SEPTEMBER 12, 1997
Rocky Mount -- Caramel Delights and Shortbreads are Girl Scout
Troop 1019's best selling cookies. The troop of Fountain Correctional Center
for Women inmates and their daughters expect to sell more than 2,000 boxes
this year.
 |
"Most of the cookies are sold to inmates," said Sherrie Williams, prison
social worker. "And that’s amazing when you realize that most of the people
here make 40 cents a day. For them a box of cookies is more than a week’s
pay."
But Williams says that reflects how supportive inmates and staff at the prison have been when it comes to the new scouting program. The cost of the program is absorbed through such fundraising activities. Families of the girls must make travel arrangements to get them to the meetings held in the offices of the prison social workers. |
Each scout meeting is structured so that the inmates and daughters have some private time, then the group works on the weekly scouting program and enjoys a meal together.
"It keeps us in communication," said Etheleen Williams who sees her 10-year-old daughter regularly now thanks to Girl Scout meetings. "My daughter loves coming to the meetings."
The Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program was developed in the early 1990s by the National Institute of Justice. Fountain prison managers have established the first scouting program in North Carolina’s prison system. The program was established to reduce the suffering of young girls whose mothers are imprisoned and to teach the girls important lessons about life.
"Scouting teaches strong values," Sherrie Williams said. "The Girl Scout law teaches girls to respect authority, to be honest and fair and to help where needed."
The Scout troop just received its flag, half blue and half white bearing the Girl Scout emblem and their troop number, 1019. The women have also designed their own logo for t-shirts they sell. The logo has two doves flying from a barred window. For the scout mothers it’s a powerful symbol.
"I’ve tried to teach them not to end up like me," said Etheleen Williams. "It’s what we’re all about."