Inmates, families bond with books
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
WAIAWA — With his mother motioning for him from the door, 2-year-old Chance Greenwell turned and gave his dad one more hard hug before leaving the prison.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Chance's father, 26-year-old Jason Greenwell, is serving the final months of a four-year sentence for drug and car-theft convictions. The weekly visit at the Waiawa Correctional Facility, in a small white room with shuttered brown windows and classroom desks, is the only way Chance has ever known his father.
Wally Amos reads to children of inmates at Waiawa Correctional Facility. Amos, founder of Famous Amos cookies and a literacy advocate, visited during the prison's story hour, one of the programs aimed at improving inmates' literacy, social and parenting skills.
"He was born while I was in here, so this is how I know him," Jason Greenwell said as Chance left with his mother, 21-year-old Karin Gamulo. "I sit in here with all these guys. If I knew it was this bad, I wouldn't have come."
Yesterday, however, Greenwell and other inmates and their families were allowed to spend some time together outside of weekly visiting hours.
Through several state funded programs aimed at improving inmates' literacy, social and parenting skills, Waiawa warden Ted Sakai held a story hour for the families of inmates. Wally Amos, a literacy advocate who has devoted decades to helping kids get into reading, regaled small groups of inmates and their kids by reading aloud from several children's books.
Amos played out each page as kids crawled over their imprisoned fathers, smiling constantly at the opportunity to get close. Normal visits usually don't allow inmates to have a lot of close contact with their kids.
The holidays "can be a lonely time," said Sakai. "If it helps the kids, that's what I want to do. These kids need dads in their lives."
Through donations, program coordinators were able to wrap books and give them to the children as gifts.
As Amos shrieked and whistled, some kids sat on their parents' laps, slack jawed and staring, as the veteran storyteller wove his tale. Some parents opted to use the time to cuddle with their kids, paying attention to little else.
"It brings out more of the father side in you," said Terran Kaleiwahea, an inmate. "Even for us fathers, it's kind of important to work on social skills with the kids."
For the families of the inmates, any chance to be together during the holidays is welcome.
"It's not easy but I've gotten used to it," said Gamulo, who has visited Greenwell every weekend for the past 3 1/2 years. "It's hard on my son. They've gotten so close."
Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.
