Tue, Oct 14 2008
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Published May 10, 2008 09:27 pm - Officials: Keeping moms in touch with children helps both By Cathy Spaulding Phoenix Staff Writer
TAFT — “Mother’s Touch” allows inmates at Eddie Warrior Correctional Center to read stories and send messages to their children on a compact disc. It is one of several ways the minimum security prison seeks to keep its inmates in touch with their children, said prison chaplain Kathryn McCollum. Maintaining such bonds help both mother and child, she said. McCollum said maintaining the maternal bond helps women believe they are doing something positive for their children, and gives children “peace of mind to know their mother is OK.” More than 80 percent of the Eddie Warrior’s 784 inmates have children, McCollum said Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesman Jerry Massey said he couldn’t estimate how many of the 2,653 female inmates in Oklahoma prisons have minor children. He said many inmates do not want to admit to having children. With a rate of 127 inmates per 100,000 female population, Oklahoma has the highest percentage of incarcerated women per capita of any state, according to a study of incarcerated women and their children, released June 24 by the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth. That’s almost twice the national rate of 65 inmates per 10,000 female population, the study said. The report said female inmates are far more likely than male inmates to report having a child living with them before the arrest, but also are less likely to say the children are living with the other parent. “These two statistics emphasize the fact that children of incarcerated mothers may find themselves not only without their mother, but also without their home,” the report said. The report said children of incarcerated mothers face such problems as bad grades or bad behavior in school, depression and problems with caretakers. The report said nearly half of the mothers in Oklahoma prisons are there for drug-related offenses. The report also cited evidence of “intergenerational imprisonment,” in which the inmates’ parents or grandparents had been in prison. McCollum said having a mother in prison does “affect children negatively.” “Even if the mothers did things in life that hurt the family, abused drugs, the children still love their mothers,” she said. 
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