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| Girl Scout Troop Meets with Mothers in Conn. Prison |
| By Stamford Advocate |
| Published: 03/18/2003 |
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The sugary drinks partly explained why the girls were twisting in their seats at a Burger King in Old Saybrook. It was also a sunny Saturday morning, homework was a distant thought and a week off school started on Monday. There's another reason these girls were excited. They were going to visit their mothers. A navy passenger van waited in the parking lot to take them to the York Correctional Institution in Niantic, where the mothers are inmates. Everyone needed to be at the prison by 12:30 p.m. That's when the Girl Scout meeting started. Girl Scouts Beyond Bars started at York in 1999, the state's only women's prison, as part of a program launched 11 years ago by the U.S. Department of Justice and a Maryland chapter of the Girl Scouts. The program, now in about 23 states, aims to help keep the hundreds of thousands of girls with mothers in jail from entering the criminal justice system. Mothers say it does more than that. 'It helps us, as a mother, with self-esteem,' said Grace, a York inmate whose two daughters are in the troop. 'You can see your children develop. You can see the good days as well as the bad days.' Girls feel comfortable at the meetings and are not crammed into a visiting room where physical contact and bathroom visits are severely curtailed. 'They need to feel relaxed and this is a relaxed atmosphere,' Grace said. The Connecticut program is run by a Girl Scout chapter based in North Haven, Connecticut Trails Council Inc. Registration is 26 it's officially called Troop 3043. Meetings are two Saturdays a month, with a bus arriving from from the Hartford area and one from coastal cities. The coastal bus is provided as part of a prison visit program run by the Stamford-based Domus Foundation, but none of the girls currently are from Stamford or Norwalk. The Beyond Bars groups have been well received in Connecticut and elsewhere. 'We are seeing this program as a way for the girls to feel better about themselves because they feel better about their mother -- or understand their mother's situation better,' said Darlene Grant, associate professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. Grant is the independent evaluator for a Beyond Bars group at a Texas prison. Still, traditional Girl Scout meetings can only go so far, Grant said. About half of women in state prisons were using drugs, alcohol or both at the time of their arrests, and six in 10 have experienced physical or sexual abuse, according to federal statistics. As a result, Beyond Bars groups often tackle tricky topics like drugs and teenage pregnancy. 'We can't just take them out there and do Girl Scouts things and say, 'Oh, we played and we made little trinkets and oh, isn't that neat,' ' Grant said. Troop 3043 involves mothers in the minimum-security section at York, and many of the inmates are close to leaving. Of the two mothers interviewed, one was there for assault and the other for drug possession. The Beyond Bars program in Connecticut is forming a group for daughters of maximum-security inmates. The meeting a week ago Saturday was typical of the troop. Nine girls arrived first to the field house, a spacious room with basketball courts, a television and free weights. Two counselors observed from an office with windows on each side, but didn't come to the meeting. Mothers arrived after a prison 'count' and everybody walked to a room that looked like a small classroom. There was an opening ceremony, recitation of the Girl Scout Promise, grace and lunch. The routine seemed familiar and welcome. Girl Scouts executives asked that girls and their mothers not be identified by last name to spare the children from possible embarrassment in their hometowns. The day's craft project was to make frogs out of green-and-white paper plates, small stuffed balls (for eyes) and thin red ribbon (for the tongues). Work started quickly, with a panoply of color markers moving swiftly around the tables. In one corner, Grace sat with her daughters, Tamika, 10, and Ronnae, 13, each working on a paper frog. Tamika talked fast and joked about people too 'adultish' to understand why certain hip-hop stars are 'corny.' Her sister was quieter, and both had captivating smiles they flashed sporadically. They talked about school, their favorite National Basketball Association players, Girl Scout duties and, indirectly, Grace's imprisonment. There was a free-standing chalkboard behind their table. On it, Tamika drew a face with circling chalk lines for hair. She wrote at the top, 'Queen Grace.' At one point, the girls teased each other about Valentine's Day, and Ronnae told Grace -- with a tinge of sisterly jealously in her voice -- that a boy gave Tamika a rose and candy. 'Friends, right?' Grace asked Tamika. Tamika twisted her head and smiled shyly. They continued working on the paper frogs. 'Sometimes, as mothers, we worry if your children are developing,' Grace said, as she colored the paper plate. 'Ah, mom, yes. I am developing. Oh, yes,' Tamika responded, not looking up from her frog. Grace smiled. They talked more about school, Grace made plans to talk with her girls' teachers and then Grace and Tamika left for a private discussion in the bathroom. Grace and her daughter returned to complete their paper frogs. Near the end of the conversation, Grace told them about her new living assignment on the prison campus, also in the minimum security area. 'Does that mean you are out of the door?' Ronnae asked. 'Close to the door,' Grace said, seeming to reassure herself as much as her daughters. 'Close to the door.' Seeing their mother can produce a mixed response for the girls. Most are pleased, but some struggle with anger at their mothers for being in prison, or are nervous about what their lives will be like when their mothers gets out. Often, family life was strained before prison -- something that the Girl Scouts organization hopes to help mend. 'Most of the mothers enjoy the program because they haven't really played with their kids,' said Shameika Moncrief, coordinator of Girl Scouts Beyond Bars in Connecticut. 'Because when they were out, they never really sat down with their kid and said, 'Let's read a book, or let's go out and play kickball . . . ' ' Having a mother in prison is confusing for the girls, said Torri Ricks, troop leader for 3043. Experts also say girls whose mothers are imprisoned are much more likely to end up in jail themselves. Some girls, for example, wrestle with authority figures, whether in school or in their families. 'If anybody else tries to tell them what to do, it's like, 'Who are you? You can't tell me what to do.' ' Ricks said. The troop has activities outside the prison meetings. The Connecticut group went apple picking and girls were sent to an overnight camp last year. To take part in Girl Scouts Beyond Bars, the inmate must have at least six months left on her sentence and have a child between ages 5 and 17. They must have good disciplinary records and attend parenting meetings outside of Girl Scout meetings. If moms miss meetings for behavior problems in prison, the girls are devastated, Girl Scout leaders say. In response, girls often upbraid their moms so they don't miss out. Normal visits to inmates are one hour, but the Girl Scout meetings last two hours, time participants relish. Along with crafts, there's a game, lunch and, of course, cleanup. Leaving can be hard for the girls, Girl Scout leaders say. Some cry, but most evince a steely resolve. It's a routine many have lived with for years. 'This is their life,' Moncrief said. It's the standard Girl Scout meeting, with the Girl Scout friendship circle to close it. 'Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold,' they say together, their hands locked. 'A circle is round, it has no end, that's how long I want to be your friend.' |
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