TEXAS TOWNSHIP -- A new literacy program in Wayne County is connecting inmates with their children through reading.
Of the more than 1.5 million state and federal inmates, 800,000 of them are parents.
You can usually find Betty Lawson in the children's room at the Wayne County Public Library in Honesdale. The boys and girls call her Miss Betty.
Some children haven't met her yet, but their parents have met her at the Wayne County Correctional Facility. Inmate Crystal Boehmer is one of seven inmates to sign up for a new program called Read to Me. It allows her to read stories to her children. Wayne County Correctional Facility gave Lawson the go ahead in April.
“It’s one of the things you can do to stay a part of your kid's life. We read together every night this way, they hear my voice,” said Boehmer of Lake Ariel.
Lawson is trying to do more than connect parents and children while they're apart. A visit once a week is a lesson in how reading to children can encourage them to be successful in life.
“They take the book back to their cell and they practice. Then the next week I record them reading to their child,” said Lawson. “I really believe at the risk of sounding overdramatic or corny, that reading can change your life.”
All children are born with the same chances, but if a child is read to by age 3 they have 1,000 words in their vocabulary whereas that number is cut in half if they are not read to by then, according to Lawson.
Recently, Lawson expanded the Read to Me program to the federal prison near Waymart, reaching 32 inmates. Now those 32 inmates can read to their children, hopefully promoting both growth at home and while they serve time behind bars.
“I’ve had many inmates in tears over this,” said Lawson.
Crystal Boehmer may have only six weeks left in this chapter of her life, but thanks to Read to Me, her son and daughter get a book, and a meaningful connection now and in the future.
“They can hear it every night. You’re still the last voice they hear before they go to sleep,” she said.
The books are paid for by an account the inmates contribute to at the correctional facility. The Wayne County Public Library pays for postage and the CD each child receives with their parent's recording.