Expanded HOPE: Juvenile Offenders Write Poetry to Cope with Incarceration

[Editor’s note: Helping Offenders Prosper in Employment, or HOPE, was developed by IU Professor Theresa Ochoa as a mentorship program at the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility when it was Indiana’s only maximum-security detention center for girls. At the time, HOPE was the only mentorship program of its kind in the country designed to help break the school-to-prison pipeline for juvenile offenders. Now it has grown into programs for youths in juvenile-detention facilities across Indiana.

This article by Ann Georgescu, her third on HOPE, follows two previous articles: Mentorship Program Tries to Break School-to-Prison Pipeline for Juvenile Girls and More HOPE for Youth in School-to-Prison Pipeline, both published by Limestone Post. Here, Georgescu looks at how one of the offenders used poetry to help her get through the long days of incarceration.]

Them: Hey what’s wrong?
Me: Nothing I’m fine ….
Them: No, that’s not true, I know something’s wrong.
Me: I said I’m fine ….
Her: What’s the matter with you?
Me: Nothing ….
Her: You’re lying, tell me what’s wrong.
Me: No ….
Her: Why, you always shut down when you’re like this. I don’t like it when you’re like this and it worries me, let me know what’s going on.
Me: Okay ….

These are the first lines of a poem written by Samarnye, at age 18, while she was incarcerated at the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility (MJCF). [Read the entire poem at the end of this story.] She and the other girls (referred to as “students” by the staff) were invited to participate in a poetry slam. Some spoke of happy memories, some spoke of pain and suffering, some described a life they wished to lead, while others told the deeply personal stories about what got them into prison.

Living within the sterile walls of a detention facility — wearing identical clothing and where makeup, hair products, and jewelry are forbidden — there is not much opportunity for personal, creative expression. But, through writing, the students are able to explore some of their feelings and raw emotions, whether painful or joyful, and the poetry slam gave them the opportunity to share their most heartfelt experiences with each other.

The mentors from HOPE, or Helping Offenders Prosper in Employment, were so moved by what they heard that they decided to publish some of the poems. The team chose a selection from Madison and the other correctional facilities, where they mentored both young men and women, and published them in Law and Disorder: An Undergraduate Journal in Special Education and Law.

One of the published poems was Samarnye’s, which she titled “Big Brother” and tells of her sadness over not hearing from her older brother during her three years of incarceration. While she was at MJCF, her brother got married and moved to another town with his new wife, whom Samarnye had not yet met. She yearned to share in his new life and happiness.

Now out of prison, Samarnye talks about writing her poem. “They asked if we wanted to participate in a poetry slam,” she says, “and I was trying to think of what to write about. I had heard some other girls talking about their big brothers, and I had been really missing mine. I was thinking about the pictures of us my mom had sent, and I was hurting because he had not contacted me — and then I heard a beat in my head.”

Samarnye grew up writing songs and poetry with her two brothers, one older and one younger. She also loved to sing and dance and used to perform for her family.

Samarnye’s mother, Samantha, beams as she shares one of her daughter’s songs that she has saved on her phone. “She was always a bright and creative child,” says Samantha. “I always knew she had so much potential and would one day show the world her talents. When she was a baby, and first learned to talk, she would sing her nursery rhymes. She would make up a melody and even sometimes add her own lyrics. I was amazed.”

Samarnye says that writing poetry while at MJCF, helped her through the long days of incarceration. However, despite being out, she has still not heard from her big brother. “He is busy,” says Samantha. “I’m sure he will come to visit sometime soon.”

These days, when Samarnye is not at work, she continues to write poetry and lyrics and sing songs that her mother proudly records.

Expanded HOPE

Within the past year or so, the HOPE mentorship program has expanded to serve the young men’s facilities in Logansport and Pendleton and will continue to serve the young women’s facility, which recently moved to LaPorte, Indiana. This coming fall, HOPE will have nearly 25 mentors in training across the northern IU campuses, including IUPUI, IU Kokomo, and IU Northwest, in addition to IU Bloomington. The mentors will be organizing events for the students, including a Dress for Success fashion show that will take place at the Logansport facility on October 29 and a cookie-baking workshop for the students at the Pendleton facility.