By Anna Weaver, Hawaii Catholic Herald
This Dec. 25 will mark the fourth year that Jacqueline Bissen, an inmate at the Women’s Correctional Facility in Kailua, has missed spending Christmas with her 5-year-old son Kaeo. There will be no visiting a shopping mall Santa, no opening presents Christmas morning, eating a holiday meal together, or taking him to church services.
But thanks to a special program of the Diocese of Honolulu, Kaeo will receive a present with a personal message from his mom at a holiday party thrown for him and other children of women inmates and their caregivers. Bissen will receive a framed picture of her son at the party sitting on Santa’s knee and will feel a little closer to him at Christmas despite their physical separation.
The program is called “Star Light, Star Bright!”
“I think it is awesome because prior to coming to prison I never thought that there were people who cared about inmates in jail,” said Bissen, 38, who has participated in “Star Light, Star Bright!” since 2003. “The most precious thing, I think, is the time to care about us and our kids.”
The idea for a Christmas giving program for children of women inmates came about in 2000 when Deacon Walter Yoshimitsu began the Office of Prison Ministry. He sat down with his administrative secretary Paulette Gomes to think of ways they could help families separated by incarceration.
“We’re trying to provide some healing for the mothers,” Gomes said. “What better way than sponsoring gifts from mothers to children.”
The first two years, Yoshimitsu and Gomes worked with prisons in getting names of mothers and their kids and arranging to deliver gifts donated by diocesan employees, church groups and community members to their homes. Since then 1,253 children on four islands have received presents.
The “Star Light, Star Bright!” Christmas party began in 2002 at St. Stephen Diocesan Center. This year’s party will take place there on Saturday, Dec. 16, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Field games, a Christmas play, a visit from Santa, and a holiday feast donated by Cinnamon’s Restaurant will be part of the fun.
“I think that, at this time of the year, the mothers and the children miss each other so much, and most of the time [the mothers] cannot afford to buy a present for their child,” said Yoshimitsu, who is also director of the Office for Diocesan Services. “And so the gift is from the mother.”
The Office of Diocesan Services last year also started soliciting food and toiletry donations for care baskets to give to families with members in jail.
Bissen is glad for the opportunity to give something to Kaeo, who lives with his grandparents. “Despite our circumstances they still get to receive something from us, and I think that’s really awesome,” she said. “That’s totally God.”
For Gomes, one of the most emotional parts of her job is retyping the personal messages the imprisoned mothers have written to their kids. The messages are attached to the presents.
“The first few years I had to input [the messages] I think I spent more time crying and wiping my eyes than typing,” Gomes said. “I really have trouble thinking about these mothers locked away.”
“Inmates are very neglected people in our society,” she added. “We should have no fear to venture out to these people. We want to show that people care and we want them rehabilitated and brought back into society.”