Family Preservation Project restoration an act of justice
t was the little things that meant so much, Nova
Sweet recalls. All the little things mothers who
«aren't in prison take for granted.
They would let me have a hairbrush and a comb.
I could groom her when she came here,” Sweet says
ecstatically of those weekly visits with her young
daughter. “Everything you got to do with your kids
in the real world, you got to do with them for three
hours - from the nervousness of ‘hello’ to playing
games to helping with school work. It was major.”
Sweet says it was while she was in the Coffee
Creek Correctional Facility that she learned to be a
between mother and child - is the bigger, essential
network. Peer mentoring, workshops, training
sessions and an ear to bend when the pressure of
doubt or shame becomes too much. Sweet says that
the lessons and techniques learned in the program
extended beyond those enrolled to others in the
prison.
Sweet takes full responsibility for her crimes
committed and time served - she was incarcerated
for 18 months on a drug-related conviction and
burglary. She had a drug problem and she screwed
up, she says frankly and often. She made bad
.
________ mom. A lesson that would have
decisions and she doesn’t hide from them.
been lost, she says, if it hadn’t
But even before her incarceration, she felt she
been for the Family
didn’t measure up to all the expectations of being a
Preservation Project that helps
mother. And once she was in prison, she knew her
~ m o t h e r s like Sweet stay
children were paying for i t They were ages 5 and 12
connected with their children
when she went inside. The shame was crippling and
during incarceration.
defeating, compounded by the social isolation of
At the end of last year, the state announced it was
prison. “All the judgment you say about your worst
closing the door on the acclaimed project and using
enemy,
you put on yourself,” Sweet says.
the $300,000 a year expenditure to plug holes in the
p i e Family Preservation Project allowed her to
Department of Corrections’ budget. It was headed
“flip the switch,” she says. She was released on Feb.
for extinction under DOC’s direction.
26 to her family and that evening attended the
This week, however, the tide turned. Gov. Kate
premiere of “Mothering Inside.” She is clean and
Brown signed the bill that transfers administration
sober and committed to sobriety for life. She lives at
of the program from the DOC to the YWCA, along
home now with her son and daughter, now ages 8
with $400,000 in general fund money for operations.
and 15.
What saved this program was less about
State Sen. Chip Shields, D-Portland, who
budgeting — $400,000 barely registers in the
championed
the program’s funding, said it was the
expanse of a state budget — and more about a
voices of the women and children in the program
community that saw tangible and positive results in
that made the difference.
bucking our nation’s archaic stereotypes of felons.
“1 can say without a doubt that FPP would not
This country is winning the race to the bottom when
have beeh restored were it not for the courageous
it com es to locking p eo p le up — rep eated ly and
advocacy of the .mothers in the program*” Shields
generationatty. Where the prevailing image is one of
told Street Roots. “FPP participants came down to
irreparable damage, this program tapped into the
Salem with little experience in the legislative
power of transformation — and hope.
process, but blew us aWay with their powerful
stories of the program’s positive impact on their
families. Many mothers spoke about how the
program taught them not only how to be a parent,
but how to question the cycle of low self-esteem
that threatened their ability to succeed and stay
clean after prison. They also brought their children,
who told us how FPP was the only time they were
able to hug their mom, play and read with them in
a child-friendly place.”
And the evidence bore out that this is more than
a compassionate gesture to prisoners and their
families.
. ' -
“Programs like FPP can reduce costs associated
with the child welfare system, foster care
placement, intergenerational involvement in the
criminal justice system, and economic
consequences of poor school performance and our
safety net system,” Shields says. “Programs like
FPP
turn lives around, and we can’t be penny-wise
P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F B R IA N L IN D S T R O M
and pound-foolish when it comes to helping children
who have incarcerated parents.”
From the moment the women in the all-female
Sweet’s life was among those turned around.
Coffee Creek Correctional Facility learned that the
“Finding out that I could still follow my dream
program was going to be phased out, they went into
was enourmous to me,” says Sweet, who has
action. They sought approval from their supervisors
master’s degrees in social work and criminal justice.
to start a letter-writing campaign. Sweet was integral
She might go back into that line of work, but for
in the effort, writing six-page letters, over and over
now, her focus is on how the program - and the
again, she says. They organized, stayed connected
attitude that surrounds it — can be expanded. “I
with the legislative session through the League of
want Oregon to be on the map,” she says. “I think
Woman Voters, and got the word out to anyone who
our state has the right mentality to have this
would listen, specifically state lawmakers.
restorative justice rather than criminal justice. I
The program also caught the attention of
really feel like I’m restored from the process.”
documentary filmmaker Brian Lindstrom, who
Well done, Nova Sweet, and your colleagues, and
directed the edgy “Alien Boy: The Life and Death of
all the people from the State Capitol and beyond
James Chasse.” An advocate for the cause,
Lindstrom went to work on a documentary to raise
who saved this important program. We too agree
awareness about the program and the lives it has
that Oregon could serve as a national example.
When we focus on people’s potential and match it
changed, titled “Mothering Inside.”
Because beyond the little things - the moments
with opportunity, we truly can transform lives.
I
editorial
Above, a still fram e
from B ria n
Lindstrom 's
documentary,
“M othering Inside, ”
about the Fam ily
Preservation Project
fo r incarcerated
mothers.
that you’ve
written published
in our pages, orw ould
like to get involved as a
member of our reporting staff,
503-228-5657.joanne@streefroofs.org.
Street Roots
211 NW Davis S t
Portland. OR 97209
503-228-5657
Fax:503-227-3117
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