Incarcerated women learning how to be better moms from behind bars

Some of Canada’s most notorious criminals called the Grand Valley Institution for Women home. But the focus here isn’t just on punishment, it’s also on rehabilitation.

And for some of the women, that means learning how to be a better mom.

On any given day, there are 700 women in Canada’s prisons. They are women who have been convicted of their crimes and are sentenced to two or more years. About two-thirds of these women are mothers.

It’s not easy parenting a child from behind the wall of a prison, but it’s even harder growing up with a mom behind bars.

“So, if I didn’t have my kids, if I didn’t have my boy or my girl, I would be okay with being in here because then I wouldn’t have anyone to go home to. I wouldn’t have anyone waiting for me. They were so young,” said Faith Linklater who has been behind bars since 2018.

Patrice Butts coordinates the mother-child program at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener. She aims to keep families connected and break the cycle of criminality by helping inmates be moms.

“More often than not when we sentence a woman, we sentence a child or children. And we need to think about how to manage and do that differently … so that these kids are not filling the jails of the future,” said Butts.

Butts and the women she helps allowed Citytv to sit in on one of their group sessions where they focus on just being moms.

“I don’t know what to expect. I was scared to leave my kids. I was scared to be away from them for so many years as well and try to find ways I can still be there,” said one inmate, Brittany Crozier.

Crozier is currently serving a 12-year sentence for drug trafficking. Her two young children are being raised by Crozier’s dad. It’s a familiar situation as a Crozier herself grew up with a mom in and out of jail.

“My upbringing in that crime cycle. I wanted nothing to do with,” explained Crozier. “And even though I’m in this place, it’s still a lesson and it’s a bump I’m going to overcome and make me even better.”

During the group session, Butts asks Crozier about what her children understand about her not being there and the impact on them.

“My son, who’s seven, he understands I’m in prison. He doesn’t know why I’m here. I think he’s still too young to know I’m here.  He always says, Oh, stop lying to me. Just tell me. I’m like, When I come out, you’re going to be older. I’ll sit down and talk to you then,” shared Crozier during the session. “Some days he does get upset and thinks I’m lying.”

Tabitha Eliot, another inmate, is dealing with her pre-teen son being raised in foster care.

“I think just because I committed a crime doesn’t mean that I’m not a mother. You know, like I’m a mother from the time that my son was born. And I’m always going to be,” said Eliot. “Yeah, I’ve made a few mistakes, but hopefully, my son’s learning from mine instead of having to go and learn them the hard way.”

“We’re all mothers still. We always will be inside the fence or out.”

“Having that connection with our children, that’s part of our correctional plan. And it’s part of my correctional plan. Right. And how am I day to day? I’m going to react to how I’m going to live. How I spend my time and it’s just as important to him,” added Faye Higgins, convicted of murdering a man she claims sexually abused a young child.

“My son wants me to come home. He always asks me every time we talk. When are you going to come home?,” said Faith Linklater, currently serving a life sentence for second degree murder and attempted murder.

“I don’t have a date to tell them, I can’t say ‘Oh, I’m coming home June 2nd, 2028,’ You know, I can’t say that. I can say I go for parole in two years, but if I don’t get it, I go for parole two more years, and after that every second year. And it hurts,” said Linklater.

“They need their mom to raise them. Right now, my only contact is through video calls and the phone.”

Maintaining that critical connection is difficult. That’s why twenty years ago, the government formally launched the Mother-Child Program, where women can be with their kids every day.

A new documentary will explore the mothers who are raising their children inside the prison walls. Watch “VeraCity: Prison Moms” on Sunday, May 28 at 10 p.m./9 p.m. CT only on Citytv.