Interview with Jan Walker, columnist of "An Inmate's Daughter"

Prison parent/family educator, Jan Walker, is speaking with us today about her newly published book. Jan is trained in child and family studies and has spent the past 18 years as a correctional educator for adult felons in medium custody prisons. Welcome to Reader Views Jan.

Irene: Jan, your book, "An Inmate's Daughter," is being launched now. Your book speaks out for children who cope with a parent's prison term. Tell us the gist of your book.

Jan: The protagonist, Jenna MacDonald and her mother and younger brother, have moved into Jenna's grandparents home in Tacoma, WA, to be near McNeil Island Corrections Center, the prison where her father was transferred. Jenna is the new girl in a middle grade school, and wants to get into the "in group," a multi-racial group of girls.

The girls are curious about her heritage (she's part Native American Indian) and the reason she lives with her grandparents. They follow her home from school and peek in her bedroom window. She dubs them The Snoops.

Jenna's mother enforces a "Don't Tell" rule about prison. Jenna loves her dad and would like to talk
about him and his artistic talent. Keeping a secret is difficult in the best of circumstances. It gets
harder when Jenna calls attention to herself and the family when they are family are leaving a visit to
McNeil Island. A small child trips and falls into Puget Sound, and Jenna jumps in to rescue her. It's an
automatic reaction, borne of many rescues of her younger brother at a trailer park swimming pool
where they used to live.

Irene: What inspired you to write it?

Jan: During the 18 years I taught incarcerated parents, wrote curriculum and text books, and worked
with women and men to remain involved in positive ways with their children, I invested energy above
and beyond my contract-responsibilities out of concern for my students' children. They are innocent
victims of their parents choices. The children broke no laws, yet they are often abused or shunned in
their communities, schools, and sometimes in their own extended families.

After leaving correctional education to write full time, a friend and writing mentor encouraged to write
a book for children from about age 9 or 10 to about age 15. She said it should be classified as a
middle grade novel. Children who fall in the age group 9 to 15 are often the most hurt and confused
about incarceration. I didn't know how to write for that age, so I had to learn some parameters as I
went along. My friend listened t o the entire first draft, offered good suggestions, and encouraged me
to get it published. She died before I found a publisher. The book is dedicated to her, but it is in fact
my effort to let children of incarcerated parents know that I understand a bit of their struggle, and that
I value them enough to spend considerable time and energy writing a story about one of them that is
for all of them.

Irene: You have been teaching parenting and family relationship classes to adult felons for 18 years.
Tell us how and why to chose this career.

Jan: The career chose me. I was teaching similar courses on a community college campus in
Tacoma, WA, when the state legislature mandated prison education would fall under the community
college system. I agreed to set up programs and teach at the women's prison for one year. The
population and their need for courses tailored to them hooked me.

Irene: What types of programs did you set up?

Jan: It was a Home and Family Life Program that had been high school level. I taught standard
clothing construction classes in a sewing lab and some food and nutrition courses, but my real
energies went into Positive Parenting, Child Development, and Family Relationships classes. The
prison had a cooperative preschool called Pooh's Corner inside the education building. Children and
parents came in from the community. A preschool teacher came from a voc-tech school and ran the
preschool program. Inmate students who were in parenting or child development classes and who
were cleared to be around the children, worked as the teacher's assistant. They interacted with the
children and kept anecdotal information that we discussed in class. That program was in place when I
started teaching there. I started writing new curriculum that fit incarcerated parents needs and
profiles, and "retired" the high school text books. My first published book was named MY
RELATIONSHIPS, MY SELF. It's out of print. I worked on and taught the PARENTING FROM A
DISTANCE concept prior to that book's publication. All the courses I taught fell under Home and
Family, and focused on preparing women to return home.

When I transferred from the women's prison to McNeil Island, a medium custody male facility, it
was to coordinate an orientation program called "Project Social Responsibility." Every man who came
to the island had to spend his first full week in that program. We had 29 facilitators who assisted with
the presentations, but I did 8 hours of the 20 hour week with them men and wrote specific parenting
and family materials for that. The project is discussed in my memoir.

Irene: Who were the main participants in your programs?

Jan: Most of the women were moms. Many of them were in touch with their children and had
regular visits. Some of them were unable to see their children due to abuse, usually by a man the
mother was involved with, though sometimes the woman was the perpetrator. Most took classes
because they wanted to be positively involved with their children. Some attended because they were
court-ordered to do so. Some faced termination of parental rights. I was often subpoenaed to those
cases. A few lost their children but won the right to receive information or photos through the years.
A few (maybe three where I went to court) lost all rights and contact.

When I transferred to McNeil Island, I had similar situations - dad's who wanted to learn, dad's who
were court ordered to get parenting classes, and dad's who came to what I called "Open Door," a lab
sort of setting where they could create items to send to their children. I named my memoir
DANCING TO THE CONCERTINA'S TUNE, and said I danced as fast as I could. I held discussion
groups during lab time so even men who were educationally low level achievers learned by listening. I
wrote letters to courts and the office of support enforcement (I made and kept templates on my
computer to speed things up) for men who couldn't read or write, and had never signed a business
letter. I learned to point to where their signature should go, and to praise them when they managed a
"signature" that was really joined printing they were learning in an adult basic education classroom.

In addition, at both prisons, I gave parenting and family handouts I created and assorted craft items to
any who asked for them, though the office staff sometimes had to help me run copies because I
overused my copying budget.

Irene: You have written "Parenting From a Distance" a number of years ago. How different are the
two books from each other?

Jan: I wrote Parenting From A Distance for a class I was teaching at the women's prison. It is a text
book geared to the needs of incarcerated parents. I revised and reissued that book in December 2005.
It's a text book focused on the rights and responsibilities of parents who are separated from their
children. An Inmate's Daughter is fiction written from the view point of the child. The incarcerated
dad in An Inmate's Daughter is a man who has taken parenting classes while inside, and who
understands the difficulties children of incarcerated parents face.

Irene: Have any of the inmates that you teach read any of your books? If they did, what were their
reactions?

Jan: MY RELATIONSHIPS, MY SELF was a text for a family class at the women's prison so all
who enrolled read it and completed the worksheets. Far more read PARENTING FROM A
DISTANCE. Many many students read snippets of other things I wrote since I created scenarios for
"Writing to Clarify Thinking" assignments. I used writing in every class I taught, and even taught
Creative Writing classes as McNeil.

Let me say this about the parenting book especially: My students, men more so than women, were
surprised, amazed, awed that someone cared enough about inmates to write such a book for their use.
The reason I went out on a limb, financially, to reissue the parenting book is because I know it makes
a difference. There are no formal measures to demonstrate that. It's just something I know. I hope
AN INMATE'S DAUGHTER, helps some of the general population stop for a moment to think about
men and women inside prison and their reality.

Irene: Keeping family secrets has been a script that has been passed down for generations. You are
encouraging to break this script. Tell us the benefits of "talking" about family issues.

Jan: It's simply this: When children are not told the truth, they make up stories that they believe are
the truth and substitute them. Secrets are destructive to all. When incarcerated parents keep the truth
of prison from their children, they close all doors to communication. When children are forced to
keep a secret, it festers inside. I use that analogy in An Inmate's Daughter with Zeke, Jenna's younger
brother, picking up on a comment from Grandpa who says, "Peel off the scab, let out the pus," and
Zeke answers, "Pussss. Oooooze," in typical 9 year old fashion.

Irene: Quite often children of felons are ostracized by society, especially their peers. How do you
encourage children to cope?

Jan: They need to remember their parents' choices are not their fault, their parents still love them
(this is questioned in cases of child abuse; therefore, individual situations must be considered), and
they can make healthier choices themselves. They need permission to love the adults who are caring
form them, to talk about their worries and concerns, to go on with their lives while their parents are
away, and to find strength to ignore meanness in others. They need teachers in their schools who help
all the students understand some of the realities of incarceration.

Irene: What are your method's of facing these difficulties?

Jan: When I talk with children, I make eye contact and ask them how they feel about their parents
being in prison. I help them state and restate their feelings. I talk about feelings at the very basic "Five
Feelings" level - mad, sad, glad, lonely and afraid. I like to use "You" statements. "You look sad." "I
think you're mad at your mom for doing something that took her away from you." There are signs
you can read in children ... nail biting, leg jiggling, looking down or away, shrugging, pulling hoods of
sweatshirts down over their eyes. Good teachers know how to read the signs and talk with the
children one to one. However, we have overloaded our teachers with requirements that leave them
little time for such interaction. How can one teacher be everything for 30 or 35 students? There's a
reason such a large percentage of children with a parent in prison will end up doing time, too.

Irene: You spend much time teaching adults in prisons on effective parenting. How receptive are
your students?

Jan: Of the hundreds I met, two or three who were angry (possibly emotionally disturbed) wanted to
discount my teaching. The rest were appreciative, very receptive, and worked hard to regain or
maintain contact with their children. I wrote about some of the special work I did and the successes
and struggles in my memoir, Dancing to the Concertina's Tune. (Concertina is the razor wire that
tops prison fences.)

Irene: It's very difficult to change. Many of your students learned from their parents on how to
parent. When they go back into their own family surroundings, how hard is it for them to adjust to
the new parenting styles?

Jan: It's never easy to change. It's never easy to return to a family that has learned to go on without
you. In Parenting From A Distance, I wrote a good bit about "Contracts for Forgiveness" and urged
students to use them with their parents, spouses and children. That concept should be adapted by all
of us when we are in relationship struggles.

Irene: What are some of those "contracts"?

Jan: We made them simple and practiced before students left prison. It could be reading a book to a
child every night for a specified length of time, trips to a park, playing catch, helping with homework,
going out for an ice cream cone. It could be more complicated with older children ... delving into
personal and family history, telling the truth about past behavior (only appropriate for the child's age),
assisting with coaching a team or just attending sports, saving enough money for extracurricular
activities.

One woman had to contract with her mom, where she would live for a time, to clean all the paneled
walls with Liquid Gold once a week (a little obsessive?), limit her use of hot water in the shower to
her mother's specified time, and other similar behaviors. At the end of a set contracted time, the
woman was to be forgiven and the mother wasn't to bring up past mistakes again. We practiced how
to communicate, how to use reminders.

Irene: What percentage are successful in the changes?

Jan: Recidivism rates remain high all for all felons. There are no statistics that relate to specific
classes or educational programs, though generally the higher the education level, the less likely
recidivism. Students who worked on personal and social responsibility, and who learned both life and
job skills while inside are generally known to have higher chances of staying out of prison. Age is also
a factor. Maturity helps.

Irene: Thank you Jan. Is there anything else you would like to add about your or your book?

Jan: Please see my website, [http://www.janwalker-writer.com] I have posted some downloadable
curriculum in Parenting, Family History and Patterns, and Child Development on the site. It is set up
for instructors to use with students, with easy to read information and work sheets.

For more information on my unusual teaching, read my book, DANCING TO THE CONCERTINA'S
TUNE: A PRISON TEACHER'S MEMOIR. Ordering information is on my website.

When I look back now at how I worked with incarcerated students to try to get them prepared to
reenter their families and communities, I feel tired. It was hard work. Students who succeeded were
the ones willing to work just as hard. They would have an easier time coming out of prison if they
didn't have to encounter societal and cultural roadblocks at every turn. That's their reality: they need
to do their part to earn their way back into their families and communities.

Interview with Jan Walker, a columnist for the daughter of a detainee "

Prison parents / family educator Jan Walker speaks to us today about their recently published book. Jan is trained in child and family studies and has spent the last 18 years as an educator for offenders in adult prisons prisons prisons media. Welcome to Reader Views January

Irene: Jan, your book, "The daughter of a detainee" is now launched. Your book advocates for children coping with a parent in prison. Tell us the essence of your book.

Jan: 'sThe protagonist, Jenna MacDonald and her mother and younger brother were in the house of the grandparents of Jenna in Tacoma, WA, drew near McNeil Island Corrections Center, the prison where his father was transferred. Jenna is the new girl in school and wants to "group" for a multi-ethnic group of girls.

The girls are curious about her heritage (she is part Native American) and why he lives with his grandparents. They follow their way home from schoolLook at his bedroom window. Dub them The Snoops.

Jenna's mother imposes a "Do not Tell" rule of prison. Jenna loves her father and wants to talk
on him and his artistic talent. Keeping a secret is difficult under the best circumstances. This
Jenna difficult when attention to themselves and the family asks if they leave the family to visit
McNeil Iceland. One child tripped and fell into Puget Sound and Jenna jumps to save her. This is a
automatic reaction of many rescue against his younger brother in a trailer park pool
where I used to live.

Irene: What inspired you to write?

January was: In 18 years I have learned parents locked up, wrote books and programs of study and work
to be with women and men involved in a positive way with children, I invested in Energy
and over my contract, responsibility for the concern for children, my students'. You're innocent
Victims of choice of their parents'. The children broke no law, but they are often mistreated or avoided
their community, school, and sometimes in their extended family.

After leaving prison in training to become full-time, a friend and mentor, invited in writing, writing
a book for children aged 9 or 10 to 15 years. He said that should be classified as a
Mid-grade novel. Children who fall in the age group 9-15, are often violated andconfused
About prison. I did not know how to write for years, so I had to learn some of the parameters, I
went with them. My friend heard the whole first draft, offered excellent advice and encouraged me
to be public. He died before finding a publisher. The book is dedicated to her, but really
my efforts to have children of detained parents know that I understand a bit 'of their struggle, and that
I appreciate them enough to spend much timeEnergy and write a story about one of them is that
all of them.

Irene: You have a family relationship education and training classes, adult criminals for 18 years.
Tell us how and why they chose this profession.

Jan: The career I chose. I have taught similar courses at a campus community
Tacoma, WA, if the diet would be in prison education is compulsory under the Community
College System. I decided to draw up programs and classes at the ' women's prison for a year. The
Population and the need to tailor courses you addicted to me.

Irene: What types of programs you've built?

Jan: It 's been a Home and Family Life program, the high school level was. I taught Standard
Clothing construction classes in a sewing workshop and some food and nutrition courses, but my real
Energy entered the positive parenting, child development and family relations classes. The
Prison was a cooperative> Kindergarten called Pooh's Corner in construction education. Children and
The parents arrived in the community. A kindergarten teacher comes from a tech school and ran to VOC
preschool program. Detainee students, children or the development of children and the classes were in
were cut to fit around children, worked as an assistant teacher. Interacted with
Children and kept anecdotal information that we discussed in class. The program is in placeif I
began to teach there. I started writing a new curriculum that parents need and imprisoned in the form
Profiles and "retirement" books from high school. My first book was called MY
Reports, my car. E 'out of print. I worked and taught parenting FROM A
DISTANCE concept that the book's publication. All the courses I taught, and fell under Home
Family, and focuses on preparing women to come back home.

When I transferred from femaleMcNeil Island Prison, a medium custody facility for men, it
was to coordinate orientation program called "Project social responsibility." Every man who came
to spend on the island, had its first full week of this program. We had 29 speakers, with the support
Presentations, but I have eight hours to 20 hours a week with them, men and wrote their parents' specific
Family and materials for this. The project was discussed in my essay.

Irene: What were the main participantsin your programs?

Jan: Most of the women were mothers. Many of them were in contact with their children and had
regular visits. Some of them were not able to their children because of abuse, usually see a man who
The mother was involved, although sometimes she was the author. Most took lessons
because they wanted their children to be positively involved. Some attended because
Court ordered to do so. Some face termination of parental rights. I wasoften called
Cases. A couple lost their children, but nevertheless the right to receive information or photos over the years.
A few (maybe three, where I went to court) has lost all rights and contact information.

When I moved to McNeil Island, I had a similar situation - my father, who wanted to learn who is dad
Court, was convicted of having Class Parents and dad who came, what I "Open Door", named after a laboratory
Type of institution, where they could, to create objects to send their children.I called my memories
Dancing To tune the concertina, and said that I was dancing as fast as I could. I had discussions
Groups during the occupation, so that men who have low literacy educational learned by listening. I
wrote letters before the courts and the office in support of execution (and I kept my Models
Computer to speed things up) for men who could neither read nor write and had never signed a business
Letter. I learned to the point where his signatureshould go, and praise, when he led a
"Signature" It 's been a real pressure that have been linked in a basic training for adult education classes.

Moreover, in both prisons, I gave parenthood and family that I created handouts, and other art objects
Who asked for them, if the office staff sometimes had to help me because I made copies
My budget overused Copy.

Irene: You wrote "parents at a distance" a number of years. How different arethe
two books from each other?

Jan: I wrote Parenting From a distance of a women's prison in class I was teaching. It 'a text
Book adapted to the needs of parents in prison. I revised and republished the book in December 2005.
This is a textbook on the rights and obligations of parents who are separated from their concentrated
Children. A prisoner is the daughter of drama from the viewpoint of the child wrote. The prison
father of an inmate's Daughter is aThe man who took parenting classes, while inside, and that
understands the difficulties of parents of children locked up in his face.

Irene: The prisoners teach you not read his books? If so, what were their
Reactions?

Jan: My relationships, my self a text to a class of family in women's prison, so that all
who enrolled and completed the worksheets, read it. Much more to read Parents FROM A
DISTANCE. Many, many students read excerpts from otherThings I wrote that I created for scenarios
"Writing to clarify Thinking" assignments. I taught every class I write, and also taught
Creative Writing classes such as McNeil.

I would say about the book in particular parenting: My men than women students were
surprised, amazed, impressed, enough that someone took care of the prisoners to write such a book for their use.
The reason I went out on a limb financially to issue new parenting book, because I knowago
difference. There are no formal measures to demonstrate. The only thing I know. I hope
daughter of a detainee will help stop some of the general population, for a moment to think
Men and women in prison and his reality.

Irene: Keep family secrets is a script that was handed down from generation to generation. They are
encouraged to break this script. Tell us the benefits of "talk" of family problems.

Jan: It 's just this: ifChildren are not telling the truth, are the stories they believe
the truth and replace it. The secrets are destructive for everyone. If the parents keep the truth under lock and key
Prison by their children, close all doors to communication. When children are forced
keep a secret, lying dormant inside. I use this analogy in a prisoner's daughter Zeke, Jenna's younger
Brother, gathering in a comment from my grandfather, who says: "Remove the crust, let the pus, and
Zeke replied, "Pussss. Oooooze, as typical nine years.

Irene: Very often, the children of criminals are ostracized by society, especially for their age. How do
Encouraging children to face?

Jan: You have to remember their parents' decisions are not their fault, their parents still love them
(This is in cases of child abuse called into question, the situation in an individual must be taken into account), and
can make healthier choices for themselves. You need permissionThe adults take care love
are they to talk about their anxieties and concerns that go with their lives, while their parents
far to find the strength and ignore the evil in others. They need teachers in their schools to help
all students to understand some of the realities of prison.

Irene: What are your methods to address these difficulties?

Jan If I talk with children, do your eyes and ask them how they feel their parents
in prison. I help state and reaffirm their feelings. I'm talking about feelings with the very simple "Five
Feeling "level - mad, sad, happy, lonely and afraid. I like to use" You "statements." You seem sad. "I"
think your mother to do something that was removed're crazy. 'There are signs
You can read to children ... Nail biting, leg whips or so later, shrugging his shoulders, pulling hoods
Blouses eyes. Good teachers know howRead signs and talk to
Children 1-1. However, we have our teachers with the requirements, the overload left his
little time for such interaction. How can a teacher for every 30 or 35 students? There is a
The reason, as a large percentage of children with a parent in prison until the end this time.

Irene has spent much time in prisons for adult education on effective parenting. How receptive are
Your students?

Jan: Of the hundreds I've met,two or three who were angry (maybe emotionally disturbed) wanted
Discount my theory. The rest were grateful, very open and have worked hard to return or
maintain contact with their children. I wrote about a specific part of the work that I and successes
and the fight in my book of memories of dance, Concertina's Tune. (Concertina and barbed wire
Tops prison fences.)

Irene: It 's very difficult to change. Many of your students have learned from their parentsas
Parent. When she returned to her family environment, as it is difficult for them to adapt
The new styles of parenting?

Jan: It's never easy to change. It is never easy for a family that has learned, no further back
You. Parents in from afar, I wrote a nice piece on "Contracts for forgiveness" and asked
Students use it with their parents, spouses and children. The approach should be adapted to all
us when weRelationship struggles.

Irene: What are some of these "contracts"?

Jan: We made them easy and practiced before students leave the prison. You may be reading a book,
Child every night for a time, trips to the park, play catch, help with homework,
Going out for ice cream. It may be difficult with older children ... Immersion
personal and family history, the truth about the past behavior (only suitable for the childAge)
Support from coaching a sports team or visitors, saves money for school
Activities.

A woman had to deal with his mother where he lived for a time ', all neatly lined
Walls with liquid gold once a week (a little 'obsessive?) Limiting the use of hot water in shower
Mother fixed, and other similar behaviors. After the agreed period, a sentence that
The woman was assigned and the mother was notback past mistakes. We learned how
to communicate how to use reminders.

Irene: What percentage of success in the changes?

Jan relapse rates are high for all for all criminals. There are statistics that relate to specific
Classes or educational programs, although generally the higher the level of education, less likely
Recidivism rate. Students who worked on the personal and social responsibility, and both the life and teachings
skills, while insideis well known, more likely to be out of jail. Age is also
a factor. Deadline for help.

Irene: Thank January there anything else you add to your desire or your book?

Aug: Please read my website] http://www.janwalker-writer.com [I posted some downloadable
Parenting Curriculum, History and Family Patterns, and Child Development on the site. And 'furnished
reading for trainers to use with students with mild and informationWorksheets.

For more information about my unusual teaching, reading my book, Dancing To The CONCERTINA'S
TUNE: A teacher prison memoirs. Ordering information is on my site.

When I look back, I worked with incarcerated students try to be prepared
Renewed their families and communities, I feel tired. It 'been a hard work. Students who have successfully
those who are willing to work hard. They were unearthed from prison if
not social, and cultural obstacles to meeting each step. This is their reality: they need
by them to do to earn their way back into their families and communities.