Girl Scouts Program Helps Girls with Mothers in Prison

[Are_grits_groceries]

Girl Scout Troop 1500 does all the usual things: Sells cookies, goes on camping trips, and earns merit badges. But once a month the troop, which is based in Austin, Texas, does something out of the ordinary: The girls take an hour-long trip to Hilltop Prison in Gatesville, so the troop members can visit their mothers behind bars.

The unusual program, Girl Scouts Beyond Bars, which exists in 30 states around the country, was the brainchild of a troop leader in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1992, who noticed a need for girls with mothers who had been jailed. The Girl Scouts reached out to the Department of Justice, which in 2003 began providing funding for that program, along with Girl Scouting in Detention Centers.
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The addition of the Beyond Bars program, said Brongniart, is to "deter girls to make decisions that would land them in prison. To stop the cycle." Both programs have served about 15,000 girls affected by the criminal justice system. Brongniart noted that the Beyond Bars program doesn't just act as a visitation program. It also focuses on developing the mother-daughter bond.
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More than 1.5 million children have a parent behind bars, according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, and 75% of all incarcerated women are also mothers, many of them single. Said Spiro, "These kids aren't in control of their situations. There are all these children who are essentially being punished for crimes that they did not commit."

The Beyond Bars program seeks to change that. The documentary, released in 2005, has served as a training tool for troops around the country that seek to start their own Beyond Bars program.
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http://shine.yahoo.com/author-blog-posts/girl-scouts-program-helps-girls-mothers-prison-162400777.html

Good on them!
Now that's a merit badge.

[WhollyHeretic]

1. They are a great organization. The Boy Scouts could learn a lot from them.

[Ilsa]

2. What a wonderful idea.

And this takes pressure off of the girls' current caregivers who might not have the time to take them regularly, or might not want to. Some of these moms could be in prison for crimes against a family member, whether it was theft or assault.

I know a woman, younger than 30, who is following in her mother's footsteps. Her mother went to prison for assault of a peace officer after avoiding prison for drug and alcohol problems. But the daughter steals, writes bad checks, etc. She is stealing in the felony range now. She'll be in prison or jail by Christmas, I bet, right after her second baby is born.