December 5
There are many worthy opportunities to give and volunteer this holiday season. The Porter County “Children’s Christmas Gift Program” is one such opportunity. This program brings gifts to over 200 children whose parents are currently incarcerated. For children, when their parents go to prison they are really a victim of their parent's crime in the sense that they lose their parent. There's a lot of guilt and shame associated with being a prisoner's child. At the same time, for a lot of parents in prison, they carry a lot of guilt and shame because they realize what they've done had separated them with their child. The “hard time” affects the entire family not just the inmate.
Currently, an estimated 2.3 million children in America have a parent who is incarcerated. Their lives are filled with instability and uncertainty. The children themselves are victims of their own parent’s crimes and are potentially damaged by the sigma and shame of having a parent in jail. So the thinking goes, parents who break the law cannot possibly be good mothers or fathers, and their children are better off without them. Many parents who break the law can still be good, attentive and supportive parents.
Long-term effects of separation on children of inmates can range from maturation regression to impaired ability to cope with future stress or trauma. Maintaining a connection with a parent helps children cope with a parent’s incarceration.
The children of incarcerated parents are at higher risk for a number of negative behaviors that can lead, in some instances without positive intervention, to school failure, delinquency and intergenerational incarceration.
The Children’s Christmas Gift Program was started 20 years ago by Nan and Charlie Steeves. They were preparing their own family Christmas when they started discussing the inmates with whom Charlie had been visiting weekly at the Porter County Jail. They tried to imagine what the holidays would be like for the families of those inmates. From that discussion was born The Children’s Gift Program. The warden of the Porter County Jail, Joe Widup passes out forms to the inmates that will be in jail over the Christmas holiday and they fill them out with information about their children. With the help of volunteers, a sponsor is then found for each child.
Gifts are not to exceed $20 and must be wrapped and tagged with only the child’s name in the “to” section. The “from” section will be filled out by the child’s caregiver (what the parent would like the gift tag to read).
Gifts can then be delivered or mailed by the sponsor. If you’re interested in sponsoring a child please contact Melissa or Matt Brown at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or evenings at 219-548-1306.
Incarceration is not a single or discrete event but a dynamic process that unfolds over time. If we can help lessen the impact of the incarceration process on the children both short term and long term perhaps we can help both the parent and child rehabilitate, recover and even reunite this holiday season.
