Staying in Closer Touch

Strengthening the bond between parent and child is our mission.  We support relationships between incarcerated parents and their children through reading. We are dedicated, passionate volunteers who visit incarceration sites in Washtenaw County weekly to audiotape inmates reading a children's book to their child or grandchild. We bring new children's books into the prison and let the parents select a book to read to their child. The readers are mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers. We audiotape them reading the book, and we mail the books and the audiotapes to the children. 

In 2023, we became an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We are most appreciative of the support that Children's Literacy Network of Ann Arbor (CLN) gave us to build upon their model and carry forward the programs they initiated in 2002. 

We get favorable feedback from the parents, grandparents, children, children's caregivers, and prison staff and administrators about our program. Studies show that recidivism rates go down when the incarcerated maintain relationships with their families and children.   We work with Huron Valley Women's Correctional Facility and Washtenaw County Jail. Prior to the COVID epidemic, we also went to Milan Federal Men's Prison. We hope to resume the program there in the future.