Visiting parents in jail, knowing they are locked up behind bars, just adds to the load of trouble the children carry on their narrow shoulders.
By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The steep ramp seems to roll forever toward the dark portal of the immense, intimidating building known as the Salt Lake County Adult Detention Center.
Walls on either side of the steep walkway are too high to see over. It’s a long, hard trudge for a kid.
It used to be that once inside the forbidding waiting room, kids visiting incarcerated loved ones weren’t allowed to do anything. Their security blankets and stuffed toys had to be locked up after they sat out the mandatory 30-minute waiting period before the actual visit.
Once inside the visiting room, the kids confronted more hard surfaces, a television in the corner permanently tuned to ESPN. The kids had nothing to do, except run around madly with other children who were also out of their minds with boredom and stress - until Mindy Calderon came on the scene.
A graduate student in the University of Utah’s College of Social Work, Calderon was working for Valley Mental Health when she first visited the Metro jail.
“It was scary to me,” she said. “All the uniforms, all the concrete.”
From her work, Calderon knew about the damage done to children who have passed through multiple foster homes or whose parents are unstable or unknown or in jail.
“It’s just such a higher level of intensity and chaos and stress they are living under,” Calderon said. Visiting parents in jail, knowing they are locked up behind bars, just adds to the load of trouble the children carry on their narrow shoulders.
Calderon wanted to help. After a bit of research, she approached Sheriff Jim Winder with an idea: How about mounting a wall toy the kids could play with?
At first, law enforcement officials resisted the idea, worried about making jail a positive experience. Jail isn’t McDonald’s. It’s not supposed to be fun. Kids shouldn’t even visit.
“But the reality is, they do,” Calderon said.
She convinced the sheriff try out the wall toy. She raised $1,700, mostly by going door to door in her neighborhood. The sheriff’s department agreed to mount the toy and keep it clean.
In April 2007, the first kids tried it out. By the time the department organized a news event to show off the wall toy three months later, they were convinced its installation was a good idea for the children and their parents.
Winder told Calderon that Father’s Day visits, usually difficult, went more smoothly because the kids could play with the toy. Some inmates were happier, too, Calderon said, because they could see their children playing, which in turn helped them understand the importance of getting their acts together to stay out of jail and care for their families.
The toy is durable and colorful, with lots of moving parts. Several kids at a time can play with it. And they don’t quarrel, said jail clerk Tori Kolkman, who had long watched the children try to figure out what to do during the visits.
“There’s nothing soft in this jail,” she said. “And I’ve seen them fall.”
Kolkman administers another kids’ program at the jail with the Volunteers of America. The organization gives her Scholastic Books - publisher of the Harry Potter series - and the visiting children get to pick out brand new volumes for their very own. She hands out about 100 books per week.
When Kolkman steers them toward the stack, “their face would be like, ‘It’s mine?’ ”
Reading with mom in the waiting room provides the stressed out children a semblance of calm, Calderon said. It could be the first book the children have ever owned, or even the first book ever in their homes.
Reading books is a good habit that could help keep the kids out of jail, Kolkman said.
“A learned person is not afraid to fill out a job application,” she said.
Copyright 2008 The Salt Lake Tribune