Staying Connected: Incarcerated Moms & Their Children

Karen James interviews Jessica Katz, the director of the Family Preservation Project (FPP) at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, and Nova Sweet, a former participant of the program. FPP is a program of the YWCA of Greater Portland that uses a holistic, family-centered approach to help incarcerated women rehabilitate, form connections with their families, and prepare for lives after incarceration. In 2014 when the Oregon Department of Corrections’ budget for FPP was cut and programming within the prison was discontinued, incarcerated women, including Nova Sweet, worked to restore funding. They also discuss their work to adopt a Bill of Rights for Children of Incarcerated Parents (SB241) and a new documentary about this issue by Brian Lindstrom, who produced Mothering Inside, a documentary about the FPP.


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