Activists Raising Money To Help Children Visit Their Incarcerated Mothers
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Advocates for mothers in prison have started a crowdfunding effort hoping to revive a program to bus children to women's prisons.
The program lost funding due to the ongoing state budget impasse. Cabrini Green Legal Aid, Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration, and Nehemiah Trinity Rising have teamed up to raise $10,000 to take two busloads of children to see their incarcerated moms on Mother's Day at Decatur Correctional Center and Logan Correctional Center.
Alexis Mansfield, supervising attorney for Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM) at Cabrini Green Legal Aid, is helping to organize the effort. She said when mothers are incarcerated, their children are also serving time because of the severed family connection.
"The majority of the time, they're the primary caregivers of their children before they are incarcerated. That bond between the mothers and children is incredibly important. It's hugely important for children to feel like they are bonded with their parents, and for their parents to feel like they keep that bond with their children," she said.
Mansfield said maintaining a connection is extremely important for the mothers and their kids, and often the grandmothers who end up caring for the children.
"We spend a lot of money separating families, and we don't spend a lot of money keeping families united," she said.
The fundraising page on YouCaring.com had raised more than $3,200 as of Thursday morning. The money they raise will pay for the buses, staffing, insurance, and the legal paperwork required to arrange the visits.