APR 6, 2019
About two months ago, a 16-year-old high-school senior sat at a computer to find out for herself why her father is at the Louisiana State Penitentiary and how long he’ll be gone. Sun’Shyne Mathieu was 6 months old the last time her daddy was free. Her whole life she’s asked her family when he was coming home. Her whole life they’ve said, “Soon.”
“I never knew why, I never knew what, I just knew where,” that is, where her father is, Sun’Shyne told an audience March 28 at Loyola’s law school. She was one of two high school students on a panel organized by Daughters Beyond Incarceration, a nonprofit started by two New Orleans women who grew up traveling to Angola to visit their dads.
After typing her father’s name into a computer, Sun’Shyne saw that he’d been convicted of murder. As for when he’ll come home, according to Louisiana law, he won’t.
A common theme emerged at that “Growing Up Fatherless” event. Children of incarcerated parents are often kept in the dark about the specifics of their parents’ crimes and the length of time they’ll serve. They may even be kept from visiting them.
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