Missouri inmates sew personalized quilts for foster kids

• The inmates of the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri, have been designing and sewing quilts for the foster kids in Texas County.
• Thanks to the program, the inmates feel engaged and part of a community.
• Some inmates busy themselves with designing, some like the peacefulness of sewing, while some really want to make the children feel cared for.

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The inmates of a Missouri prison have been busying themselves by sewing quilts for foster kids. The sewing program, which is part of the restorative justice system, also makes sure that the children know that someone cares.

At least seven of the inmates at South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri, have been meeting every day in the prison’s sewing room to create the intricately designed quilts, which have been personalized for the foster kids in Texas County. The small group of volunteers relies entirely on donations for the materials.

One volunteer, Jim Williams, shared how he often thinks about his next design in the middle of the night.

He told St. Louis Public Radio, “I’m kind of a perfectionist. I’ll wake up at 2:30 in the morning and think, ‘That color really isn’t going to work.’”

Richard Sanders, meanwhile, said that he initially didn’t want to join the program. But one day after helping fix a broken sewing machine, he realized that he wanted to join.

He shared, “It’s just a real peaceful environment. These places, the more you stay busy, the better you are.”

Having been imprisoned for more than three decades, Sanders has sewn hundreds of quilts. He even sends photos of each one to his elderly mother.

Only inmates with no recent conduct violations can join the program.

The inmates have found a temporary escape in sewing, as well as an opportunity to belong in a community.

Case manager Joe Satterfield, who runs the quilting program, shared, “You can see the change in their attitude. A light flips on like, ‘Oh, this is a new avenue. I can actually be a part of something.”

For the South Central sewing group, the inmates design quilts for the kids in the Texas County foster care system. They then personalize the quilts by embroidering their names in each one. Rod Harney shared that it’s a way to let the children know that someone cares.

Harney shared, “You see the names of these kids in foster care; you see a 1-year-old or 2-year-old, and it kind of breaks your heart. But that lets us know we’re human still. You can’t express enough how it feels to do it.”

Source: Tank’s Good News