Queens Program Helps Transition Incarcerated Moms
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A daycare center in Long Island City, Queens is focusing on nurturing children whose mothers are incarcerated. NY1's Cheryl Wills filed the following report.For some babies, their lives are dictated by the "hour" of their mother's arrest, the "hour" of the visit and the "hour" of their mom's return.
At the Hour Working Women's Program center in Long Island City, Queens they're known as "Hour Children."
"Most of the children that are here at our daycare center were born in prison and spend the first year of their life with their mothers in prison," said "Hour Children" Coordinator Jelena Starcevic.
The program helps many mothers, including 17-year-old Isabella Crowell, whose son Cody was born while she was behind bars serving a year-long sentence.
"I was 16 when I got locked up and I'm a high school drop-out. I'm going for my GED now and I messed up a lot," Crowell said.
"Hour Children" was founded nearly 25 years ago by Catholic nuns in Queens. They also help young women get their lives back on track. But like many not-for-profit groups they've lost state funding and rely on private organizations to keep the doors open.
"Sometimes they may have been in a bad relationship and that's what causes them to wind up in jail. They just got caught up in the system," said We'reworthit.com President Eton Lacon.
Wilmarie Hernandez, a Working Women Program client, says she got caught up in the system when she was just 15 years old. She was locked up for eight years.
"I knew the life I was living in the past -- it was very hard -- it was something I needed to change. I said I wasn't going back," Hernandez said.
"Seventy-five percent of the women we serve don't have a GED and that's where we begin," said Hour Working Women's Program Employment Coordinator Johanna Flores.
Thanks to the Hour Children Working Women's Program, Hernandez now has a GED and is currently enrolled as a student at LaGuardia Community College.
Organizers say the "hour" programs are improving the lives of women and children. And for all involved, it's time well spent.