NEW JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey’s Department of Corrections has a new program to help educate the children of women in prison.
Kids will get a one-on-one mentor from the organization Give Something Back. CEO Melissa Helmbrecht says this helps break the cycle of incarceration by getting kids through high school, as students of incarcerated parents typically have high school graduation rates below 5%. Almost everyone who goes through this program graduates, she said.
“Our goal is to help get them a post-secondary degree, a college degree, a trade school certification. We have a large scholarship program,” Helmbrecht said.
Helmbrecht says the relationships formed are meant to last “to help that student set and achieve their goals, their academic goals, their life goals.”
New Jersey Department of Corrections Commissioner Victoria Kuhn says this is the first program of its kind in New Jersey and, perhaps, the country.
“Gives them that added benefit, that protection, that I really can continue to help my children evolve and find hope and success through something that may not normally have been available to them.”
If the pilot goes as well as expected, Kuhn says they’ll explore expanding to the children of male inmates.
“Whatever may have brought the women to the facility, you know, whatever crime was committed and they were convicted and came to the facility, certainly doesn’t define who they are as mothers. Their number one concern on a daily basis is their children,” Kuhn said.