GEM empowers women in prison and their daughters to break to cycle of incarceration and lead successful lives with vision and purpose. The effect on children when their mother is incarcerated is traumatic. This crisis violates the human rights of children by separating them from their mothers in prisons hundreds of miles from home. Distance and expensive costs of calling home make regular visitation and contact virtually impossible during a child's most tender years.
GEM partners with Texas women's prisons and works to lessen the impact of maternal separation by strengthening the mother-daughter relationship through enhanced prison visitation sessions which include facilitated discussion between mothers and daughters, workshops and art therapy. GEM also works to equip girls with the tools to make positive life choices in spite of their mother's incarceration by offering mentorship, leadership development, life skills, counseling and material support.
Our Needs
On any given day, over 2 million children in this country have a parent in prison. Mass incarceration is one of the most pressing societal issues of our time. Women are the fastest growing incarcerated population. To bring it closer to home, according to a recent report published by the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC), Texas now incarcerates more women by sheer number than any other state. Nearly 80% of women incarcerated in Texas prisons are mothers.
When a girl's mother is in prison, there is something significant missing from her life: A loving embrace. An encouraging word. An empowering connection with an influential role model.
Support is needed to help building capacity to enhance our existing safe space programming and enable us to expand our reach to add more girls, partner with more prisons, change the narrative to shatter the stigma associated with incarceration, and continually evaluate our programs to ensure our services benefit the community by stemming the tide of recidivism and preventing a future generation of girls from entering prison.