wfn.org | Ministry reunites children with imprisoned mothers

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

June 11, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-71BP{248}

NOTE: Photographs are available with this report.

By Frances S. Smith*

CLAREMONT, Calif. (UMNS) - Robert had not seen his mother in three years, so
the 15-year-old boy was eager at the prospect of visiting her.

"I couldn't sleep last night I was so excited," he said, as he and 23 other
children set off by bus to visit their mothers.

Their destination was a women's prison in central California. 

The kids and their guardians were making the trip through an annual
church-sponsored program called "Get on the Bus." Without the program,
Robert would have had no way of seeing his mother, who is serving an 11-year
sentence.

"We don't have a car, so we can't go to visit her," he said.
 
Playing a key role in the bus project was Just Do It, one of the newer
United Methodist Women circles at Claremont United Methodist Church. Its
members helped the children's guardians wade through the paperwork required
to ride the bus and gain admission to the two prisons in the remote
community of Chowchilla, north of Fresno. Crossroads, a re-entry home for
women parolees in Claremont, supplied the children's names.

Just Do It members provided breakfast and snacks for the travelers to take
on their five-hour journey. Two Just Do It members accompanied the group.
The Claremont Church parking lot provided the assembly point early on the
morning of May 10.
   
Carolyn Francis, a Just Do It sparkplug, sketched a bit of background. "We
wanted to do something about women in prison, so we began working with
Crossroads. Its executive director, Sister Terry Dodge, came and spoke to
our group. We offered to donate used clothing, but Sister Terry said, 'We
need more personal involvement. We need tutors in English and math to help
our women get their GEDs so they can get jobs.' Three of our members,
experienced teachers, now do tutoring on a regular basis.  

"Sister Terry brought a video of an earlier Get on the Bus program," Francis
continued. "And we heard from Caroline Contreras, who had been incarcerated
for eight years at Chowchilla but is now out on parole and living at
Crossroads. She told us that two years ago, while she was still behind bars,
her daughter, Cynthia, aged 17, was brought for a visit. She wanted to join
the Navy but didn't want to abandon her mother."

"I was feeling useless," Contreras said, "but when she ran into my arms, I
realized that even when she's 40, she will still need me. That gave me an
incentive to think about what I wanted to do with my life. So I began
studying to acquire vocational skills in optometry and air conditioning." 

When Contreras came out of prison, after serving a sentence on drug-related
charges, she joined Crossroads' sober living program. She now has a job with
an air-conditioning firm and gives 10 percent of every paycheck to Get on
the Bus. "That three-hour visit profoundly changed my life," she said.

Just Do It member Jane Burtis was among those on the trip, accompanying boys
5 and 9 years old. The boys' visit had an impact on their mother.

"It was probably the most memorable Mother's Day experience I ever had,"
Burtis said. "It gave me a thrill to know we'd taken one small step to help
one mother adjust to the world outside and to resolve to stay out of
prison." 

The Claremont bus was one of nine that took 136 children from 67 families up
and down California to Chowchilla. Sister Suzanne Steffens, director of
Detention Ministry for Los Angeles' Catholic Archdiocese, was in overall
charge of the project. There are more than 7,300 mothers among the nearly
9,500 women incarcerated in California. Most are serving time in Chowchilla
at the Central California Women's Facility and the Valley State Prison, the
world's largest women's prison complex.

Carolyn Francis also sparked another project that provides pen pals for
women inmates on death row. Through the Death Row Support Project, she got
the names of 12 women in Chowchilla prisons who wanted someone to write to
them. Francis lined up United Methodist women and others willing to become
pen pals. 

Other members of the group write to older women imprisoned in Corona who
feel they have been forgotten. Said Francis: "This is something any church
woman can do."
# # #
*Smith, a retired United Methodist News Service staffer, is a free-lance
writer living in Claremont, Calif.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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