Visits to Mom
What is Visits to Mom?
The Visits to Mom program provides free transportation to children whose mothers are incarcerated and are too far away to visit. Bus trips are scheduled to Decatur Correctional Center three to four times a year, typically serving children from Chicago’s South Side and West Side neighborhoods along with their caregivers. The program also offers an annual Christmas party for these families.
Over the past 10 years, LSSI has provided transportation to over 5,000 children and 2,800 caregivers. During our 2019-2020 fiscal year, the Visits to Mom program was able to make two trips with 49 family members before it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Despite that, LSSI provided virtual visits for children and their parents when possible, and when prisons reopen to visitors, this program will begin providing trips again for in-person visits.
“I don’t have a lot of money, only what I get from Social Security,” said Sandra, a participant of the program and the mother of a daughter who was incarcerated. Sandra and her grandchildren rode the bus together to visit Sandra’s daughter in prison. “My daughter was locked up for 3 years, and my grandkids always looked forward to seeing their mom. I don’t know what I would have done without the Visits to Mom program.”