Nonprofits work to maintain connections between inmates, children during holidays
Eight-year-old Anna hasn’t seen her mom since she was 2. For each of the past few years, she’s received a package in the mail with a special message just before Christmas.
The envelope, decked with festive stickers, contains a book and a video of Anna’s mom talking to her and reading to her. It comes from a nonprofit group called OK Messages Project, which works to maintain connections between children and their parents who are incarcerated.
The holidays can be a difficult time for parents who are incarcerated and their children. Volunteers and nonprofit groups like OK Messages Project work to help boost their spirits, spread holiday cheer and maintain a sense of connection.
Inside correctional centers, staff do what they can within security levels to provide a bit of holiday cheer.
The facilities have special visitation hours for the holidays to allow inmates more opportunities to spend time with approved visitors, said Matt Elliott, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department
Not all of our inmates have friends and family come and visit them, but we try to do what we can to bring some holiday cheer to our inmates, and volunteers are a big part of that.” Matt Elliott, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections
of Corrections. If inmates have had disciplinary issues that have caused their visitation to be suspended, they won’t be able to partake in the extended visitation hours.
For Christmas, inmates will have a meal of turkey or chicken leg quarters, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, dressing, a roll and dessert.
A number of groups, many of them faithbased, deliver hygiene packets and other types of care packages to inmates this time of year, Elliott said.
“Not all of our inmates have friends and family come and visit them, but we try to do what we can to bring some holiday cheer to our inmates, and volunteers are a big part of that,” he said.
Maintaining connections
Holidays can be a devastating time for children whose parents are incarcerated because there are so many activities that are typically done with parents, said Cheri Fuller, executive director of OK Messages Project.
Each year before Christmas, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, volunteers and staff from the nonprofit group visit Oklahoma prisons to film parents reading to their children and sharing personal messages. They mail the completed videos, along with the books the parents read, to the children.
This Christmas they sent out more than 850 packages, Fuller said.
“No matter what mom or dad has done — most of them are nonviolent drug crimes — but no matter what they’ve done, they’re still mom and dad, and their children long for them,” Fuller said. “They long for connection.”
Many families that receive packages from OK Messages Project watch their DVDs together around Christmas when the whole family gathers, Fuller said.
“It’s just a real lifeline,” she said. “... This is an enduring, priceless gift for the children because then they know they’re loved and they’re not forgotten and they’re missed and it’s not their fault.”
Anna started receiving packages from the organization in 2015. In a video her great-grandmother sent to OK Messages Project, Anna talks about what the packages mean to her.
“I feel very happy, and I love it when she puts her hand on the screen,” Anna said in the video, referencing when her mom tells her to touch her hand to the screen anytime she feels lonely or misses her.
Another organization, Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma, works throughout the year to help daughters with incarcerated mothers foster healthy, lasting relationships through its Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program.
As part of the program, children visit their mothers once a month. This time of year, they hold holiday celebrations at the facilities they visit that include sandwiches and other finger foods, games, Christmas carolsand arts and crafts,said Shannon Luper, program manager for Girl Scouts Beyond Bars.
Simple things can mean a lot. The moms are usually excited by the lettuce and tomatoes that go on the sandwiches and try to make salads, Luper said.
“Holidays are very difficult for not only the moms but for the kiddos too because it’s all family-oriented,” Luper said.