Volunteers teaching skills to incarcerated inmates

    CHARLESTON — Marsha Higgins’ job is to draw in people to volunteer their time and talents with residents at the of Mountain View Youth Development Center (MVYDC) or inmates at the adult facilities. After 12 years as a corrections officer, Higgins is now volunteer services coordinator for MVYDC, and also the adult minimum security facilities of Charleston Correctional Center and Downeast Correctional Facility in Machiasport.

    Crocheting, sports, art, songwriting, life skills, resume writing, budgeting, board games, card games, yoga, music, Higgins has room for an almost unlimited type of volunteer programs or activities. “Things that go above and beyond programs provided to residents and inmates through the State Department of Corrections,” she said.
    If you are age 18 or under and incarcerated in Maine you are a “resident.” Adults are “prisoners,” sometimes “inmates.” But to Higgins, the residents at MVYDC are “kids.”
    “This is your next door neighbor’s kid. Our average age is 17-18,” Higgins said. “Many of them come from dysfunctional families. They haven’t had a lot of supervision or guidance growing up. It’s not the parents’ fault. In this day and age, parents have to work. So a lot of the kids are latch key kids left to their own devices. What we’re trying to do is not so much to rehabilitate them. Some have never been habilitated in the first place. We’re trying to habilitate them and teach them the proper way to go about getting what you need.
    “We have a lot of kids very interested in music. Sports! They love to play basketball and football. We have some terrific artists here. If they had the opportunity to explore and practice those positive outlets more often, it just would turn their lives around. I know it would.”
    Volunteers set their own schedules. There are also mentors who work one-on-one with specific residents. Mentors are asked to volunteer at least one hour weekly.
    As for volunteering with adult prisoners at Charleston Correctional Center and Downeast Correctional Facility are minimum security facilities? Higgins explained, “Those inmates generally have less than five years remaining on their sentence. They’ll obviously need jobs when they get out. They’ve shown an interest in finding help writing resumes, how to balance a checkbook, how to make out a budget. Just the basics we take for granted. But we haven’t been locked up for years.
    “Some of the adults have asked for extra activities like yoga. I have 20 guys at Charleston crocheting. It especially makes them feel good when they can make a hat, something with their own hands, for their son or daughter at Christmas, Especially with the kids, volunteers make such a difference in their lives. To have someone from the outside come in and pay attention to them and show them that they care. It just makes such a difference to the kids when they have someone who shows that they care about them.”
    Higgins can be reached at Marsha.Higgins@maine.gov or 285-0722.