Partnering with The Messages Project
National program has a message for incarcerated parents and their children
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The Messages Project adds a new component to traditional rehabilitative inmate programs by tapping into the parent-child experience.
Many parents take the opportunity to read their child a bedtime story for granted. Inmates who participate in The Messages Project, though, cherish the rare opportunity to speak to their children through video messages. Now, several CCA facilities are beginning partnerships with the organization.
The Messages Project was founded by Carolyn LeCroy in 1999 and has since expanded well beyond its original six Virginia state prisons. It brings volunte ers into correctional facilities to film qualifying inmates, and then sends the videos to the inmates’ children. While the project benefits all those involved, the group’s true mission is to “maintain, or in many cases re-build, the connection between imprisoned parents and the children that are left behind.”
The organization has since won a CNN Heroes Award in 2010 and a Bank of America Non-Profit of the Year Award in Virginia, where it is headquartered.
"You don't realize until you go to one of the video shoots what a powerful, emotional experience this is for inmates who haven't had contact with their children for years," says Marty La Barbera, CCA director, Addictions Treatment and Behavioral Programs. "To be able to talk to them from the heart is amazing."
Each daily shoot uses the skills of several volunteers who can record up to 50 individual videos daily, each with a maximum of 15 minutes. The volunteers often come in with minimal film knowledge or experience. But through a partnership with a local participating non-profit, The Messages Project provides cameras, tripods and lights, and then trains the volunteers to work with the inmates to create a meaningful recording experience.
"It's set up so the videos are done about twice a year, usually around holidays, so they're extremely valuable and a big event for the inmate," says La Barbera. "It's incredibly well organized, so there are no safety or security violations."
Since the beginning of CCA’s partnership with the Messages Project, there have been shoots at Davis Correctional Center in Holdenville, Okla., Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing, Okla., and North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, Okla. Though the project has only gone into three Oklahoma facilities so far, CCA's Inmate Programs department envisions LeCroy bringing her program to all CCA facilities in the next few years.
"We're working to assist the program in finding local non-profits for them to train," says La Barbera. "This would be the biggest expansion The Messages Project has ever had."
While the project may seem to be benefitting the inmates at first, the real goal of The Messages Project is to ease the children's feelings of guilt, fear and worry by showing them that their parents are doing well. It also aims to reestablish the children's bond with their parents so that they will remain crime-free.
"It's the most powerful program I've seen that connects and re-bonds parents with their children," says La Barbera. "It's a way to get to the child through the parent, to help them stay out of trouble. Children are innocent victims, so it also eases a child’s worry about their parent and resolves the guilt and fear that many kids have about their parents being incarcerated."
While it is up to facility leadership to include this program in their facilities, La Barbera and the Inmate Programs department hope that all facilities will understand the purpose and benefits of such a successful program.
"We would love to see the Messages Project available throughout all of our facilities, and we hope that wardens and managers will see value in this program," say La Barbera.
January 16, 2012
Sound Out
C/O J. Hill at West Tn Detention Facility:
Wow! This sounds like a wonderful program. I look forward to my facility participating.
Brian Inks at Cimarron Correctional Facility:
I got to participate in this project the day they came to film the offenders, it was a moving experience for me as the facility's mental health coordinator. I've received nothing but positive reports from the offenders whose children received DVDs.
DHOLMES at CADC:
I THINK ALL CCA PRISONS SHOULD HAVE THIS PROGRAM, FOR A GOOD INCENTIVE . ADMIN. CLERK D. HOLMES
Joyce Oswald at New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility:
We partner with the New Mexico Corrections Department and provide the PS I Love You program where female inmates read books to their children. We film the women on DVD videocam then burn the DVD's. We send the book and the DVD's home to their children. Additionally we provide some parenting instruction along with the reading component. Very powerful and a great opportunity to facilitate family reunification.
Nurse Johnson at Saguaro:
I think the program is wonderful and the children will benefit from this.