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Carole Mikita ReportingThe majority of women serving prison time are victims of domestic abuse. The men they become involved with are often the ones who force them into criminal activity.
Three women in their 20s told us their lives would have been so different, so much better, if they had left abusive relationships that cost them their freedom and their children.
Melisa Parker, Serving time for manslaughter: "First he'd slap me, then he'd put a gun to my head or he'd hit me, ususally not in the face, just body blows. But it ended up one time he cut off all my hair."
Melisa Parker says as a teen she was attracted to the 'bad boys', gang members. The same man who beat her became one of Utah's most wanted and nearly killed her. But she says she still didn't learn. During a home invasion burglary, one of her associates killed a man. Now she's in prison for manslaughter.
Melisa: "I would just like to share my experience with other young women, so maybe I could help them from, hopefully at least one, from getting in a situation like I'm in."
Angela Taylor was only 14 when she became involved with an older boy.
Angela Taylor, Serving time for drug possession: "It started out with the verbal and then I got pregnant. And that's when it started with the physical. It escalated. Every time it got worse and worse, up until the point of choking and trying to kill. It went on for years. I allowed it to happen for years because I was afraid to get out of it."
She also blames drugs; possession sent her to prison for the third time.
Most women in prison will tell you they had difficult childhoods during which they were abused physically or sexually. That leads, they say, to poor self-esteem, drug use and illegal activity and falling prey to possessive, jealous men who abuse them.
Angela Taylor: "If you were raped as a child and it keeps happening and happening, your mind makes you like it so you can deal with it. And I think that's what happens when you're in an abusive relationship, you make yourself feel you like it, so you can deal with it."
Ashley goes before the parole board next month and hopes to get out of prison in June. She wants to go home and take care of her baby.
Angela has 6 and 1/2 more months to serve and hopes someday to open her own restaurant and be reunited with her nine-year-old daughter.
And Melisa wants to make a life for herself and her seven-year-old son, away from the abusive relationships of the past.
