Nonprofit connects children with their incarcerated mothers, promotes literacy

Children with incarcerated parents often end up in prison themselves, according to Nancy Botkin, a retired warden who spent 24 years working in Texas prisons.

"There is a direct correlation between incarcerated parents and relatives and the children. If [children] grow up in that environment, that's all they know," Botkin said. In 2003, Botkin was the warden of the Hilltop Unit correctional facility in Gatesville, Texas, where Judith Dullnig established the Austin-based nonprofit Women's Storybook Project of Texas, which sends volunteers to female prisons to record offenders reading to their children.

A guard stands by, and a volunteer holds a tape recorder while the mother recites familiar lines from books such as Goodnight Moon or Dr. Seuss books. Volunteer Dugie Graham recalls one story of a mother who turned the book toward the recorder, the way one might while reading to a child.

"This mom was so transformed in the moment that she turned it to the tape recorder. That's so powerful," said Graham, an Austin resident.

The tapes and new books with a handwritten message from the mother are mailed to their children. It's different from face-to-face visits and phone calls, Graham said.

"They can play it over and over and over again."

Botkin said funding is scarce for programming in the prison system. She added that many children of incarcerated parents end up living with other relatives who can't afford to make regular trips to the prisons, so programs such as the Women's Storybook Project establish a lifeline between the parent and child.

Maintaining that connection through literature makes a difference, Dullnig said. She founded the interfaith nonprofit after hearing about a similar program run by Lutheran Social Services in Chicago. She worked with with social worker Anne Mooney, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, local businesses and schools to develop the program. Today there are 150 volunteers, 120 of whom are from the Austin area, including Cedar Park and Georgetown.

The Women's Storybook Project mails about 350 new books and tapes monthly to children throughout the U.S., and the program is in six of the eight women's prisons in Texas, Dullnig said.

Dullnig said one goal of the program is encouraging reading, and children often work harder at school after receiving the tapes. Moms can also record a personal message before they begin reading the story, she said. Dullnig said the sentiment they express is usually something that includes the phrases "I love you" and "brush your teeth."

"The sound of the mother's voice is very, very powerful," she said. "And for the mother's side, [just] because she's incarcerated doesn't mean she loves the child any less."

Dullnig said inmates' behavior also improves because they must behave to participate—part of a long-term goal to help moms return to their children and prevent them from returning to prison.

"One thing I'm a big proponent of is getting the community involved," she said. People can donate books, organize book drives and take the nonprofit's message to a book club to inform others about the program, she said.

Additionally, they can sign up to record the inmates.

Graham sets up schedules for volunteers, helps keep records for the organization and occasionally joins volunteers for a Saturday journey to one of the prisons in Gatesville.

Many of the inmates are incarcerated because of drug use or writing bad checks, according to Dullnig. Prisoners' specific crimes are not shared with volunteers, she said, because it has nothing to do with what the program is about.

"It doesn't matter," Graham said. "I'm a mom; I can't imagine living without my children. It absolutely breaks my heart that children are without their mother because of a bad choice that she made. More than anything, we're in this organization for the children, to let them know that they're not forgotten. When I'm there as a volunteer I'm just a bridge between the mom and the child in that moment."

BookPeople's holiday Giving Tree drive

BookPeople is hosting a book drive to benefit Women's Storybook Project of Texas and local nonprofit Foundation Communities, which provides housing for low-income families, said Meghan Goel, the children's book buyer for the store.

"The Giving Tree is something we've put together so that area kids can get some great books for Christmas," she said.

The bookstore displays a Giving Tree decorated with snowflakes, which each feature the name and age of a child who wants a book. Shoppers can choose a snowflake, purchase the book and donate it to the nonprofit through BookPeople.

The drive lasts until Dec. 25.

Book People, 603 N. Lamar Blvd., 512-472-5050, www.bookpeople.com

Women's Storybook Project of Texas, 700 E. 11th St., 512-560-8739, www.storybookproject.org