Highlights from our interview with Sharon McKinney, executive director of the Texas Inmate Families Association.
Q: Lone Star Standard
What does the organization do for its members?
A: Sharon McKinney
The biggest part of our mission is education. We hold monthly support and meeting groups for families who have someone incarcerated in the state. At one time, we were up to 28 chapters but COVID really hurt the nonprofit world, and we lost meeting places.
Today, we are down to about 11 chapters and we are building back up. The families can come to these meetings and be around other people who are going through the same thing that they are. If you haven’t ever been affected by the criminal justice system, you don’t realize that it affects the entire family. It doesn’t just affect the person that goes inside, it also affects the whole family. And there’s a stigma that the families feel that they can’t talk to anybody about the incarceration.
Incarceration also affects a lot of children who are being left in the world, too.
Q: Lone Star Standard
What are some other ways incarceration impacts families on the outside?
A: Sharon McKinney
When it comes to children, one thing people don’t know is that not everything is free in prison. You are given five little bitty bars of soap a week if you can get someone to give it to you. They’ll give you a toothbrush once a month. But if you want a fan or a hot pot to heat water or cook in, you have to pay for that.
If you want anything from the commissary like shoes, t-shirts, underwear, heating towels, all of that must be paid for. A person has to buy all their hygiene products, shower shoes. None of that is given to you. So, that’s an extra burden on a family to take care of them.
On the inside, they have three meals a day and a place to sleep but that is pretty much it. And there’s not supposed to be a lot because it is prison. But it is definitely a burden on families who are already struggling with the loss of one salary.
Q: Lone Star Standard
What programs does the Department offer for prisoners?
A: Sharon McKinney
I have to say that Mr. Chris Carter over TDCJ rehabilitative programs is very amazing. What he’s doing is bringing in live coaches and putting prisoners through a life coach class. They have peer educators, peer support people, and recovery. Anything that you can imagine someone would need to to have some to talk to, peer to peer.
They are bringing these services to all the units. I’ve seen a whole bunch in the past year. And I think that is really making a difference on the inside. All the units do suicide watch too. They’ll sit with someone who is suicidal and they’ll work them through it. And that peer to peer is working very well for Mr. Carter’s program. So I commend him for that. He has done an amazing job.
Sharon McKinney is the executive director of the Texas Inmate Families Association, a non-profit whose mission is to serve people in Texas prisons through education, advocacy, and organizing.
Sharon teaches the New Family Workshop for families whose loved ones are entering the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Parole Workshop for families whose loved ones are approaching parole eligibility.
This interview transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Listen to the full discussion here: https://texas-talks.simplecast.com/episodes/ep-17-sharon-mckinney.
