Norfolk resident Carolyn LeCroy looked at Dolly Parks, a New Yorker and mother of two who has been locked up for a decade.
"You ready?" LeCroy asked.
"I'm ready," Parks answered.
She had been waiting eight years to do this, since the last time she had seen her two children.
"Just talk from your heart," LeCroy said.
She stepped out of camera range in a darkened classroom inside the maximum-security Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women.
The recent videotaping session was one in an effort LeCroy started nine years ago to record messages from Virginia inmates to their children. Some 3,000 messages later, LeCroy has been chosen as one of 10 national finalists for this year's CNN Hero of the Year award, to be announced Thanksgiving night. She will receive $25,000 and will be given another $100,000 if voted the overall winner.
She'll also be feted today at an 11 a.m. rally at Old Dominion University.
LeCroy long ago made a huge mistake in her own life: She allowed a former boyfriend to stash marijuana in her storage unit. He fled. LeCroy, a middle-aged, middle-class professional without even a parking ticket to her name, received a 55-year sentence, with six years to serve, a pronouncement that caused her knees to buckle in court.
She earned parole her first time up, 14 months later, in November 1996.
"Somebody was looking out for me," LeCroy said. "What did I discover? I discovered that there were things I want to change.... I saw things that broke my heart."
Things such as fellow inmates who never heard from their relatives, because of distance and finances and anger. Or children growing up not knowing their imprisoned parents.
LeCroy had entered prison with a background in film and video. She left with a passion to create something good from the bad. She calls it The Messages Project.
She began to record, usually for free, inmates' messages to their children and mailed them to the families.
The lack of relationships - family, community, romantic - is a big reason behind recidivism, LeCroy said.
"That's why the messages are so important," she said. "We know if the bond is kept, it helps the family. I t also helps the offender."
It took some convincing of corrections officials to start, but she has won them over.
Family support "correlates to law-abiding behavior afterward," Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections, said in an e-mail.
LeCroy now travels to nine prisons across Virginia in a 1992 Toyota Camry with 175,000 miles on the odometer. She uses her own time and largely her own money, supplemented with some donations, and volunteers who include her ex-husband.
As a result, Traylor noted, children see that their parents are OK. Parents encourage their children not to make the same mistakes they did, a positive message that's also therapeutic for the inmates.
LeCroy's day job is running programs on parenting, relationships and substance abuse for the state prison system. She also has provided training in other states and for the federal government.
But she has found her avocation. If she wins the CNN Hero award and its six-figure cash prize, she said, no one would have to pay for a video, and she'd expand the program beyond Virginia "to anywhere and everywhere that would have us." Since her nomination, she has received e-mails of interest from across the country and around the world.
Back in Fluvanna, east of Charlottesville, LeCroy left the classroom and returned with toilet paper she pressed into Parks' hand.
"Hi, Austin and Alura," Parks began, speaking to the lens a few feet in front of her. "Both of you encourage me. I see your report cards, and you both make me so proud."
She joked about her baggy prison denims. She pointed out the classes she was taking to learn how to transcribe Braille.
Later, her voice wavered: "I know I've been away from you for 10 years, and that's a sore point for me.... I love you. I miss you so much, and I hope you get a piece of what your mother wanted to show you."
Eleven minutes after she began, she hugged and thanked LeCroy in the hallway, wiping her eyes.
When LeCroy wore the prison denims, just about every Sunday her two grown sons drove a couple of hours west to the Virginia Correctional Center for Women in Goochland County, waited 45 minutes for their mother to be brought to the visiting room, visited for an hour, and then drove back to Hampton Roads.
They had to see that she was OK, David LeCroy said. Show their support. For Carolyn Le-Croy, it was important that she remained connected to her family and to the free world that she hoped to rejoin soon. She never lost her identity.
Still, LeCroy usually doesn't watch the inmates record their messages. It's too emotional.
She teared up quoting a letter from an inmate: "Thank you for sending me home for the first time in 13 years." She pointed to hair standing up on her arm while relating how some children touch their parents' faces on the screen when they watch. Some parents read books on camera - LeCroy keeps a stash of garage-sale children's books in her trunk, along with holiday tinsel and other props - and some children listen to the videos every night before bed.
"I do it for the kids," said Kevin O'Sullivan, a Messages volunteer for more than 10 years and owner of Dominion Productions in Virginia Beach. "I don't do it for the inmates."
He worked in one of two makeshift studios at the recent Fluvanna shooting. Nothing fancy: camera, chair, a few lights. The DVDs they'd send home would be holiday presents, so Christmas lights were strung up along with snowman and "Rugrats" cartoons, to soften the plain prison walls.
O'Sullivan taped a handwritten sign with a happy face directly beneath his lens: "Your Family," to remind the parents whom they were addressing. He daubed makeup on some. He stressed making the most of the 15 minutes: Let them know how you are, say hi, wish them a merry Christmas.
Lisa Shores of Marion opted for shorter. Her 9-year-old son's a "very busy little man."
"Hey, Greg, how're you doing?" she asked. "I want to tell you I am very proud of your report card. And your handwriting we'll work on."
She read "Little Jackrabbit," holding up each picture to the camera. She's due out in 2016, pending appeal
Lorrena Harris of Franklin began crying before the camera rolled. The empty chair next to her soon filled with crumpled tissues.
"Mom, I'm sorry for all the wrong things I did," she said.
She read "Biscuit Wants To Play" to her 4-year-old daughter, Arionna. With four years left on her sentence, she is desperate for her daughter to remember her.
"It just - it hurts being away from you all. I love you all so much. It would be nice if I could get a letter."
Harris paused, out of words. "Talk to your child some more," O'Sullivan coaxed. Finally, Harris thanked her mother for watching Arionna, and moved to end her session.
Suddenly she brightened, remembering the season: "Oh - merry Christmas!"
Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-3893, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com
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Lost Sight
While this woman's deeds may be of value to the convicted criminals and their families, is this seriously the best example of heroism that CNN can find? How incredibly sad. If the people housed in jails were not provided an opportunity to speak with their families, perhaps they might think about that fact next time they are faced with making a decision that might result in those same consequences. Shouldn't jail/prison be a place where civilized people would not want to return? Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a real hero for making jail an unpleasant place and punishing people for the crimes they have committed.
Broken system
As much as it would ease your lacking Conscious to believe we are all born with the same opportunity in this world. It simply is not true….The system doesn’t work. You cannot justify your elitist mindset and lack of empathy with self righteous statements like that…
Do me a favor and Google prison business and see if you feel the same way.
Greed,,,, Lets keep the disadvantaged on our frontlines and in jails making our armor G.I Bill, Private prisons It’s a shame and scary that we let this happen in America….We are all equal...
While this woman makes a difference…What have you done lately?…
“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” - Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government
Treat people as if they were what they should be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.
-Goethe
Good Job Thank you
What a wonderful thing to do for these children...and inmates
To you naysayers I challenge you to go to a jail or prison spend a few hours talking to people.....The majority are there simply because they are poor or had abusive childhoods..very few are bad for no reason...A lot are mentally ill.drugs ect...or never really developed…
She is helping stop a Cycle more than the system ever could….KUDOS you deserve this award x100…If only they could improve the laws and funding. Get early intervention for children at risk before age 7-10, Parenting classes, Birth control, and if all fails a new home quickly…
But since Prisons are becoming a booming business and there’s money to be made from them…and not these programs…They will never happen unless people with a conscience get elected…. Instead the Greedy keep Contributing and the Children stay victimized…So the Cycle continues….
No hanky needed here
Oh boo hoo ! Cry me a river ! If you do the crime,you do the time and that includes separation from your loved ones ! I don't see this as being anything but making life easier for prisoners. Prison isn't meant for that. It is meant for a time out for bad people from society. Part of time out is suffering the consequences of your actions and prisoners don't deserve rewards like this. Time in prison is meant to be insufferable so that you will know the next time you break the law, you will remember what lies ahead if you get caught and sent back !!!!
Those feel good stories
Notice now that since the democrats are in power that you see more of these socialist stories come out to make you feel well “good” comrade.
buckhead and sbrown
While I like what you have to say, I would ask that you be more inclusive in your beliefs. Being a good person and caring about one another is not exclusive to Christians and those believing in Jesus. I am agnostic and have a strong community conscience as do many of my atheist friends and Buddhist friends. It is not exclusive to Christians to love one another.
Wow...
With all the heroic acts committed daily in this nation, its hard to believe they couldn't find a better recipient for "Hero of the Year" award. Its obvious this award is just a joke.
Something is out of whack
The U.S. has a greater percentage of its population than any other nation and one of the highest rates of execution, BUT yeah . . . we should put more people behind bars for longer and we shouldn't waste time or money on anything that smacks of rehabilitation. Rehabiliatation is for loosers who love the nanny state. That's socialism. that's welfare . . . we need to instill good Christian values like punative measures for "morals" crimes and focusing on really and thoroughly punishing the dregs of society (AKA the poor). The American economy runs on a healthy prison system--that's the 'Merican Way--we need to do everything in our power to make sure our prison system thrives and is well utilized.
Christianity?
For all that think this all a good Christian thing, it is. So why not be a good Christian and help the victims. The state or government has programs in house to help those who want and will accept counseling and help. Even for the lowly rapist or murderer get visitation. So if you want to carry your cross of Christianity take it to the victims. They are the ones which have been hurt by those in prison. Remember an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth
carrien77332
So your friend, who has a young daughter, should have weighed the consequences before she started drinking and got behind the wheel, correct?
While sober, she should have said to herself, 'If I drink and get behind the wheel, I might get caught and spend time in prison with murderers and rapists and miss out on important time with my daughter. Am I okay with those consequences?' Obviously, she was.
Sorry, no sympathy here.
re: Keep in that everyone in
carrien77332 wrote:
>>>A very close friend of mine was put into jail for 2 DUI offenses and she had a very bad drinking problem (obviously). <<<
She should've been charged with attempted murder and served more time. Anyone who gets in a car intoxicated knows the chance for killing someone is huge, this equates (in my mind) to premeditated [attempted] murder.
As far as her drinking problem, that is a problem she refused to face and take care of; you must lay in the bed you make...
Keep in that everyone in
Keep in that everyone in Prison is not a hardened criminal who has raped, murdered or tortured someone. A very close friend of mine was put into jail for 2 DUI offenses and she had a very bad drinking problem (obviously). She was locked up in the AZ Pen for almost a year. She was in the same kind of place you would find the woman who knifed another's face or murdered someone, yet she's simply an alcoholic who needs rehab. Not everyone is a violent offender. I kept in touch with her throughout and besides her Mother, I was the only one to write her. Her daughter was also 4 at the time. I sent pictures, letters, did what I could so she didn't lose hope that someone on the 'outside' was rooting for her. I hope none of you judgmental folks have a relative or close friend locked up for a non-violent crime. You certainly would throw them in the dust by the ranting in your posts.
Either way
This woman is NOT a hero. The word 'hero' is just applied too lightly these days and diminishes the true meaning of 'hero'. 'Hero' should be reserved for those who truly are that, and not just some bleeding-heart-touchy-feely person who attempts to 'ease' the pain of those who made bad choices and cannot accept their deserved punishments.
Wonderful Woman
The last poster was correct. I cannot think of a more christian act than the help she is providing to society's castaways. Jail time is not just punishment, but also rehab. Connecting with families must be a big help for that side. Good work. You are an inspiration.
Thank God for Carolyn's Compassion
Carolyn, I thank God for you. You are doing what Jesus would want us to do. You are doing what any decent person would want to do, but does not know how to do: help someone when they are down. 100% of the prisoners are not all guilty, or even if guilty, they did not deserve the over-the-top sentences as a non-violent offender. Who will cry out for the innocent victims of our penal system? Thank you, Carolyn, and to all of your volunteers I send a big hug of thanks. God is with you.
Mike
I understand your feeling of wanting to make offenders pay for their crimes. But remember that not all folks sitting in prisons are hardened murderers and thieves. Many are simply drug addicts or suffering from mental illnesses. And many of them have innocent children and family members. Most of these mothers and fathers will eventually return home. I applaud the efforts to maintain familial connections.
BigMike
You hit the nail on the head! As I read this article, all my thoughts were right in line with your comments. I, too, have no compassion for people who CHOOSE to break the law. Maybe this woman should get together with Sister Helen Prejean for a cocktail....of course, the victims and their families would never be mentioned in their conversations.
Carolyn gets my vote for
Carolyn gets my vote for Person of the Year. It's easy to write-off or overlook those behind bars. But society needs to think of what will happen to those people when their sentences are over. By chance, your paths may cross later in life. Would you want to pass a formerly incarcerated person on the street with no hope? It would be better to pass a re-habilitated former prisoner with a sense of purpose. We need citizens like Carolyn who are willing to do what most of us are not. The Judicial System is open to human era, and there will always be "casualties" where innocent people are put away for crimes they did not commit. Prison should not be such a hopeless place that destroys people's sense of humanity.
For BigMike
Concure-couldn't have said it better myself.
Here's a funny joke called the American Justice System
TRUST ME! If you are criminally minded and cannot restrain from committing a crime, I strongly suggest you do it in America. This story is a testament to that! Just think, if you rape, murder, or commit a violent crime in America, you'll get 3 square meals a day, free housing, free gym membership, free cable TV, and other perks. In an economy where many of us are striving on a daily basis, why go through the stress, commit a crime!