AUBURN -- Three inmates, each carrying a folder full of papers, pamphlets and other supplies, took their seats in the small room tucked away in the Auburn Correctional Facility's education building.
Chet Susslin / The Citizen
While going through a parenting class work book, Auburn Correctional Facility inmates. from left, Robert Tucker, Dennis Conway, and Albert Wilson share their experiences.
While going through a parenting class work book, Auburn Correctional Facility inmates. from left, Robert Tucker, Dennis Conway, and Albert Wilson share their experiences.
The men were students in the prison's parenting program, which was designed to help incarcerated fathers maintain a healthy relationship with their children. As the men waited for the class to begin, they discussed their concerns that the 12- to 16-week program would shut down.
“I feel that's a crime for them to take it away when there are so many of us in here who need the chance that this program gives you to help you grow,” said Dennis Conway, a father of five with three grandchildren. “I've seen (this one guy) who came in here and he didn't write his family or anything. And four weeks into the program he finally wrote a letter home.”
Some of the inmates in the program have committed violent crimes, including crimes against children. Conway is serving 25 years to life for smothering his girlfriend's four-month-old child to death when it wouldn't stop crying.
For inmates such as Albert Wilson, a father of four who was convicted of selling drugs to an undercover informant, closing the program meant they would lose a resource designed help them learn from their mistakes. If a parent accepted responsibility for their actions, they could help their children achieve a better life by not making the same mistakes, Wilson said.
“Everything is about change, and we have to do everything we can to change the things we can, and show the kids that it's OK to make mistakes throughout life,” Wilson said. “That's a part of living and it happens. But just understand that when you make a mistake, you can always learn from that, and get up, walk and do something different.”
ACF Deputy Superintendent of Programs Dave Stallone said the class would continue to run as long as there was at least one volunteer facilitator to teach it. The prisoners' concerns came after one class had to be canceled halfway through the semester due to a shortage of facilitators and the resignation of the program's coordinator, Calvin Green.
Despite those obstacles, the program was able to recruit Gina Farinelli, an elementary school teacher who was already employed in the prison's school, to facilitate one of the classes.
“The prisoners were concerned because Calvin Green resigned,” Stallone said. “After they saw Gina start facilitating, some of them were relieved. We have a commitment to this program. After she finishes with this class I hope to start again with the second class that we had to cancel so they can finish the program. Then we will start another class after that one.”
Green, who was the former AmericorpsVISTA organizer assigned to start the program in Auburn, said a problem finding facilitators who were committed to the program caused him to disagree with the way the classes had to be run.
“I was initially under the impression that inmate facilitators would be allowed,” Green said. “When they told me that two inmate facilitators would have to be taken out, and would not be able to finish their classes, I didn't feel I could continue my work in good conscious. In my opinion they were doing a good job, even a better job than some of the volunteer facilitators who were not always reliable. They were always going to be there for the class. They are in prison, it's not like there were going to go anywhere.”
Stallone said he had little choice in the matter because he had to follow the class curriculum that was given to him by Cornell Cooperative Extension, which originally made the program for Fort Drum parents serving overseas.
But whether or not the prison was allowed to use inmate facilitators, Stallone believed the class' objective was still the same.
“The purpose of this program is to prepare the inmate to return to society using only volunteer facilitators,” Stallone said. “We prepare them to come out into our community and be proud productive citizens and parents. Just because an individual is incarcerated, it doesn't prevent them from playing a significant role in their child's development.”
A state Department of Corrections study found that prisoners who participated in programs similar to the one in Auburn were less likely to commit another crime after they were released. Research found that 35 percent of prisoners who did not complete a program were arrested within the first 24 months of their release while only 28 percent who did complete a program were arrested in the same time frame.
For Robert Tucker, a father of two who was convicted of assaulting his 3-month-old son by shaking the infant to stop it from crying, the class gave him an opportunity to learn how to teach his children not to make the same mistakes he had made.
“For me, it gave them a concrete example of what can happen,” Tucker said. “They can say, 'You know if I do what daddy did, this is going to lead to something like (prison).' ... Yes, it's an empty space because they are doing it without you, but they can also look back and say I don't want to do that.”
The program also helped develop a stronger relationship between the prisoners and their families, Stallone said. If an inmate developed a trusting relationship with their children and spouses, they were more likely to succeed outside the prison's walls.
“Overall I am very pleased with this program,” he said. “The family plays an important part while an inmate is incarcerated, and that support system plays an important part after they are released. Hopefully the parent will have a better, stronger influence in the child's life. Anything that can build stronger family relationships I believe is vital for a successful parole.”
The program had even influenced the way some of the prisoners handled their lives outside of the family, Conway said.
“What really effected me, was I learned a different way to think about my actions, the way I approach situations,” he said. “Like we were discussing about shutting the noise out. I find that I don't just use the stuff from this class with just children and stuff. We got some grown children running around this facility, too, and I do find myself using it with them to from time to time. Some of the brothers in here are still children. They somehow are just locked into that 10-year-old stage and they didn't get out of it. It helps me to be able to deal with it.”
Staff writer Nate Robson can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or nathan.robson@lee.net
Program voices
For an audio slideshow on the ACF parenting program, go to auburnpub.com/slideshows.
“I feel that's a crime for them to take it away when there are so many of us in here who need the chance that this program gives you to help you grow,” said Dennis Conway, a father of five with three grandchildren. “I've seen (this one guy) who came in here and he didn't write his family or anything. And four weeks into the program he finally wrote a letter home.”
Some of the inmates in the program have committed violent crimes, including crimes against children. Conway is serving 25 years to life for smothering his girlfriend's four-month-old child to death when it wouldn't stop crying.
For inmates such as Albert Wilson, a father of four who was convicted of selling drugs to an undercover informant, closing the program meant they would lose a resource designed help them learn from their mistakes. If a parent accepted responsibility for their actions, they could help their children achieve a better life by not making the same mistakes, Wilson said.
“Everything is about change, and we have to do everything we can to change the things we can, and show the kids that it's OK to make mistakes throughout life,” Wilson said. “That's a part of living and it happens. But just understand that when you make a mistake, you can always learn from that, and get up, walk and do something different.”
ACF Deputy Superintendent of Programs Dave Stallone said the class would continue to run as long as there was at least one volunteer facilitator to teach it. The prisoners' concerns came after one class had to be canceled halfway through the semester due to a shortage of facilitators and the resignation of the program's coordinator, Calvin Green.
Despite those obstacles, the program was able to recruit Gina Farinelli, an elementary school teacher who was already employed in the prison's school, to facilitate one of the classes.
“The prisoners were concerned because Calvin Green resigned,” Stallone said. “After they saw Gina start facilitating, some of them were relieved. We have a commitment to this program. After she finishes with this class I hope to start again with the second class that we had to cancel so they can finish the program. Then we will start another class after that one.”
Green, who was the former AmericorpsVISTA organizer assigned to start the program in Auburn, said a problem finding facilitators who were committed to the program caused him to disagree with the way the classes had to be run.
“I was initially under the impression that inmate facilitators would be allowed,” Green said. “When they told me that two inmate facilitators would have to be taken out, and would not be able to finish their classes, I didn't feel I could continue my work in good conscious. In my opinion they were doing a good job, even a better job than some of the volunteer facilitators who were not always reliable. They were always going to be there for the class. They are in prison, it's not like there were going to go anywhere.”
Stallone said he had little choice in the matter because he had to follow the class curriculum that was given to him by Cornell Cooperative Extension, which originally made the program for Fort Drum parents serving overseas.
But whether or not the prison was allowed to use inmate facilitators, Stallone believed the class' objective was still the same.
“The purpose of this program is to prepare the inmate to return to society using only volunteer facilitators,” Stallone said. “We prepare them to come out into our community and be proud productive citizens and parents. Just because an individual is incarcerated, it doesn't prevent them from playing a significant role in their child's development.”
A state Department of Corrections study found that prisoners who participated in programs similar to the one in Auburn were less likely to commit another crime after they were released. Research found that 35 percent of prisoners who did not complete a program were arrested within the first 24 months of their release while only 28 percent who did complete a program were arrested in the same time frame.
For Robert Tucker, a father of two who was convicted of assaulting his 3-month-old son by shaking the infant to stop it from crying, the class gave him an opportunity to learn how to teach his children not to make the same mistakes he had made.
“For me, it gave them a concrete example of what can happen,” Tucker said. “They can say, 'You know if I do what daddy did, this is going to lead to something like (prison).' ... Yes, it's an empty space because they are doing it without you, but they can also look back and say I don't want to do that.”
The program also helped develop a stronger relationship between the prisoners and their families, Stallone said. If an inmate developed a trusting relationship with their children and spouses, they were more likely to succeed outside the prison's walls.
“Overall I am very pleased with this program,” he said. “The family plays an important part while an inmate is incarcerated, and that support system plays an important part after they are released. Hopefully the parent will have a better, stronger influence in the child's life. Anything that can build stronger family relationships I believe is vital for a successful parole.”
The program had even influenced the way some of the prisoners handled their lives outside of the family, Conway said.
“What really effected me, was I learned a different way to think about my actions, the way I approach situations,” he said. “Like we were discussing about shutting the noise out. I find that I don't just use the stuff from this class with just children and stuff. We got some grown children running around this facility, too, and I do find myself using it with them to from time to time. Some of the brothers in here are still children. They somehow are just locked into that 10-year-old stage and they didn't get out of it. It helps me to be able to deal with it.”
Staff writer Nate Robson can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or nathan.robson@lee.net
Program voices
For an audio slideshow on the ACF parenting program, go to auburnpub.com/slideshows.
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