Articles & News

March 18, 2008

Mentor tells how to help prisoners' children

Ex-mayor of Philadelphia speaks to Richmond-area aspiring Christian leaders

By WESLEY P. HESTER, TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

The key to keeping kids from following their parents into prison is to get to them first, former Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr. told aspiring religious leaders in Richmond yesterday.

Goode, 69, addressed 30 students enrolled in the first Richmond Christian Leadership Institute class.

When he was 14, Goode saw his father sent to jail for assaulting his mother. It sparked the fire that led him to help start Amachi, a nonprofit, faith-based program that mentors children whose parents are imprisoned.

Amachi is a Nigerian Ibo word meaning "who knows but what God has brought us through this child."

"At the basis of the program was the belief that there were a group of children in our society that were invisible, and these children were the children of those who were incarcerated," he said.

Goode said that after his two terms as mayor from 1984 to 1992, he realized that children were the other victims of incarceration.

"I decided at that point I needed to move from success to significance," he said.

Goode also stressed early-childhood learning as an effective way to combat soaring prison populations in America.

"I believe that many of the problems we face in out society start with children starting school not prepared to learn," he said.

Those students often end up dropping out of school and many end up in prison, he added.

Goode, an ordained minister, was one of five people to receive the $100,000 Purpose Prize in 2006, awarded to American leaders and activists 60 and older who are judged to be making a difference to the nation's social problems.

Amachi now operates 210 mentoring programs in 48 states based on the Big Brothers/Big Sisters model. It has helped more than 100,000 children, Goode said -- a small dent in the 10.7 million children with parents under local, state or federal supervision. That is 12 percent of America's under-18 population, Goode said.

"The catch is that seven out of 10 of those children will end up in prison themselves," he said, telling of his experiences at correctional facilities across the country where he has seen three and four generations of families imprisoned together.

"It is generational," he said, "and the best re-entry program is no entry."

The Richmond Christian Leadership Institute program was created in 1996 to provide biblical and civic education for emerging Christian leaders, said chairman and founder Fritz Kling.

The class was formed this year out of applicants from Richmond-area churches to examine social issues. Criminal justice is among many topics addressed during the nine-month course that runs through June, Kling said.
Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or whester@timesdispatch.com.