In March of 2009, I was in my recording studio waiting for my friend Cindy Blanchard to arrive to tape her radio show. Cindy is the founder of Lifewatch Ministries, a ministry aimed at helping people grow closer to the Lord by giving them a focus on their life in Christ. Cindy uses her own life experiences and a passion for the Word of God to shine light on the ways we can live our lives in a Godly manner.
On this evening, Cindy showed up with a couple of ladies in tow. Wendy Leger was the clinical director for Family Tree Information, Education and Counseling Center in Lafayette. Selena Jolivette was one of the participants in a program administered by Family Tree.
After a brief introduction, Wendy spoke about a program called H.O.P.E., an anacronym for Helping Offenders Parent Effectively. This program was instituted by the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Department at the parish jail. The program allowed people who were incarcerated to be able to earn the priviledge of interacting with their children in a more family-friendly atmosphere than the usual “visit through the glass.” The priviledge to participate was earned by attending classes on parenting and by the participants’ accepting personal responsibility for their actions.
Participants were able to meet with their family members in the chapel, which had secure entry from the jail as well as from the outside world. This atmosphere greatly reduced the “fear factor” involved in visitation and made it more likely that the children’s caregivers would want to bring them to visit with their parents.
Keeping the ties between parents and children active and healthy was considered to be not only a worthy goal in and of itself, but it was also thought that it would contribute to a decline in recidivism by giving the inmates a reason to want to get out and stay out of jail.
Wendy talked about the difficulties inmates faced in trying to remain a positive factor in their children’s lives while serving time and how many inmates just give up because of the despair arising from broken relationships with their children. She gave some impressive testimony as to the effectiveness of healthy familial relationship in keeping offenders from becoming repeat offenders. You could tell from her presentation that she was very passionate about the good that was being done by this program. Then she gave the floor to Selena.
Selena told us that she had been a particiapant in the HOPE program as an inmate. You would never have known that she had been in jail by looking at her. When she came into the studio she lit up the room. She gave me a big, enthsiastic hug and a brilliant smile and although you could tell she was somewhat nervous about being taped, she had a calm resolution about her that overpowered her nervousness.
Selena spoke about her time in the Lafayette Parish Jail before entering into the HOPE program. She painted a picture of despair, having been sentenced to six years on a drug charge. Those were six years that were important formative years for her son and daughter. Selena said that she had no reason to believe that she would ever be able to be a good mother to her children again.
When Selena was approached about trying to participate in the HOPE program, she initially refused. She said at that time that she didn’t see the potential for any kind of benefit and she certainly didn’t have the desire to go through the requirements needed to participate. However, over time, her attitude softened and she finally made the decision to try. Selena says that in hindsight she can certainly see the hand of God working in her life during that time.
After fulfilling the program requirements, Selena was allowed to visit with her children in the chapel. She says that was a life-changing moment. In her words:”To be able to brush her hair and to touch his face was so powerful.” She said that she realized that she could still be “Mom.” From that time, Selena worked toward building a life after incarceration that her children could be proud of. She indicated that the burden of serving the remainder of her sentence, while still heavy, was tempered by the knowledge that she would be able to mother her children.
Selena gave all of the credit for her transformation to God and she was very thankful for Wendy, Family Tree and the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Department’s desire to help people in her situation.
Our time was getting short, so I gave Cindy the indicator that it was time to wrap it up. Cindy thanked Wendy and Selena for coming and we had our closing prayer and then I stopped taping.
I went into the room where Cindy, Wendy and Selena sat for the taping and we were talking about how great the program went when Cindy remembered that she wanted to ask Selena what she was doing currently.
Selena then told us that she had been incarcerated for six years, and as of the time of the taping, had been out of jail for six years. She told Cindy that she was currently working part-time for the Lafayette Drug Court as a substance abuse counselor. I thought that was great that someone who had “been there” would be in that job because of the credibility she brought to the position.
Then Selena told us that in May, she would be graduating from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a double major in Sociology and Criminal Justice and a minor in African American Studies. She also told us that her son would also be graduating in May from the University of Louisiana at Monroe in Business Administration and that her daughter was graduating from high school and would be attending the University in the fall.
She said all of this in a matter-of-fact tone. There was no hint of pride. There was a tremendous sense of humility in her words and in her attitude. I was in awe.
When I could speak, I said that I thought it was important to have the world hear what Selena had just said and I asked Cindy if we could set up again just to tape that and I told her I would fit it into the end of the program. Selena seemed a little shy about the way we were raving about her accomplishments, but she agreed to tape her reply.
As I sat in the control room with tears running down my cheeks, (I did that a lot during many of these shows we taped) we taped Selena once more. I was and am amazed at the works God does through His people. I am continually blessed by the people he moves through my life. Although Selena took full responsibility for the actions that landed her in the parish jail, she gave all of the credit for her subsequent accomplishments to God.
No matter what the strides are that we have made in racial and gender equality in our lifetime, I’m sure we all are aware that there are not many people who have less chance to succeed than an African-American single mom with a drug conviction who spent six years in jail. Selena had many, many opportunities to give up. She placed her faith in the Lord with a trust that I can only hope to have someday. The Lord responded with Grace and Love.
Of course, this is an abbreviated version of a magnificent story, and the story is still being written by God and Selena. I just wanted to give you my impression of what can happen when a person really believes in and really turns to God.
Thank you, Selena.
Lynn Breaux