Moms in prison read to their kids
Program helps make connections for Mother’s Day
Annette Roberts read a page from a children’s book, then carefully turned it toward a laptop camera to show its pictures.
“My mama, she’s been sick since I was very small,” Roberts read from “See You Soon,” by prison abolitionist and former Chicago resident Mariame Kaba. “Sometimes she goes away when she isn’t feeling well at all.”
She had to fight back tears during the next part.
“A girl at school named Keisha sometimes says mean things to me. ‘Your Mama, she takes drugs! Your Mama is a junkie!’ ”
Roberts is worried her kids have been teased just like the girl in the book.
She is one of about 70 women at Cook County Jail who participated in a program last week recording themselves reading Kaba’s book. Organized by the Women’s Justice Institute, Kaba and Cook County Jail, the video files will be sent to their children’s caretakers and shown to the children for Mother’s Day.
Alexis Mansfield, senior adviser for the Women’s Justice Institute, estimates there are at least 140 women who will be celebrating Mother’s Day in Cook County Jail this year. She said the jail has been very supportive of the institute’s program.
It’s estimated that about 82% of about 1,200 incarcerated women in Illinois prisons are mothers, Mansfield said. She said the goal is not to bring more programs to prison but to have fewer women in jails and prisons to begin with.
“This has been a powerful and moving program,” Mansfield said. “But the best present for Mother’s Day would be for moms and children to be sitting in their homes, children on their laps reading books together.”
Keyuana Muhammad, director of behavioral health services and programs at the jail, said it’s important for the jail to do what it can to keep the women connected with their families while they are incarcerated. Using the arts to maintain those connections is helpful, she said.
“While we can’t completely alleviate the stress of what a child might experience as it relates to losing a parent (to) incarceration, it’s our hope that we could at least provide a space where connections can be made,” Muhammad said.
On Monday and Thursday, the women sat outside a recreation room waiting their turn to read the book as volunteers with the Women’s Justice Institute recorded them and offered moral support.
“See You Soon,” is about a young girl, Queenie, who is processing being away from her Mama after Mama turns herself in to jail. The book shows that the love between the mother and daughter remains despite Mama’s drug addiction and the family’s difficult situation.
Some of the women told the Tribune they related to the book and it helped them explain a difficult topic to their children. Most of the women who talked to the Tribune are participating in a substance abuse treatment program at the jail.
The Women’s Justice Institute also recorded women sharing their reaction to the book. Those videos were sent to Kaba, who spent Monday evening crying as she watched them, she said.