Prison Art Connection
Hope House brings kids to their incarcerated dads for a week of crafts
Reported and produced by Elizabeth Anderson
Summer is the season for vacations, beach trips and summer camps of all kinds. Whether it's basketball, tennis, softball, rowing, water polo, lacrosse or rock music, there is no shortage of ways for kids to taste the outdoors and get a break from mom and dad.But one D.C. area organization doesn’t shuffle kids away from their parents. Every summer, Hope House bring kids together with their fathers who are in prison.
When Lorton Correctional Facility closed in 2001, inmates housed there were transferred to federal facilities across the country. Some were sent as far away as California, making it difficult for relatives to visit them.
Other prisoners were transferred multiple times. During these transfers, Carol Fennelly, founder of Hope House D.C., learned that some inmates and their families lost track of each other in the constant shuffle. So Fennelly established Hope House to keep prisoners from the D.C. area and their families connected.
She learned how relationships could be disrupted when an inmate in a Florida prison walked up to her and asked:
“Can you help me find my family? I’ve lost them.”
Fennelly took the man’s information and went to work tracking them down.
She said it took some time to realize the full impact of the program.
“When I started Hope House, I thought I’d do this really nice thing. I didn’t get what an impact it was going to have on our families and our kids and our dads and our moms,” she said.
Cristopher Clark was a Lorton inmate. He was transferred several times before ending up in the Cumberland Camp, where he was released in 2007 after 16 years of incarceration. He said he regrets missing his daughter’s growing years, and that other prisoners struggle with those emotions, too.
“When you inside, a lot of people are down. You got somebody on the outside how really cares,” Clark said.
Hope House can help inmates fight the loneliness they experience behind bars, he said.
“I’m glad they have it.”
"That's fine," you might say. "But shouldn’t they have considered the consequences before doing whatever landed them in prison?"
Carol Fennelly said yes, inmates should have considered consequences before committing a crime. But she also said inmates’ children should not have to suffer for their parents' mistakes.
“These children deserve the love of their father and mother and both parents are important to them,” she said.
And the reality, Fennelly said, is that one day the prisoners will return home. Keeping them connected with their families can help reduce recidivism, she said. Returning to a supportive family can help prevent former inmates from seeking solace in the streets.
Whether or not the parents are still romantically linked, keeping children connected to their fathers through Hope House is a family affair. Mothers must agree to let their children attend the camp.
“You’d be surprised. We’ve had moms who wouldn’t win mother of the year award who manage to get their kids out to the camp who recognize the importance of the father,” she said. “We do work with the moms a lot,” she said.
Durrell Becton, a former Hope House camper, is one of two male counselors at the camp. The first night, they swatted mosquitoes away from their necks, arms and legs while on guard duty, making sure no campers left their rooms.
Becton, 21, is a sports marketing student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He said being a counselor helped him better relate to children. He said despite their age difference, they have a lot in common.
“They might be younger than me, but we’re all in the same boat,” he said of the campers. “They went through so much. When I grew up… me having my father incarcerated most of my life just like these kids, some of these kids haven’t even met their fathers before,” he said.
But Becton is an advocate of positive thinking. He credits his mother for being both mother and father to him and his sister. He said even though things can be rough, that’s no reason to sulk.
“You gotta keep going with life, because that’s all it is,” he said.
Olivia Robinson, an art instructor at Syracuse University in New York, has been Hope House's art teacher for five years. Art is a medium for facilitating conversation and interaction between fathers and their children, she said.
“The end result is a relationship.”
She talked about a child and father who were meeting for the first time.
“Imagine the...huge intensity of meeting your father for the first time, you’re nine or ten years old… What do you talk about? Well, the art provides this third thing that if you don’t have anything to talk about you can both work on it and talk whenever the spirit moves you to talk.”
Robinson also said art can help when conversations become more serious.
“Lots of times where the discussion will turn into something else, and this kind of gives enough distraction so one isn’t nervous about having those kinds of conversations,” Robinson said. “There might be discussions about how dad being in jail hurts the family.”
Robinson said she’s seen some conversations become emotional where some dads and kids may have to go off into a private corner for a more serious discussion.
The children of inmates don’t always tell their peers where their parents are living. Fennelly calls it “the big secret.”
Ten-year-old Dayonna Dixon is about to begin sixth grade at a new school. She said she didn’t tell anyone at her old school about her dad… save one person. She said her dad’s location is “my business,” and she didn't want anyone judging him.
“I don’t want anyone to think my dad did something bad like murder someone,” she said.
To Dayona, "prison inmate" doesn’t always equal "bad person." A bad person, she said, is someone who kills other people.
She has mixed feelings when she talks about her dad’s incarceration. She first said prison is a better place than being in out in the streets. But then she continued,
“Actually It’s not a better place because some of the days they get treated wrong.”
Her dad doesn’t elaborate on the treatment he receives in prison.
“But he said being in jail is not a good thing,” Dayonna said.
Incarceration takes its toll on families, especially children. Hope House tries to make a difference by keeping separated families connected and by giving children an environment where their secrets are safe.
Production assistance from Shauna Stuart.