Chasity Reeves reads a book for her child’s birthday.

Ministries help parents in prison maintain bonds with children

By: Deborah White
  
Chasity Reeves, an inmate at the Topeka Correctional Facility, can’t talk much to her five children, but they can listen to her voice as often as they want thanks to a program sponsored by United Methodist Women’s groups in Kansas.

“We used to go to the library and pick out books for us to read at night,” said Reeves, who has recorded herself reading a book for each of her children. “I was able to have that one-on-one time with each individual child. …This way they can have me with them any time they want to hear Mama’s voice.”

Reeves is one of 40 to 50 mothers a year who are allowed to make tapes after they complete parenting classes at the prison. The tapes and books are then sent to their children as birthday gifts.

“Even if the mom is not part of the home, she can be part of the nighttime rituals,” said Judy Bailey, a member of Shawnee Heights United Methodist Church in Tecumseh, Kan., who is active in prison ministries.

She was so enthusiastic about the program’s positive impact that she began driving regularly to a men’s prison in Lansing to help inmates make tapes as they read books, letters or poems. Women at the Topeka Correctional Facility named it the Lansing LOVE program (Let Our Voices Encourage).
“One gentleman sang ‘The Itsy Bitsy Spider’ to his grandchildren over the tape,” Bailey said. “It was a really soft side of (him).”

A growing number of similar efforts across the country, including United Methodist ministries in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Tennessee, are helping incarcerated parents maintain bonds with their children. Groups in Philadelphia are planning a videotaping program for a women’s prison.

“When you incarcerate a mother you incarcerate her children,” said Barb Scott, president of the Kansas East conference United Methodist Women (UMW). “They suffer stigma in school. I have heard one mother say that her children keep books and tapes under their pillow because that’s Mama. It brings joy to a small child.”

The Read with Me program at the Topeka Correctional Facility started in 1997 as part of the Women’s Activity and Learning Center (WALC), sponsored by UMW groups in the Kansas East and Kansas West conferences. Women from Lawrence (Kan.) First United Methodist shop carefully for age-appropriate books.

WALC includes a UMW chapter in the prison, Bible study, parenting classes, a scout program for inmates’ daughters and weekend retreats for inmates and their children.

Helping with the retreats was attractive to Bailey because she could volunteer with her daughter. “I could take her with me, teach diversity and tolerance and she could learn about a population that was different from her world,” she said. “You realize it’s just their circumstances. It’s easy to make the right decision when you’re raised United Methodist. Many didn’t have those opportunities growing up.”

In Tennessee, men at the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Justice Center make tapes for their children as part of the Dad and Me program, which started in 2003. “It’s like Dad reading to them. It’s to build relationships,” said the Rev. Susan Gray, chaplain at the jail.

Belle Meade United Methodist Church in Nashville and Christ United Methodist Church in Franklin donate books and also provide snacks and toys for special monthly visits that men in the program can have with their children.

UMW units in Pennsylvania help support the Mother’s Voice project for mothers at the Berks County Prison in Leesport, Pa. Althea Harmon, a member of Holy Cross United Methodist Church in Reading, Pa., started the program in 1996.

“It’s a wonderful thing for the women to have this communication with their child,” Harmon said, adding that Mother’s Voice enabled 347 mothers to record tapes for 641 children in 2004.

“The grandmother of one little girl wrote to us to say that when her granddaughter heard her tape, she squealed, ‘Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,’ and carried the book around with her for days, even when the tape wasn’t playing,” said Christine Reichardt, director of volunteer programming for the Berks County Prison Society. “The tape made her feel as though her mother was still with her, and at least she knew her mother was still loving and missing her.”

Michele Tomczak (left) of the Berks County Prison Society helps a mother record a story.

Harmon’s efforts inspired eight women’s organizations in Philadelphia to join together for a videotaping program called Messages from Mom. Willie Black, a member of Janes Memorial United Methodist Church, said the women plan to videotape mothers in Riverside Correctional Facility while they read a story or poem or give a message to their children. “We want to give Messages from Mom so children will feel better about themselves,” Black said.

“It really did thrill my heart to think that they have that interest,” Harmon said.

Volunteers in book and tape programs also can have an impact on literacy. “We try to help the parents learn some reading techniques,” said the Rev. Susan Plymell, pastor of SonRise United Methodist Church in Pueblo, Colo. She and five church members regularly visit women in Pueblo Minimum Center and young men in the Youthful Offender System. “We encourage them when they leave that they do this with their children. We teach them the impact that it makes on the child.”

Plymell said she would encourage other churches to consider similar ministries. “It really does make a difference in people’s lives,” she said. “Plus, it allows the church to connect with the prison system and develop relationships, to learn that they are people just like us. It makes you look at the prison population in a different light.”

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AUDIO CLIPS FROM CHASITY REEVES

* “It helps me feel closer to them.”
* “This way they can have me with them any time they want.”