Volunteer Helpers Make Learning Possible at New Women's Prison

Article Tools Print This Page | Comments(0) | Suggest a Story

By The Oregonian

Published: 03/05/2003

Heather Baker could have used the new quilt she made, the one with digitally transferred photographs of her young daughter framed by patterned material and flawless stitching, to keep her warm at night in her prison dormitory.
But she didn't. Instead, she tucked the quilt into a box she keeps near her bed at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. It will stay right there, she said, until she's released from Oregon's only women's prison next month.
'One of the first things I'll do when I get out is give the quilt to my daughter,' said Baker, 24, whose long brown ponytail twitches as she talks. 'It's a special way I can reach out so she'll never forget that she's always in my heart.'
It wasn't by chance or happenstance that Baker acquired her quilting skills. Like many other pivotal learning opportunities being offered at Coffee Creek, they were made possible by volunteers.
Since the prison opened in fall 2001, volunteers from Wilsonville, Sherwood, Tualatin, West Linn, Tigard and other communities -- some as far away as Bend and Vancouver -- have stepped forward in droves to help.
Given the intense citizen opposition that roared to life almost from the moment the prison was proposed for Wilsonville in 1996, the outpouring of community support since it's open has been nothing less than stunning.
Of the 1,434 Oregon residents officially certified to volunteer at the state's 13 prisons, more than a quarter -- 386 -- offer their skills to the women of Coffee Creek.
'We did not in any way dream we would have the response from the communities that we've gotten,' said Joan Palmateer, Coffee Creek's superintendent. 'We simply could not do the job we're doing if it weren't for the volunteers.'
About 80 percent of Coffee Creek's volunteers are women, said Margie Taylor, the prison's volunteer coordinator. Some show up three or four times a year to help out. Others are there weekly, offering instruction in topics such as photography, sewing, computer technology, yoga, theater, journal writing, music and crocheting.
Their efforts have been augmented by donations of furniture, money and other goods from individuals, civic organizations and church groups scattered around the region's southwest suburbs. Recent donations include sewing machines, an organ, a piano and enough books to fill the prison's library.
John Ludlow, the former Wilsonville planning commission member, and his wife, Sue, trooped in two consecutive evenings just before Christmas, dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus. They handed out more than 250 gifts, many made possible by community contributions and the Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce. One inmate, in a subsequent letter to the chamber that had some members in tears, wrote that the evenings marked the first time in six years she had been able to open a Christmas gift with her young son.
'What these folks do for us is remarkable,' Palmateer said. 'Just mind-boggling.' A new beginning Cheryl Creel started volunteering at the women's prison when it was still in Salem. She did so a mentor for WICS -- Women in Community Service, a nonprofit organization started during President Kennedy's administration in the early 1960s. She still makes the drive from her home in Salem several times a month to meet with inmates.
She recalled her first meeting with Marcie Treat, now a 26-year-old mother of three who lives in Forest Grove. At the time, Treat was serving a four-year sentence for manufacturing drugs and being a felon in possession of a firearm. And she wanted nothing to do with any outside do-gooder bent on reforming her life.
'I told her everything I'd ever done wrong just so I could push her away,' Treat said. 'But she listened to me without judgment and accepted me for who I was.' Treat credits her subsequent turn-around -- she now manages an apartment complex, has regained custody of her children, owns a car and has a job with full health and retirement benefits -- to Creel's volunteer assistance.
'Knowing she was a volunteer really helped, because I knew she wasn't just getting paid to do her job,' said Treat, who now returns to Coffee Creek to speak with inmates on her own. 'I'm able to complete something now, rather than just have little mountains of dreams scattered around my life.'
Creel, who has mentored three women inmates through her involvement with WICS, in turn feels good about giving back to the community.
'I've gotten totally hooked,' she said. 'It's an amazing experience to know someone is turning their life around, due in some part to the help you're able to give them.'
No one turned away Anyone can call the prison with offers to volunteer, Palmateer said. No one has been turned away yet. And only a few who have gone through the two orientation and training classes needed to receive their volunteer-certification badge have dropped out, she said.
Yet as important as volunteers have been in Coffee Creek's operations so far, Palmateer said, their contributions may pale compared with what will be needed if looming budget cuts trim scores of paid staff.
'We're going to lose significant resources and programs,' Palmateer said, if voters don't approve Measure 28, the temporary income tax increase on the Jan. 28 ballot.
'If that happens, our volunteers may be the only thing keeping us from merely warehousing these women, which doesn't do anyone any good at all.'

Comments:

No comments have been posted for this article.

Login to let us know what you think

MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search