LIMA — The bond between a mother and child, no matter the circumstances, is just as important as it is special.
It also can be the difference and reason that prevents a person incarcerated from getting in trouble once they get out, said Derry Glenn, a counselor at Coleman Professional Services in Lima and a retired case manager at Allen Correctional Institution.
“It’s a time of rehabilitation but when it’s time to leave it’s a hurting time because you can’t walk out the gate with your loved one,” Glenn said.
Glenn said it doesn’t matter when the person incarcerated is a man or woman, the pain of being behind bars away from your family is the same.
“When they are incarcerated they miss their loved one,” he said.
Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Christmas are the three biggest holidays at the prison when mothers would visit their children, Glenn said.
“Holidays are the most difficult days. Those are the days both sides feel real bad they are locked up,” Glenn said.
While maintaining a bond with a mother is important, local jails do not have any special program during Mother’s Day but do have visitation on that day. Local sheriffs did not have any information on whether that was a more popular day than any other to visit but jails are different than prison with assigned visitation days and no contact visits, meaning behind glass talking over a telephone on a recorded line.
For Glenn, he understands the pain a mother feels. He has two brothers in prison serving long sentences. His mother will see both this weekend visiting one at a prison Saturday and going to another prison Sunday.
“That’s your kid locked up. He’s not coming home with you,” Glenn said.
Just like it was with many inmates he saw over his career, tears flow when parents leave the prison visiting a child and vice versa, Glenn said.
If anything good comes from the pain of not being able to go home its that people incarcerated can strive to correct their behavior once they are on the outside to not commit new crimes, get locked up again and be away from their family, Glenn said.
But for mothers they worry more that fathers, Glenn said.
“Every night when my mom goes to bed she wonders if something is going to happen to one of them,” he said.
