Women’s Justice Institute Brings Children of Incarcerated Mothers to Logan Correctional Center to Celebrate the Holidays

Women’s Justice Institute Brings Children of Incarcerated Mothers to Logan Correctional Center to Celebrate the Holidays

The Women’s Justice Institute's regular Reunification Rides bring kids together to meet with their mothers in prison for bonding and connection, this month with special holiday activities

Chicago – On Saturday, December 20, the Women’s Justice Institute (WJI) hosted its annual holiday Reunification Ride, bringing children to Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois, to visit their incarcerated mothers. Families gathered early Saturday morning to travel to Logan, where children spent the day participating in holiday activities with their mothers, including arts and crafts, gingerbread house decorating, gifts and a visit from “Auntie Claus” in a supportive environment centered on maintaining family ties.

The monthly program, organized in partnership with Nehemiah Trinity Rising, Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration, Ascend Justice and others, provides consistent opportunities for bonding and connection between children and their mothers separated by incarceration.

“This program exists because every child deserves the chance to know that they’re loved and every child needs to stay connected with their mother,” said Deanne Benos, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Women’s Justice Institute. “These visits support healing, stability and dignity, especially during the holidays.”

For more than nine years, WJI and its partners have hosted these monthly rides to counter harmful narratives suggesting children are better off without an incarcerated parent.

“Reunification Rides are a reminder that families can stay strong despite the system working against them. When we launched this program, I channeled my personal experience from incarceration into a personal mission to help keep families connected,” said Colette Payne, Director of the WJI Reclamation Project and one of Reunification Ride’s founders. “We continue this work so mothers and children can see each other, hold each other and maintain the bonds that help them return home and rebuild their lives.”

WJI’s Reunification Rides were created in response to budget cuts nearly ten years ago, and is one of the only programs of its kind in the country. The rides will continue into the new year, reinforcing the critical role of family connection in supporting successful reentry and long-term well-being for system-impacted women and their children.

The national Women’s Justice Institute (WJI) is a dynamic Chicago-based “think and do tank” that collaborates with a wide range of stakeholders to end women’s mass incarceration, reduce harm to women, their children and families and improve health, wellbeing and outcomes among them. Their transformative work is housed at the WJI Reclamation Center, an innovative arts, advocacy and mutual support space led by/for formerly incarcerated women in the Pilsen Arts Corridor of Chicago.


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