Deliveries of Joy for Moms in Prison

Mother’s Day arrived a couple of days early, but no one in prison blues seemed to mind.

Not 17-year-old Ofelia Sandoval, an inmate at the California Youth Authority campus near Camarillo who on Friday saw her daughter, Roseanna, for only the second time since the child’s birth three months ago.

And not 21-year-old Jessica McDonald, who has been locked up at the CYA facility since June 2001 for manslaughter and last saw her daughter, Jordan, two years ago.

And certainly not 20-year-old Angela Rodriguez, who got a Mother’s Day present to remember when she saw her 10-month-old daughter, Niah, walk for the first time during a Friday visit to the juvenile prison.

“It’s my first Mother’s Day,” said Rodriguez, serving five months at the Camarillo facility for a parole violation. “I’m really glad I got to spend it with her.”

The youngsters were united with their mothers through the nonprofit “Get on the Bus” program, a Mother’s Day effort to break down barriers that prevent female inmates from seeing their children.

The program was started five years ago by religious leaders ministering to the needs of incarcerated women. While visiting two women’s prisons in Chowchilla, ministers learned that many inmates never saw their children because of the distance and travel expense.

A single charter bus traveled to Chowchilla in 2000. Since then, the program has grown to include 13 buses traveling from around the state to the Chowchilla prisons -- and this year, for the first time, to the CYA’s all-female facility near Camarillo. Nearly 250 children traveled from 16 cities Friday for the Mother’s Day visits.

The Camarillo visit was organized by Chaplain Catherine Conneally-Salazar, who set out three months ago to raise the $3,500 necessary to bring youngsters and their caregivers to the CYA campus.

Local businesses pitched in. A sixth-grade confirmation class at Santa Clara School in Oxnard raised $1,400. A civic organization at the facility held two fundraisers that generated $2,000.

Starting out at 4:30 a.m. Friday, a single bus traveled from Northern California to the CYA facility, reuniting 19 children with their mothers.

Six-year-old Jordan McDonald ran across the visitors’ center when she saw her mother, the pair wrapping themselves in a bear-hug and crying tears of joy. The girl, her grandmother and aunt traveled from Oakland for the reunion behind the facility’s locked gates and razor wire fences.

“She’s my everything, my little lady,” said Jessica McDonald, planting the youngster firmly on her lap during the three-hour visit. “This is all I want for Mother’s Day; I don’t need anything else.”

Ofelia Sandoval admitted she was a little nervous to see her infant again. She had the child three months ago at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, in the midst of a one-year stint for violating parole stemming from an assault charge. The baby had gained seven pounds and possessed a smile that lighted up the room.

“I was afraid she wouldn’t know me,” said Sandoval of Fresno.

But less than an hour into the visit, the youngster was cooing in her arms, sucking on a bottle and bonding with Mom. “I can’t wait to get home so I can raise my baby.”