Louisiana group that helps girls with incarcerated parents gather at Capitol, push for legislation
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – A group of daughters gathered at the state Capitol to turn their pain into purpose by fighting to make a difference in Louisiana.
Dominique Johnson, the CEO and founder of Daughters Beyond Incarceration, said her father is in his 42nd year of a life sentence.
“We started Daughters Beyond Incarceration because there’s a gap between the incarcerated parent and the development of children while parents serve out their sentence,” said Johnson.
The group aims to help daughters with parents in prison have a healthy and stable life.
“And I think most children, the vast majority of us that are impacted by incarceration we all at some point feel guilty, we feel embarrassed, we feel ashamed and we also feel suicidal,” said Johnson.
According to DBI, 94,000 children are impacted by parental incarceration in the state of Louisiana.
Study: Louisiana is the U.S. state with the highest prison mortality rate
“You get the incarcerated parent, their behaviors improve because they want to maintain and keep that relationship with their children, and then the children’s behavior improves in their school and in their community,” said Johnson.
At Youth Day at the Capitol, high school students pushed for legislation to improve the conditions when families visit their loved ones in prison known as House Concurrent Resolution 22, or HCR22.
“We would be able to speak for people who may not be able to speak up and voice opinions that may have gotten overlooked before,” said Meagan Johnson, a 10th-grade student and DBI member.
HCR24 allows imprisoned parents to attend important milestones like graduation and parent-teacher conferences virtually.
“It’s important for anybody’s parents to be present in special moments,” said Nevaeh Lee, an 11th-grade student and DBI member.
Both bills passed the House and are now being considered by a Senate committee.
“What they did shouldn’t fall on us,” said Meagan.
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