulmet

Three years after being released from prison, Lashonia Etheridge-Bey sat in a booth at a breakfast place, reminiscing on her relationship with her children while she was behind bars. As she gave her menu to the waiter, you could read the names of her children etched forever in ink on her arm: Charnal and Allante.

Rewind to the year 1993. After being found guilty of a double homicide, the young mother, just 19 years old, was given a 20 to 60-year sentence.

The first thing on Lashonia Etheridge-Bey’s mind wasn’t how old she was going to be by the time she got out of prison; it was how old her children would be.