JAIL TIME:
Film shows effect of prison on inmate's family

By Heather Gillers

Friday, March 17, 2006

AURORA — When Auroran Fernando Chapa first met Oswego native Edgar Barens, Chapa was not a Realtor and Barens was not a filmmaker. They simply shared an interest in basketball.

More than 20 years later, the two men have forged a new partnership, united this time by a commitment to social justice.

Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Prisco Community Center, Chapa will hold a screening of Barens' documentary, A Sentence of Their Own, which explores the effects of incarceration on families. Barens spent two and a half months following the wife and two step-sons of one offender, Alan Raymond, filming the economic deprivation and emotional hardship his seven-year imprisonment caused.

"Family's doing time right along with the man," Alan's wife, Becky Raymond, says in the film. "If you're sticking it out, you're doing the same sentence."
Becky and her sons live in Grovetown, Ga., but their problems are faced by families across the nation.

The about 1.5 million children (according to Justice Department statistics) with a parent in prison live all over the U.S., including in Chapa's and Barens' hometowns.

A familiar problem

Between 250 and 400 people released from prison return to the Aurora area every year, according to estimates by local officials and service providers. Rita's Ministry in Aurora serves about 100 of those people annually, along with 140 kids with a parent behind bars.

"One of the biggest effects on the family is the family is often — not always, but often — looked at with the same disdain (as the offender)," said Jude Skallerup, a counselor there. "So, they bear the mark."

One of the goals of Saturday's screening is to break down that prejudice. The film will be followed by a series of speakers on incarceration and community support, and then by a group discussion. The more than 60 phone calls Chapa has received about the event suggests that Aurorans are eager to talk.

"When people do go to jail, there's families still out here," said Andy Williams Jr., one of the event's scheduled speakers. "When people come back, they need a job."

Williams, an Aurora mortgage broker, is a former gang member and has spent time in jail. "We got to take care of our own community," he said.

Art Velasquez, president of the Aurora branch of the League of United Latin American Citizens, hopes the film will motivate community members to care for each other.

"If people saw this film, they would say, 'You know, I know somebody (in Becky Raymond's situation),'" said Velasquez, who helped organize the event. "'I'm going to go see what they need, see how the mother is coping with that.. Is she able to pay her rent? Is she able to pay her electric bills?' I think this would be an eye-opener for the community."

And opening eyes, Chapa said, is the purpose of his partnership with Barens.
Some things can't be cured by movie-watching or talking, like the emptiness of a household missing a parent. But through his partnership with Barens, Chapa believes he can make as dent in the stigma often felt by families of the incarcerated.

"Families tell their kids not to play with (the children of a prisoner) 'cause they're bad kids,'" he said. "I've had individuals here in Aurora tell me that they're in that situation."

Chapa paused.

"It saddens me that our children have to suffer because of a mistake of an adult."

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