Inmates hooked on crocheting baby blankets

[birdlady1]

Sterling, Colorado -- It's a somewhat surprising sight: a group of men crocheting baby blankets. :crochetingEven more surprising, these men are convicted criminals. :eek:eek

 

Recently some of the inmates at Sterling Correctional Facility began making baby blankets for Baby Bear Hugs to give to their clients. The blankets are part of Baby Bear Hugs "Bright Beginnings" program. New parents who sign up get a bag of developmental items, including the blanket. The program also includes a literacy bag that's given when the baby turns a year old and a preschool readiness bag when the child turns two.

 

Between 10 and 15 inmates have signed up to make blankets but the program is unable to give blankets to all Baby Bear Hugs clients because there simply isn't enough yarn. All of the yarn is donated. So Baby Bear Hugs has decided to do a yarn drive to collect new and used yarn.

 

About Baby Bear Hugs: The home visitation program for new parents seeks to prevent child abuse and neglect by strengthening families and promoting good parenting skills. It serves nine counties in eastern Colorado.

 

Interested in donating yarn? :hookCall Baby Bear Hugs at 970-522-9411 or go to www.babybearhugs.org.

 

(The information above was in August 18th's Rocky Mountain News.)

[losingmymind2]

Wonderful! So many inmates DO want to change their lives, and by learning to give to others it truly helps them do so.

[DebbyQ]

What a great idea:clap That's one way to reform the "bad guys":rofl

 

 

Debby

[RusticOkie]

Its great that they are giving them an opportunity to help others and give something back. They need more programs like this.

[amdm]

This is a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing.

[cherrypicker]

on a slightly more disturbing note.....I was watching one of those "women behind bars" documentory shows on tv.....and low and behold some infamous female serial killer she was....sitting in her cell....crocheting! my hubs turned to me....I looked at him...." do you think she did it with her hook?" he said....":eek:eek:eek yikes!

[CrisKad]

I'm surprised they let them even have hooks. When I worked at a prison, even I wasn't allowed to bring my hooks with me. Though I did work with the mentally ill guys...maybe that's the difference.

 

Good for these guys....it gives them something productive to do!

[Titus2woman]

I saw this story~LOVE IT! My Aunt recently sent me a cool article from Guideposts too with three surfer dudes that taught women in Uganda to crochet. WAY COOL! (((((HUGS))))) sandi

[rashidah]

That is wonderful.

[distinctives123]

Great!

[Sugarcoatedlies]

are the criminals making them murderers or in for minor things like theft?

i would be kind of scared to have a blanket made by someone that was a Jeffrey Dahmer type of person...

that's just me though xD

 

it is good that they're doing something productive though

i saw another thing where they had them training vicious dogs to be tame.

[bettycrackpot]

the way most state prisons work is you have to work your way up to having "permisson" to do such things or to have certain jobs. i think its great that the inmates are doing something worthwhile.

[Croshay]

That's fantastic!

[alchemyfyr]

I also saw the "lifer" prisoners who were training dogs with behavioral issues so the dogs could get a second chance. I think it is a wonderful idea. It showed how much having the dogs there lessened the violence and fighting between inmates. They do have strict trainings and things the inmates have to do in order to earn this privilege.

[The_Virginia_Hooker]

This is so cool. Things like this keep me believing that there's still plenty of good in the world