From the desk of Rand Simmons

For the past ten years, Lori Thornton, Public Services manager at the Washington State Library, has been going to prison once or twice a month, but not as a member of a work release program.  Rather, Lori voluntarily conducts the Baby Read program for the inmates and babies of the Residential Parenting Program at the Washington Corrections Center for Women.

The Residential Parenting Program was established in 1999. It allows selected minimum security inmates who give birth during their incarceration to keep their babies with them in prison where the mothers are taught good parenting and life skills.  The prison nursery is open to a maximum of twenty mothers with less than three years to serve after their baby is born.

Baby Read is a language and music enrichment program that encourages inmate mothers to read to their children daily; models engaging reading techniques; offers guidance as to age appropriate books, rhymes, songs, and finger games; and teaches why reading and singing with babies is important. Most of these women did not have an ideal childhood which included books, reading, and music. By encouraging them to establish a routine of reading and singing with their child, Baby Read fosters parent/child bonding, healthy brain development, and early literacy skills. Early literacy skills are critical for school success which, in turn, is critical to social success.

The reason Lori goes behind the razor wire fence is quite simple – recidivism.  Reducing the recidivism rate and the parent/child multiple generation incarceration cycle by keeping just one child from a life of crime, according to a study by Vanderbilt University ten years ago, could save society as much as an estimated 1.5 million dollars.  Plus, the happiness in the room is palpable which is always a good thing in prison!

For more information on this topic see Abby Quillen’s article, Raising Babies in Prison, Yes! magazine, January 14, 2011.