The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘Connecting through Literacy’ program is a great idea
There are many men and women behind bars and some of them are parents. And for them and their children — and advocates of prison reform — there are too many bars that separate them as a family.
As the state looks to more rehabilitative measures to ensure an easier transition for men and women once they are released from prison, a little-known program is providing a common link that keeps incarcerated parents a part of their children’s daily lives.
“Connecting Through Literacy: Incarcerated Parents, their Children and Caregivers” is a statewide program that essentially is a book club — but offers much more than words enclosed in spines.
Children need their parents and having a mother or father who is incarcerated doesn’t change that.
Connecting Through Literacy allows the relationship between a parent and child not only to continue to develop, but also strengthen while the parent serves his or her time.
Here is how it works:
The child and the parent receive a copy of the same book and each receives a mentor with whom to read . The kid-friendly books — such as Batman or the Goosebumps series — serves as a connection for them while being separated — and also removes those potentially awkward first moments on the phone that come with separation and no common bond.
The ultimate goal is to create a bond strong enough that the parent won’t want to break and recidivate. We think this is a great idea.
It is simple and practical, miniscule in cost and pays big dividends now and, more importantly, down the road.
These incarcerated parents have had much taken from them for their error in judgment — and rightly so — but they don’t deserve to have their children taken, too.
The Institute for Research on Poverty reported that in 2010, 2.7 million children in the United States had a parent in jail or prison and in 2017 reported that at least 10 million children have had a parent in jail during their lifetime.
Here in Connecticut, the Connecticut Association for Human Services reported there were 17,000 dependents in our state with a caregiver behind bars and another 5,000 have a caregiver in a supervised community program, such as house arrest or parole.
Landon Osborn, program manager of the statewide program, said mentors for the children are recruited from the community. The participants include Yale and Southern Connecticut State universities and the University of New Haven. Mentors undergo three hours of training and a background check by the state Department of Children and Families.
The free program is available at six state prisons: York Correctional Institution in East Lyme; Cheshire, Robinson, Osborn and Willard-Cybulski correctional institutions; and the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center.
As the state looks for ways to smooth the path for incarcerated men and women to transition back into mainstream society, probably none is more important or critical than keeping families intact.
We don’t see a downside here.
The “Connecting Through Literacy” program is a great idea.