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Mothers behind bars use reading program to connect with their kids
MLive:
5.11.2018 by Darcie
Moran
Sunlight
streamed past the barbed wire and through the window as 25-year-old Teanna Daniels
traced the winding words in the book she was reading to her daughter.
"The
mouse ran through the book," she read. "He ran onto the next page, to
take a little look."
Her
daughter, Claire Williams, wasn't there. The 4-year-old was back home in Washtenaw
County's Superior Township.
Daniels
lives behind bars at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in
Pittsfield Township.
She's
one of a select group of women inmates taking part in the Staying
in Closer Touch project put on by the Children's Literacy Network. The
program encourages children of incarcerated parents to read and to keep a
connection between child and parent.
Both
Daniels and her mother, Tia Whitfield, who is Claire's current guardian, hope
it does just that, but that it also, perhaps, stems a cycle of incarceration.
"I
feel like, if I was more into school and academically (sic) maybe I wouldn't
lead down the road that I did go to," Daniels said. "But education is
really big to me and I really just want my daughter to stay on the right track
in life."
Inmates
record themselves while reading and children get both the book a copy of the
recording, as well as a bookmark and CD slip designed by the mothers. READ
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