Whoever came up with the Law-suit-
waiting- to- happen needs to be separated from anything to do with foster
children.
While the intentions of the project outlined
below are good, they aren’t sound. Foster children are fragile and desperate.
They break easily. And that’s how they’ll be throughout the remainder of their
lives. Fragile and desperate.
Mixing them up with convicts is
just stupid. The cons are presented as wise but fallen, kind-hearted, well-intentioned
mentors.
I’ve worked with cons. Most aren’t
very wise at all. That’s how they ended in crime and in prison. Whatever you may
have heard, we only send people to prison when they really, really deserve it.
Cons aren’t well-intentioned. They’re self-centered and they’ll hustle anyone
they can.
At some point, I absolutely guarantee
you, one of these cons will play one of these kids for sex or for a favor they
shouldn’t have or arrange to meet them when they’re released from jail.
The authorities need to look into
this program and take better care of the children they are obligated to protect.
Can prison pen-pals help our
youth? Program connects inmates with foster kids to help keep them trouble-free
By DANIEL SUTPHIN Staff Writer
Sep 22, 2019
Stay positive.
Think positive.
That’s the message from Jermaine
Wade, an inmate at Lawtey Correctional Institution in Bradford County, northern
Florida. Wade is a pen-pal and mentor to three students at Crossroads Hope
Academy in Charlotte County.
“If you keep it that way, you’ll
have no room for negativity or negative people,” Wade said.
Wade is part of the Inside/Out
Mentoring program facilitated by Punta Gorda-based Cooper Street Recreation
Center, a nonprofit organization that offers a variety of educational support
and cultural stimulation to the city’s youth.
Both the Bernice A Russell
Community Development Corporation and the Punta Gorda Congregational United
Church of Christ also provide funding to the program.
The project, only a few months
old, connects students at Crossroads with inmates who can provide advice and
guidance in an effort to prevent the students from making mistakes.
“The students involved are
wonderful, they listen and give feedback,” said Wade, who is serving eight
years for possession of a firearm and discharging it in public.
“I was young at one point in my life
and running with the wrong people got me in a lot of trouble,” Wade said. “This
program will help a lot of the youth to stay free from prison and make a
positive impact on the world.
“SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE”
“When it comes to children, you
hear about the ‘school to prison pipeline,’” said Punta Gorda City Council
Member Jaha Cummings and board member for Cooper Street. “That ‘pipeline’
begins with school referrals, then suspensions, then expulsion.
“We started a program (called the
New Image Project) at Punta Gorda Middle School (four years ago) and we were
able to achieve an 86% (behavioral relapse) reduction rate in terms of
referrals and suspensions.”
PATHWAY TO CHANGE
The Inside/Outside Mentoring
Project is a program designed specifically for foster children, Cummings said.
It’s based on the “Pathway to Change Curriculum” used in the New Image Project.
Pathway to Change was developed
in 1995 by longtime Punta Gorda resident and Cummings’ mother Martha R. Bireda.
“Inside/Out is a two-prong program,”
Bireda said. “The packet (we provide) is based on cognitive behavioral
curriculum. What happens in the prison is that these men will go to counseling
and then they react to the counseling.
“The other part is writing the
letters as part of their serving the community. That’s a very important part of
this program, is purpose and serving. It’s for the inmates and they get the
counseling, but they are giving back through their community service to the
students.”
Pathway to Change is a cognitive
behavioral therapy program that was designed to prevent recidivism among
incarcerated adults.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MAKING A
DIFFERENCE
“For the men in prison,
(Inside/Out lets them) have a positive impact on society despite being
incarcerated through helping these boys at Crossroads,” Cummings said.
All of the letters from inmates
are screened for appropriateness by representatives of Cooper Street, including
Bireda.
Punta Gorda resident Jerome Evans
helped bring the Inside/Out Project to Lawtey where he had served time
previously after being arrested for possession of a firearm.
“As inmates, to be able to
receive anything like (the students’ responses back) — after being under the
impression that you can’t make a difference or you’re not worth anything — that
makes a whole change in character in everybody,” he said. “Because the inmate
can then recognize that he can interject things to the youth that he wishes
could have been interjected to him.”
‘TWO LOST GROUPS OF PEOPLE’
“We are talking about two lost
groups of people,” said John Davidson, executive director at Crossroads, a home
and charter school for boys who have had multiple failed placements in the
state’s foster system.
“When you talk about these
children, this becomes a much more sensitive issue,” Davidson said. “After six
years of working at Crossroads, it’s really easy to forget that my kids are
forgotten marginally. I can count on one hand who has received a birthday card
each year. About 60% of our kids don’t have birthday parties, except for what
we do as staff.”
THE 80%
Eighty percent of children who
age out in foster care either become homeless or go to prison. Similarly, 80%
of those in prison have experience in foster care, Cummings said.
There are 19 teens at Crossroads,
all of whom have either spent a considerable amount of time or their entire
lives in foster care.
“It’s the same thing with adults
in the correctional system, many of them have nobody. Retirement homes too ...
it’s heartbreaking,” Davidson said.
Davidson admits there could be
some controversy connecting students with inmates, but there is a benefit to
the program, as well.
“I see the benefits but I see the
controversy as well,” Davidson said. “It’s a mixed message. It is good for kids
who don’t have anybody on the planet with others who don’t either.”
‘PEOPLE NEED TO BE CONNECTED’
“People need to be connected,
involved and working towards something of importance,” said Travis Adkins,
another Lawtey inmate with the project. “This is why depression and suicide
rates go up when we become disconnected and isolated. This is also why so many
retirees don’t live that long after retirement. People need to have purpose.
This brings meaning to life.”
Adkins is currently working with
three students from Crossroads while serving 15 years for armed robbery, armed
trafficking, fleeing and eluding, and battery on a law enforcement officer.
“A message that I continue to
reiterate to these students is their need to accept the help that is being
offered to them along their way,” Adkins said. “This work is far more rewarding
than I had even initially imagined that it would be.
“In addition, because the effect on me is such
a positive one, there are ripple affects across this compound. Men see a
genuine sense of enthusiasm and instantly want to be involved. You would be
amazed at just how much helpful insight that they have to share. It is literally
an untapped goldmine.”
Adkins said other inmates are
getting involved by word of mouth.
“I envision this becoming one of
the ‘Betterment Classes’ that we offer inmates,” Adkins said.