Cedar Creek Corrections Center hosts summer camp for incarcerated men and their families

Imagine achieving a year’s worth of catch with your kid in one day.

For many incarcerated dads across the state of Washington, the idea is mere cellblock fantasy.

For the 15 men and 19 children who participated in last week’s two-day summer camp at Cedar Creek Corrections Center (CCCC) in Littlerock, the notion was a little closer to reality.

“That’s why we’re doing this is those family connections,” Superintendent Tim Thrasher said Thursday, Aug. 28, on the second day of the camp. “It’s so important.”

The first two-day summer camp of its kind in Washington state featured crafts, painting, a photo booth, a kickball match, a bounce house, games, sit-down meals, exhibitions from Department of Natural Resources (DNR) firefighters — and plenty of time for a simple, rewarding game of catch.

A year’s worth, according to one dad.

Participants for the camp included the Hands On Children's Museum, Wolf Haven International and Thurston County Medic One, which provided first-aid training and demonstrations. The camp even featured a comedy show, where Thrasher reeled off some of his favorite dad jokes.

“The idea is to strengthen the bond between incarcerated parents and stems from our work to create a more humane prison system,” wrote Chris Wright, communications director for the state Department of Corrections (DOC). “Kids who have a parent in prison are something like (five to six times) more likely to end up in prison themselves.”

Thrasher said the two-day event was partly inspired by the Kids United by Incarceration (KUBI) Camp, a four-day outdoor camp held in Washington and replete with counselors, but with one important difference — the summer camp at CCCC includes incarcerated parents.

“This way they’re with their parent, and they’re spending a meaningful couple full days, instead of being in a visit room,” Thrasher said. “This is more organic with lots more opportunity to do things. Kids interacting with other kids. Incarcerated guys that normally maybe wouldn’t interact with each other while they’re living up here are interacting with each other. It improves the interaction between staff and everybody.”

CCCC has a capacity of 480 incarcerated men, according to the state Department of Corrections. It opened in 1954 and is considered a minimum custody facility. Every incarcerated individual has six years or less remaining on their sentence.

One of those men, Jacob, said the summer camp gave him the opportunity to see his son “without the gates and the walls.”

“Here we get to play games and interact and play with each other, like how we would be out in the outs, so that’s been good,” Jacob said.

Another bonus? The camp itself was outside, surrounded by tall evergreens amid mild summer weather — even if it was a bit rainy on the first day.

“It’s a lot better for kids at ages from 5 to 15; they get to be outside instead of a stuffy sitting room with a table and chairs,” Jacob said, adding that he got to see his son smile, be happy and run around.

Jacob’s son, meanwhile, said he was able to make new friends.

For Ezekiel, another incarcerated man at CCCC, the experience was “phenomenal.”

“We get more one-on-one time with our children,” Ezekiel said. “So, it gives the moms a break and it gives us a better understanding (of) conversations with our children to understand what they got going on.”

Like Jacob, Ezekiel highlighted the difference in environment that allowed the men to spend time with their kids outside — rather than the usual, stricter setting.

“We’re trying to get this going for more years,” Ezekiel said. “This is the first year this has gone on, so we’re trying to keep this alive.”

Another man, George, was visited by two grandchildren. They spent time playing golf together on a portable putting green set up on a large lawn at the center.

“Doing this with activities, we develop more relationship with the kids,” George said. “This is the first time ever, so this is great.”

George added that the camp has given him a better chance to learn his grandchildren’s traits, and the things they like and don’t like, which will prepare him for when his sentence is over in October.

He said he’s spent 26 years in prison.

Bobby Greene is a program manager for Strength in Families (SIF), a program under the DOC that seeks to reengage fathers with their children, providing tools and resources through parenting classes and other means. The program began in 2015.

Greene and others with SIF were onsite participating during the two-day camp.

“We try to catch guys when they have, maybe, 24 months left on their sentences,” Greene said about the program.
Once they are home, SIF staff members continue to follow the formerly incarcerated individuals for six months. The services they provide are comprehensive.

“So that means we help them get to the (Department of Social and Health Services), we help them get to Child Support if they need to, we help them deal with (Department of Children, Youth, and Families) if they have parenting plan issues, visitation issues, getting birth certificates for their children, if they have a job and need to get to work, transportation issues,” Greene said. “We provide phones so that they can have access to communication.”

According to the DOC’s website, the SIF program “targets fathers and father figures” releasing from three area prisons: Washington Corrections Center (WCC), Stafford Creek Corrections Center (SCCC) and CCCC. These are men that are expected to return home to counties in Western Washington, such as Clark, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Mason, Thurston and others.

The goal of SIF is to provide men with basic needs upon release — anything that, without it, might create an obstacle to finding gainful employment and becoming a successful father.

A majority of the men who participated at the summer camp are in the SIF program, according to Greene, who said it takes at least six months to complete the required classes. The program manager said there are 99 men participating at CCCC.

“We have a graduation process, (we) give them a certificate. It’s a big deal,” Greene said.

For Greene, the summer camp promotes family reunification, a core tenant of the SIF program.

“We have engaging activities, educational opportunities for them and their kids, just time to create good bonding time for dad and child,” Greene said.

She added that she was told by one father that the camp made him feel like he was “at home for the day.”

Which begged the question: What happens when the camp is over, and the kids return home? Or when the incarcerated men at CCCC return to their cells, with only their regular visiting hours to look forward to?

“The hope is that the good that came out of this is what stays with them and carries over and this is what they have to look forward to without us being present,” Greene said.

Thrasher agrees. As someone with over 30 years of experience working with the DOC, the superintendent views the summer camp as another way to improve the overall environment at the center.

“It’s a tough business for sure, a tough profession,” Thrasher said. “And so, we believe if you can improve these interactions, everybody’s less stressed, (it) brings the tone of the facility down, everybody has a better day.”

“Just more meaningful interaction,” he added. “That’s our goal is to improve conditions for everybody.”