MA- Family ties

8-28-2008 Massachusetts:

For mothers in prison, children can be key to rehabilitation, with parenting classes and visits paving way to self-improvement

Four years ago, Jacquelyn Pedranti had served only eight months of her prison sentence, and didn't know what to do about her son. He was acting up, demanding to know why he couldn't sleep in the same house as his mother.

Pedranti didn't know what to tell him. She was struggling to come to terms with her own situation. In an interview at the time, she couldn't even bring herself to discuss the crime for which she had been convicted: drug trafficking.

Now, still incarcerated, the 32-year-old appears to have undergone a remarkable transformation. In a recent interview at MCI-Framingham, Pedranti was upbeat, open about her mistakes, excited about the future, and, she said, closer than ever to her son.

"Coming here was a blessing. I could have ended up dead," she said. "I had to better myself in here for him."

Pedranti said she has just finished her last class for a bachelor's degree in liberal arts and interdisciplinary studies at Boston University, and expects to graduate in May. She is looking forward to moving, perhaps within a month, to a minimum-security facility where she can have extended visits with her son - up to 48 hours, instead of just a few hours at a time. She hopes to be paroled next year.

She credits much of her progress to her connection with her 12-year-old son, Jerry, maintained over the past few years through regular visits and daily phone calls, as well as several programs at the prison, including ones that specifically promote family ties.

Most American women in prison are mothers. Advocates say efforts at rehabilitating members of the fast-growing population of women in prison must be specific to their gender and to their roles as mothers, and an inmate like Pedranti demonstrates just how important - and effective - specialized programs can be.

The University of Massachusetts at Boston's Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy released a study this summer that reported a lack of support nationwide for mothers behind bars, despite the overwhelming share of incarcerated women that are poor, single mothers.

Although the report, "Parenting from Prison: Family Relationships of Incarcerated Women in Massachusetts," found that progress has been made in recent years, it also defined a number of areas in which improvement is badly needed.

Pedranti's story is the goal, not the norm.

"It sounds like her situation is fairly functional compared to some of the stories that we heard," said Paige Ransford, the study's project director. "It's what some of these women who we talk to strive for or hope to get to."

The report relied partly on interviews with 48 women, chosen at random, largely from MCI-Framingham, the state's only prison for women. ..For the rest of the story.. by Lisa Kocian