11/29/2002 - Children Doing Hard Time This Christmas

AgeVenture News Service, 11-29-02

By default, the nearly 2 million children of America’s prisoners are forced to do hard time—time spent growing up with a parent missing from their daily lives. According to U.S. News & World Report (April 2002), an estimated 10 million of our young people nationwide have had a mother or father or both behind bars at some point in their lives. Currently nearly 2 million children have an incarcerated parent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

By every measure, prisoners’ children are the most severely at-risk children and youth in America. Studies show that children of prisoners are five times more likely to end up in prison themselves (U.S. News & World Report, April 2002). These kids are at a greater risk for child abuse, neglect, illiteracy, crime, violence, incarceration, teen pregnancy, depression, premature death, and substance addiction.

Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree® program represents the only nationwide effort, religious or secular, to reach out to children whose fathers or mothers are behind bars. Since the program’s inception, more than 4.5 million children of prisoners have received nearly 8.5 million Angel Tree gifts nationwide. In 2001, Angel Tree provided Christmas gifts to nearly 600,000 children.

Christmas is an especially difficult time for children whose moms or dads are imprisoned. By brightening Christmas for the child of a prisoner, a national program called Angel Tree® helps children begin to heal the pain of being separated from their mom or dad, and offers these families an important connection with a community that can offer support and love during a time of isolation.

“When kids receive a Christmas gift from a parent who’s away, they know that they are loved and remembered even if they can’t be together,” said Mary Kay Beard, an ex-inmate who founded the Angel Tree Christmas program in 1982. The program later expanded to last long after the Christmas trees have been taken down. “Angel Tree is now a year-round program helping kids get school supplies, providing mentoring, and even taking kids camping, because the need to be loved doesn’t end with the Christmas season.”

By mobilizing churches and organizations throughout the United States, Angel Tree works to provide prisoners’ children with Christmas gifts and to encourage adult involvement in the children’s lives year-round through practical, emotional, and spiritual support. Angel Tree® is a program of Prison Fellowship, the world’s largest prison outreach organization.
To learn how to participate, visit www.angeltree.org or call 1-800-55-ANGEL.
Image credit: Prisonfellowship.org

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