Inmates, families come together for early holiday at prison
The men couldn’t get home for Christmas, so Christmas came early to them. Ninety-four inmates at the Southeastern Correctional Institution near Lancaster hugged their wives, sons, daughters, girlfriends or other relatives close on Saturday as they celebrated Family Day.
The prison gym was transformed into a festive setting strung with paper ornaments made by inmates. Tables were filled with teddy bears that inmates had made for the children. The prison’s chapel band had the inmates and their families on their feet and singing along to holiday carols, some of the men cradling toddlers to their chests as they swayed to the music.
Wings for LIFE International, a prison ministry, joined with Prison Fellowship, an outreach organization, and a flock of volunteers from local churches, to put on the program, the 13th holiday Family Day at Southeastern Correctional.
The groups also have organized family holiday programs at about a dozen other state prisons in Ohio.
“It’s so important when men are incarcerated to keep their ties with their families,” said Jim Forbes of Prison Felllowship. “Especially at this time of year, family is so important. For this short amount of time, it allows them to focus on their families and do arts and crafts, like every other family does at this time of year, and forget where they are.”
Nathaniel Ward and his children, Nathaniel Jr., 10, and Natalie, 9, decorated sugar cookies with red and green frosting, and used construction paper, glitter and markers to make Christmas cards.
“I love you Daddy,” Natalie wrote on her card to her dad. Nate Jr.’s card from his dad said “Merry Christmas” on the front and inside: “Daddy loves you so much.”
Ward’s mother, Karen Melott, who is 51 and raising the children at her home in Frankfort in Ross County, drove them to the prison for Family Day, as she has done for the past four years. They posed for a family photograph in front of a festive Christmas tree, as they do every year.
“It’s a really moving experience, considering my mother takes care of my children and works a lot,” said Ward, who is 32 and serving a 12-year sentence for robbery and other crimes. “It’s good for us all to get together. This is not like a regular visit.”
“It means a lot,” his mother added. “This is our holiday.”
This Family Day was particularly emotional for Michael Patterson, 56, and his daughter, Jamelia Palmer, 36. Patterson has been in prison for 31 years for aggravated murder. His daughter and two grandsons have made a tradition of celebrating Christmas with him on Family Day, always posing for a family photograph.
But this year, one of Patterson’s grandsons is missing: Allen Palmer was shot to death on Columbus’ Northeast Side on May 16, two days before he would have turned 22. Another young man has been charged with his murder.
Jamelia Palmer broke into tears talking about her son, and her father held her close. It was especially important to her, she said, that she be with her father for Family Day this year.
Ann Edenfield Sweet, founder and executive director of Wings for Life International, said the organization’s mission is to transform lives to break the cycle of incarceration. “We want them to get out, go home and be the fathers that God intended them to be,” she said.
When the Nativity play was done and the pizza and cookies eaten, the early Christmas celebration drew to a close. Inmates hugged their families.
“Bye, Dad,” said one little boy, a new teddy bear under his arm, as he turned to leave the prison gym with his mother.