Jailed moms earn time to bond with their kids

Children can stay overnight at Denver facility

Judi Villa

Published September 27, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

Text size  

• 9 Comments
• Email
• Print

Photos By Matt Mcclain / The Rocky

Joscelyn Martin, 6, plays with her mother, Lori Martin, at the Denver Women's Correctional Facility. Martin is taking part in a program that allows women to spend a weekend with their children in a separate part of the facility. "This is the only chance I'll have of being a mom with her," Martin says. Joscelyn will be an adult by the time her mother completes her sentence.

Razor wire curls through the prison. Twenty of the mothers have been released from the facility; only six have returned.

Gina Trujillo changes the diaper of her son, De'Angelo. "We're not bad people. We just made bad choices," Trujillo said.

Lori Martin helps her daughter crush Oreo cookies in a plastic container, then pops open a can of Cream Soda.

"Are you going to put it in there?" Joscelyn Martin, 6, asks her mom incredulously.

"Yeah," Martin answers. "It's how you make cake."

At first glance, it seems like a pretty normal interaction. But, in reality, it's a unique bonding moment for the mother who is serving 26 years in prison and the daughter who flies from Oregon every three months to see her.

Inside the walls of the Denver Women's Correctional Facility, children like Joscelyn make overnight visits to their mothers, playing "hot potato" with stuffed blocks, making "cake" from ingredients available in the prison commissary and reading bedtime stories.

"It's the routine stuff I don't normally get to do," says Martin, 34. "It makes me feel a part of it."

As the population of female inmates in the nation's prisons skyrockets, the children left behind are starting to play a more pivotal role in rehabilitation and re-entry programs at prisons across the country.

Numbers climbing

Officials say helping mothers bond with their children is crucial not only to preventing recidivism but also to helping kids live with having parents in prison.

"Folks out there are going to say, 'These people committed a crime, so they don't deserve this normal process.' But the kids do," said Ann Adalist-Estrin, director of the National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated. "And because the parents made a bad choice doesn't mean they're exempt from parenting their kids. As I always say to people, 'Well, what's the alternative? Do you want to parent her kids?' Because somebody has to do it, and it best be her."

Nationwide, the number of children with a mother in prison has more than doubled since 1991, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. About 65,600 mothers are incarcerated. They have 147,400 children.

Suddenly losing a parent to incarceration can cause those children to suffer "attachment disruptions" and prolonged stress, which, in turn, impacts the child's brain and leads to behavioral problems, said Adalist-Estrin.

Advocates of overnight visitation say it gives mothers and children much-needed one-on- one time to make, mend and maintain relationships in an environment that is more like home.

"There's enough time to set up a little routine," said Sarah B. From, director of public policy and communications for the Women's Prison Association. "The mother can tuck the child into bed. Some of the more natural rhythms of a parent-child interaction are able to take place."

In Colorado, more than 2,300 women are in prison. An estimated 70 percent of them are mothers, like Gina Trujillo.

Trujillo, 38, who is serving four years for auto theft, has four children. Her youngest, De'Angelo, 2, was born while she was in prison. He used to cry every time he saw Trujillo. But now he is all smiles when he visits his mother overnight every other weekend.

Mother and son play robots, slide down a slide and cuddle in a rocking chair. Trujillo puts a tiny hat on her head, and De'Angelo mimics her, giggling.

"We're not bad people. We just made bad choices," Trujillo said. "This gives me an opportunity to build a relationship with my kids and to be the kind of mom I want to be."

Programs are rare

Sheila Ray is playing a video game with her 13-year-old son and losing miserably.

Her two kids have grown up visiting her in prison. Her son was 9 months old when she was arrested for robbery. Her 11- year-old daughter was born while she was incarcerated. Ray, 33, hopes to be paroled next summer.

Until then, weekends are a time for them to connect, despite her absence. They have 19 hours together.

Ray helps with homework, does her daughter's hair and gives both kids manicures and pedicures.

Her son admits he's embarrassed his mom is in prison and tells friends she works out of state. But he'd come every weekend to visit, if he could.

"We're not on a time limit," he says. "I get to spend the night with her. When she comes home, I'll be used to her being around."

There has been little research done on overnight visitation programs, like the one in Denver, but officials say they are rare. Denver's program began in 2003 and, since then, 27 mothers and their children have participated.

Twenty of the mothers have been released from prison; only six have returned. That's a recidivism rate of 30 percent, compared with the overall recidivism rate for women of about 47 percent.

The program requires mothers to go through parenting classes, participate in other educational and work programs and remain discipline free. In exchange, they earn overnight visits with their children every other weekend. They are responsible for planning menus and activities and disciplining their children.

"Think about the difference in children. If you were incarcerated when the child was 2 and it's four years later and you're getting out, and the child is 6, it's a much different child," said Joanie Shoemaker, a deputy director with the Colorado Department of Corrections who was warden of the Denver Women's facility when the visitation program began.

"You try to get them into thinking about what it's going to be like to be in the community and to be responsible for this child again."

At the Denver facility, four "apartments" flank a play room filled with books, toys, puzzles and comfy couches. They are in a separate part of the prison where they don't see inmates outside the program. Joscelyn is coloring her mother a "blue raspberry" cake that Martin tells her "sounds delicious."

Joscelyn was only 2 when her mother was arrested for killing her father. She will be an adult before her mother comes home.

But the little girl knows only that Mom is in "timeout" and it's fun to come visit "the apartment," where Mom gives her piggyback rides and makes the best Kool-Aid.

"I love her one hundred and billion much," Joscelyn says.

On this night, mother and daughter will push their beds together and cuddle up. Martin will have Joscelyn read to her for the first time.

And long after Joscelyn has drifted off, Martin will stay awake and watch her sleep, just like when she was a baby.

"This," Martin says, "is the only chance I'll have of being a mom with her."

villaj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2792

• September 27, 2008

  1:07 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  leisureman writes:

  Why are we wasting space on moms who land in jail? A more positive approach could be to give attention to mom's who consistently do the right thing for the kids. They take care of business and don't screw up their lives because of constant collapse of will-power

  Encourage our people to follow the successful members of our community's and not emulate those failed peers who went before them.

• September 27, 2008

  7:53 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  oceansintensity writes:

  Most of these women made the mistakes that they did because they don't have the skillset to be productive members of society. Building them up, and teaching them how to be productive is going to have far longer reaching effects than showing someone a person that is successful and saying "Here, be like this person!"

• September 27, 2008

  8:13 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ReallyJustCurious writes:

  What a neat program! Regardless of what these women did to become incarcerated, the children had nothing to do with it and suffer more than the parents. ANYTHING we can do to help these kids adjust, and have something akin to a "normal" life will help THEM in the long run. I know, visiting a parent in prison isn't what we want to call a normal life, but having an intimate, loving relationship with a parent is. These kids without a normal, stable home life are in greater danger of ending up in prison, aren't they? Lets give them love with a parent in a safe environment, and maybe they won't go looking for belonging on the streets.

• September 27, 2008

  1:50 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  NobodyElseButMe writes:

  What would be better is if we severed the relationship with the 'mothers' and encouraged other people to take up the roll. These kids will never actually benefit by these relationships. In fact, I believe they will be more damaged as a result. It is a stupid program and one that should be ceases.

• September 27, 2008

  11:38 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  happymike44 writes:

  Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

• September 28, 2008

  10:40 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  NeilT writes:

  What part of;

  "Twenty of the mothers have been released from prison; only six have returned. That's a recidivism rate of 30 percent, compared with the overall recidivism rate for women of about 47 percent."

  don't you folks understand?

  We are stuck paying to warehouse these people anyway. We might as well invest in productive programs that help prevent them from reoffending.

  I would be interested in a long-term study on the crime rate of children of criminals involved in this program versus children of criminals not involved in this program. I would bet that kids spending time with their mom behind bars are less likely to commit crimes.

• September 28, 2008

  11 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Heidi writes:

  NeilT,

  "I would bet that kids spending time with their mom behind bars are less likely to commit crimes."

  And if they do commit crimes, they have already done their time!

• September 28, 2008

  12:59 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  NobodyElseButMe writes:

  NeilT: you quote the statistics, which any 1st year student could tell you that statistics can be manipulated to satisfy any opinion. In this case, the recidivism rate is skewed because the clock is still ticking. These criminals are still alive. We don't know if they are going to end up back in prison in the future. We could possibly see, in the not too distant future, that the recidivism rate is actually higher and that the children are comfortable following them back to jail. If we make prison a friendly, warm place, what the hell is there to fear? To dread? To avoid at all costs? Nothing. A lot of people commit crimes after getting out because prison is already easier for some of them. Rent? paid. Food? Provided. Job? Given. Now, toys, computers, time with (and without) screaming children. It is a b.s. plan and should be scrapped.

• September 29, 2008

  11:17 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  tiredofbeingused writes:

  I agree with nobodyelse but me, I would also like to add that we as taxpayers are not only paying for this program and their jail stay, but more than likely we are also supporting these chidren, and a lot of these people are not nor have been productive memebers of society. And to me a 17 percent drop in just a year study is not justifiable enough for me.

Featured

• Denver turns 150

  

  Read about the city's history, look at old photos and see a list of influential Denverites.

• Mount Crushmore

  

  Which four Broncos greats should be immortalized on Mount Crushmore? Vote here.

• Winter Escapes

  

  Your insider’s guide to the copious joys of the coolest season.

• Rocky Multimedia

  

  The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on what's happening today.

• Weekend plans?

  

  Figure out things to do this weekend with the help of our entertainment calendar.

• Bronco Dean's rant

  

  Listen to Bronco Dean's pregame rant on the Raiders.

• Season To Share

  

  The Post-News Season To Share campaign provides grants to area nonprofits.

• The Rocky @ 150 Years

  

  The Rocky was there when Colorado became a state in 1876. Read our coverage.

• A Dozen on Denver

  

  And the winner is... Robert Ziegler! See the whole fiction series by clicking here.