CRAINE HOUSE PROVIDES ALTERNATIVE TO PRISON

Tucked behind some trees on a Northside street is a cozy three-story house. Inside, three toddlers run through the rooms, and the sound of children's laughter rises from the basement. Two women sit in the living room, talking.

This is a happy place. No one would know that these women are prisoners, serving out their sentences here.

Y-Press recently visited Craine House, an alternative sentencing program for nonviolent female offenders who are pregnant or have preschool-age children. Most of the women first spend time in prison and are referred, with a judge's approval, to Craine House to complete their sentences.

"Our mission is to help the women and the children actually get back on their feet. And we do that by keeping the families together," said executive director Suzanne Milner.

Craine House opened its doors to female offenders in 1978 and started serving families in 1993. Up to eight families can live in the house at a time, but no men. It also has 25 day reporters -- offenders who are electronically monitored. With a staff of 10, half of them corrections officers, at least two staff members can be present at all times.

Staff role models

The staff has many goals: to be role models, to help offenders learn life skills and to help them be better mothers as they care for their children. Staffers also must make sure the women fulfill the obligations of their sentences.

Craine House tries to keep a low profile to protect the privacy of the women; some have been in abusive relationships.

"Sometimes it's just best for their family or friends from the past not to know exactly where they're at. They're trying to get their lives back on track," Milner said.

The women arrive at the house without their children and go through a three-day orientation. In that time, they get their bedrooms ready for their preschoolers, who stay with them. They are encouraged to include personal items from the children's bedrooms "so when the kids come in, they'll recognize some of their things," Milner said.

Only preschool children stay all week at Craine House with their mothers, because corrections officials want older children to attend school near their homes. However, school-age children often spend weekends and school holidays at Craine House.

Education stressed

Women at Craine House have little time to sit around. They must pursue some form of education, like getting their GED or taking college classes. They also must find a job and day care for their young children, while receiving training in such life skills as parenting and substance abuse awareness.

This busy schedule comes as a shock to some women.

"When I came to the Craine House, it was a huge adjustment, a hard adjustment. Basically, I work and I come back. You can't leave without somebody knowing exactly where you're going, and you have to come back with proof that you've been where you said you were going to be," said Maranda, who was arrested on a theft charge and is staying at the house with her 4-year-old daughter. She asked that her last name not be used to protect her privacy.

One of the biggest adjustments is working for a living.

"A job? What was that?" was Vanessa Bell's reaction upon arrival at Craine House last year. Bell, who had been arrested for prostitution, stayed at the home with three of her youngest children while her three older children -- ages 9, 11 and 13 -- would visit.

Finding a job is not that easy because of the women's history, although Craine House does its best to help. Most find work at restaurants and supermarkets and are supervised at all times.

"If they say they're at work, then we do surprise checks, and we go in and we physically make sure that the ladies are where they're supposed to be," said Milner, adding that only two women have failed to return to the house since she was hired in June 2003.

With good behavior, the women can earn three-hour personal passes to run errands and buy necessities. But they must undergo regular drug screenings and are given breath tests every time they return to the house.

Night is one of the busiest times at Craine House, as mothers and children are reunited after their busy days.

Bell has been released from the house, but her children recall it fondly.

"It was fun at the Craine House. When I woke up, we went downstairs and we had something to eat, and then we played, and then we went and sat on the porch. It was just like regular home," said Vivian, 9.

Children make friends

The children enjoy making friends with other kids there. They play and watch movies on the weekends, and sometimes there are group outings to such places as The Children's Museum.

However, the house has many rules, which can sometimes confuse and upset children and adults.

For example, no running is allowed, eating is limited to the kitchen, and everyone must be in their bedrooms at 9 p.m.

"A lot of the kids haven't had any structure. They've been shipped from grandparents to aunts to uncles and just friends, and so they're not used to any kind of structure or discipline, where someone tells them 'No,' " Milner said.

Bell's children understood the importance of structure.

"If nobody's gonna follow the rules, then everything can go wrong," Chanelle, 11, said. "They were nice to all my mom's kids, but when we were doing wrong, they would tell us. But they weren't mean."

Adjusting to life at Craine House is well worth the effort, the families agreed.

Maranda feels the house not only brought her and her daughter closer, but her extended family as well.

"Close-knit family"

"It's always been a close-knit family, but now our relationships with each other have changed and we are definitely a lot closer. My daughter and her dad have become a lot closer from us living at the Craine House," she said.

Maranda, will leave soon -- the average stay at Craine House is about a year-and-a-half. "It's gonna be really hard for us because this is where we decided to change our lives," she said.

Milner said many woman aren't ready to leave Craine House when the time comes. "They get very comfortable here. They get very used to having a good support system around them."

Craine House has a high success rate -- less than 10 percent of the women who go there are imprisoned a second time.

It receives about half of its $370,000 annual budget from Marion County Community Corrections.

In addition, the women pay half of their income for living expenses; the rest of the budget is covered by the Episcopal Church and other donors.

It has changed Bell's life. She still works at the same restaurant she started at while at Craine House. It is also her first job.

"It changed my whole life around and made me more responsible, a better parent, and just more focused on life and my kids," she said.

Her children have noticed the change.

"When my mama was here, we had good times, but now it's kind of different, 'cause she's more strict and stuff," Chanelle said.

"It helped my mother a lot because she's doing what she has to do now, and she is way different from what she was. And she's acting like a mother now to her kids," Vivian added.

For more information or to make a donation to Craine House, contact Milner at (317) 925-2833.

REPORTER: Max Dean, 12.

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Y-Press is a nonprofit news organization with offices in The Indianapolis Star building. Stories are researched, reported and written by teams of young people ages 10 to 18. For more information, call (317) 444-2010 or send an e-mail to ypress@in.net.

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