LIMA — Isiah’s Hope had a fundraiser Saturday at Forest Park United Methodist Church. Isiah’s Hope is a non-profit organization that coordinates visits by children younger than 18 with their incarcerated mothers. Isiah’s Hope Project provides children and one caregiver with transportation to and from visits with mothers currently at the Ohio Reformatory for Women and the Dayton Correctional Institute.
Judy Jo Frisby started the project in 2016 with herself and her grandson. “I used to take just him (Isiah). As soon as people started getting the word out that there was someone who could aid them in the transportation, now we go one or two times a month. Right now we are taking four children and there are two who haven’t gone yet.”
People who cannot travel are utilizing video visits which are paid for by the project. It is the financial drain of driving to Dayton or Marysville that prevents these children from seeing their mothers.
Things have changed. “Before I would have the bake sale, it would be a lot of my own money. I put a lot of miles on my own car. These kids have just got to see their moms. I can’t imagine not being able to see my mom.”
The Prison Policy Initiative states that more than half of the people in jail who could not make bail were parents of children younger than 18. Of the women who could not meet bail conditions, two-thirds were mothers of minor children, while just over half of the men were fathers.
As the prison population in the United States has skyrocketed since 1980, the number of incarcerated women has grown by more than 750 percent. The increase has been driven by the rise of imprisonment for property and drug-related crimes. As the prison population has increased, so too has the number of children growing up without mothers.
More than 4,500 women are currently in Ohio prisons, one of the largest female prison populations in the country. The number is growing at almost double the rate of men, according to a WOSU analysis of US Bureau of Justice Statistics data.
Judy Jo Frisby, affectionately known as “the lady who will bring your kids to you,” continues to have bake sales so she can make the lives of incarcerated mothers and their children a little easier.
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