Mother's Day Behind Bars [VIDEO]

LOS ANGELES, CA — On Sunday morning, kids across America will scamper into their kitchens to prepare breakfast-in-bed for mom.

But for a few hundred California kids of all ages, Mother’s Day will begin hours before dawn as they clutch their blankies and coloring books to board buses and embark on a day-long pilgrimage to see their mothers in prison. It’s a journey filled with joy and sadness and nervous tummies. Many of these children haven’t seen their mothers in years. Some will never see their mother outside the prison walls.

In California, the vast majority of female inmates are incarcerated in the remote San Joaquin Valley, and, in most cases, their children live with grandparents or relatives who can’t afford to take off work and book a hotel room hundreds of miles away to attend prison visiting day. For these families, the annual Mother’s Day ‘Get On the Bus’ trip by the nonprofit Center for Restorative Justice Works is their only lifeline.

The Mother’s Day trip is based on the belief that maintaining family connections can help reduce recidivism among female inmates.

But it’s also about letting little ones bask in a mother’s love - if only for a few bittersweet hours.

As one little boy explained to The New York Times, “It was fun, but it wasn’t fun. When I left, I tried not to think about it as much because I knew that would just make me even more emotional than I already am. And there was nothing I could do about it. So it’s like you have to accept the fact that you have to leave. I am kind of used to this stuff because she’s been in jail before and also my dad left me when I was three and he died when I was nine. So it’s like I am sort of kind of used to the feel of like getting hurt.”

Photo courtesy of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation