Program keeps incarcerated women connected to families

Alex Hargrave
Posted 3/3/21

Mary Kay Huck believes everyone has a story, especially individuals who are incarcerated.

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Program keeps incarcerated women connected to families

Posted

LUSK – Mary Kay Huck believes everyone has a story, especially individuals who are incarcerated.

That’s what led Huck to start the Everyone Has a Story Project, which allows mothers and grandmothers who are incarcerated at Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk to record themselves reading age-appropriate books to their children and grandchildren. Huck and other volunteers then send the recordings and books to families’ homes. 

Collaborative Connections, Inc., a Cheyenne-based nonprofit organization providing education and services to populations in need, was awarded a 2021 State Literacy Award from the Library of Congress for the project, amounting to $2,225 that will go toward more books for the children involved in the program, according to their website. 

The project’s goal, Huck said, is to reduce recidivism by keeping families connected.

“It gives (incarcerated women) hope, it gives their children hope,” Huck said. “They get to see mom’s okay when they see her on a video reading this book.”

The project started in 2019 after Huck listened to an episode of one of her favorite podcasts, “What should I read next?” and heard about a similar program in Texas. 

“I’m driving down Dell Range Boulevard in Cheyenne listening to this, and I start crying,” she said. “I was like, ‘oh my gosh, I wonder if Wyoming has anything like this.’”

After communicating with the Wyoming Department of Corrections, Huck and her team started the pilot program with roughly 30 women at WWC with children of all ages. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last spring, they haven’t been able to enter the prison, but WWC staff has taken on the project themselves, recording inmates with cameras. 

Sandra Toolen, education manager at WWC, has been facilitating the project inside the prison while visitation is suspended due to COVID-19. 

“I normally take 25 slots, but I’ll easily get 60 people interested,” Toolen said. “There are a couple of ladies who help me out a lot. One of them is able to help the moms with the levels of books for certain ages and another one helps with the paperwork side of it.”

Huck said she plans to eventually expand the program to include Wyoming State Penitentiary. For more information, visit everyonehasastoryproject.org. 

“Mothers have told us they’re talking to their kids more,” Huck said. “The books give them something to talk about when they’re on the phone or in a Zoom meeting. It’s a connecting point for them.”