In Daidre Kimp's room, the walls are pink and white and there are family photos on a bulletin board. A stroller sits in a corner. It's early morning.
Kimp grabs a diaper, a tiny shirt and pants and lifts her smiley, 8-month-old daughter, Stella, from her crib.
They are getting ready for the day at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) in Gig Harbor, about a one hour drive from Seattle. It's their home, at least until Kimp enters a work-release program next spring. She picks up Stella's toothbrush.
"She's brushing her three little teeth she's got and we do that every morning," Kimp says.
Down the hall in another room, 35-year-old Crystal Lansdale is helping her 2-year-old son, Kirshawn, get dressed. The toddler, standing on his mom's bed, lets out a big yawn and tries to zip up his jacket while Lansdale straightens his collar.
WCCW is one of at least eight prisons in the country that allows a small number of women who are pregnant and give birth while incarcerated to keep their newborns with them for a limited time.
To read more about the WCCW Early Head Start program in Cheryl Corley's NPR article, click here.
Comments (2)