It’s just after 7 a.m. on a recent Saturday morning, and nine-year-old Caydrian has already had a long day.

“So first, I wake up at three in the morning, and then I brush my teeth and wash my face and do my hair, and then I go in the car, drive to Chicago,” he said, recounting the preparation that brought him to a Home Depot parking lot at 87th Street on the South Side.

Under a light drizzle, Caydrian and about three dozen other children and adults boarded a coach bus. The weather was cold and dreary, but many of the kids on the bus buzzed with anticipation.

• RELATED STORY
• Criminal Justice
• Prisoncast!

Prisoncast!: Sounds of the holiday season for people in Illinois prisons

read more

Soon they were on their way to Logan Correctional Center, a women’s prison about three hours from Chicago, where many of these children would get to hug their moms for the first time in weeks, if not longer. (WBEZ agreed to use only the first names of children on the trip to protect their privacy.)

Asked if he was nervous to see his mother, Caydrian said, “No, I’m not really nervous. I’m excited now.”

This bus trip is part of a program called the Reunification Ride, which offers free transportation to Logan prison about once a month. The bus makes the round trip in one day: The families leave early in the morning, visit at the prison for about four hours, then head back to Chicago by the evening.

WBEZ attended a Reunification Ride in early December as part of Prisoncast!, an ongoing audio and journalism project to serve people in Illinois prisons and jails, and their loved ones on the outside. During the day-long visit, WBEZ photojournalist Manuel Martinez offered family portrait sessions to incarcerated moms and their children, and audio producers recorded holiday dedications from people inside Logan that aired during a holiday special on Dec. 17th.

Costing about $3,000 to $3,500 each — which covers bus rental, insurance and food— Reunification Rides are almost entirely crowd-funded and staffed by volunteers, said Alexis Mansfield, one of the organizers with the non-profit Women’s Justice Institute.

“We do it as a labor of love, because this is too critical not to have it,” said Mansfield.

The trips are organized by a trio of Chicago nonprofits: the Women’s Justice Institute, Nehemiah Trinity Rising and Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration, with support from Ascend Justice, a local domestic violence legal defense group.

Aurora Sanchez, who was on the bus for the Dec. 2 trip, was giddy with excitement to see her mom, Margaret DeFrancisco, who is incarcerated at Logan.

“I stress out about what I’m gonna wear, because I want my mom to see me looking nice,” she said. “It’s like a special occasion. I consider it a holiday for me. It’s like Christmas Eve when you’re waiting for Santa to come.”

Sanchez, who’s in college studying to work in juvenile justice, reflected that she’s been making visits like this for her entire life.

“My mom had to go away November 18th, before I turned one,” Sanchez said. “I’m 20 years old. My mom’s been in prison for 20 years now. It’s just crazy to think about. And, like, she’s never seen me blow out my candles or anything like that.”

When the bus finally arrives, and everyone goes through a security screening, the kids stream into a prison gymnasium with screeches and hugs for their moms. The visit has a holiday theme: The incarcerated mothers have decorated the walls with paper snowflakes and candy canes, there are folding tables piled with board games and coloring books, and soon the reunited families settle into a gingerbread house decorating competition.

At one table, Katrina Battiste smiled at her 18-year-old son, Khamani, who was visiting from college. She was locked up while she was still pregnant with him. Now, Khamani says he’s an honor roll student studying architecture.

“I always had the feeling and the thought of, ‘How can I leave my baby?’ ” Katrina said. “And now that I see him and he’s grown up and he’s a man now, I just see that … I can be a parent, even [though] my situation. And I’m just happy and grateful.”

This particular trip was extra special for Dyanna Winchester, who works with the Women’s Justice Institute. That’s because she, herself, was incarcerated inside Logan Correctional Center until her release in 2021.

“Some of the women that I know are visiting with their children, and so I’ll get a chance to hug ‘em and say ‘Hey!’ And I think I am, like, somebody that gives them hope of what is possible once they come out of this,” she said.

Winchester now devotes her career to helping other women re-enter society after being released from incarceration.

“Relationships with your family are important,” Winchester said. She said the Reunification Ride is “like a lifeline for the ladies on the inside. I know it was for me, as well. Because I’ve been there.”

As the visit to Logan prison drew to a close, Sanchez and her mom focused intently on decorating their gingerbread house. They huddled together as they worked, occasionally bursting into peals of laughter.

“I’m happy,” Sanchez said. “I’ve never made a gingerbread house with my mom, so this is cool.”

Alex Keefe is WBEZ’s engagement editor.