INMATES ATTEND PARENTING CLASSES IN SOUTH BAY

Anthony James, 37, is doing four years at Suffolk County House of
Correction in South Bay for drug possession. He is the father of an
18-year-old girl named Malisha, and a 19-year-old boy named Antonio,
who's in prison himself for drug possession.

For James, the term ''father'' has been mostly a technicality. As he
admitted recently, he never knew what it had meant to be one. In an
odd way, the Roxbury man's time at South Bay may prove to be richer
than he had ever dreamed, in that he has started learning what it
takes to be a father.

On a recent Thursday, James was among 25 men at the prison
overlooking I-93, all seated in a circle in a classroom with
bookshelves and maps, preparing for a taste of parent education. The
teacher, Diana Barbero, a woman of 64 who also teaches GED courses at
the prison, quickly brought the class to order with her musings on
how she began parenting at age 21.

''We do it by the seat of our pants,'' she said. ''We do it
instinctively. But we have to be more conscious of how we parent our
kids.''

The men who need it get drug counseling, job-skill training, and
preparation to gain a high school diploma. The many among them who
are fathers, and who have fallen behind in child support, also take
this class with Barbero.

It was introduced to South Bay four years ago, and is based on the
Los Angeles prison system's program, known as Rebounding and
Rebuilding.

Now, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, which tracks child
support, is using a new $549,000 grant from the child support
enforcement division of the US Department of Health and Human
Services, to work with incarcerated fathers.

The Department of Revenue recently began matching the names of
prisoners at South Bay with those in the revenue department's
database of parents who owe child support. The department had made
such efforts before, but it lacked funding to do a full-scale sweep
of names.

The Departments of Revenue and Correction ''will give the dual
message, `You know you have the obligation, we want you to pay,' and
also, `We want to work with you so you have the ability to fulfill
your obligation,''' said Stephen LoBuglio, director of administration
for the community corrections divison of the Suffolk County Sheriff's
Department. ''It's an issue that corrections can't ignore for the
sake of the children, and to minimize the damage and trauma being
done to the children.''

Since October, the Departments of Revenue and Correction have run
into the database the names of more than 2,500 men who have been or
are at South Bay. So far, 500 names have matched up.

According to estimates by the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office, 25
percent of 1,500 men housed at South Bay at any given time are
fathers. The child support debt averages $17,000.

Without any income while in prison, inmates fall behind even more on
their payments, since they are not put on hold while the men are
behind bars, officials said. One man owes $118,000.

As part of the parenting class, Barbero gets the men to consider how
they were raised, and what they can do to parent their children. This
includes financial care.

Manuel Depina, 20, who is serving a three-year sentence for assault
and battery, spoke about his two sons, 5 years old and six months
old. ''I neglected one from when he was young,'' Depina said. ''I
want to change and be in their lives, be a father figure for them. I
just want to be there for my children.''

James said: ''I didn't know how to be a father. I want to be able to
build a bond with them.''

Another father, James Gaines, 21 years old, has three children, and
is serving a two-year sentence for distributing drugs in a school
zone. The class has made him think about how his mother had raised
him, he said, and has made him appreciate her effort.

''Even though she was overprotective and strict on education, she was
just doing what she did to make sure I grew up the right way,'' he
said.

Barbero's class meets four days a week for 12 weeks, and graduates as
many as 20 men four times a year. The prison hopes to add additional
classes, which most men attend voluntarily, although a few are
assigned.

As state officials see it, the parenting classes and the new program
to match prisoners' names with those of deadbeat dads is part of a
second series of efforts to change welfare practices, this time aimed
specifically at low-income fathers.

The matching of names is becoming as standard a part of screening new
prisoners and formulating pre-release plans as is assessing their
mental health, education, and substance abuse.

South Bay is a short-term facility, so the sheriff's office is
concerned with preparing the men for life after prison, LoBuglio said

''There was a real need for the program,'' said Jerard Horgan, deputy
superintendent of the Suffolk County House of Correction. ''Human
services sees a lot of the same faces more than once, and the
caseworkers always hear, `Oh my kids.' But there's a lack of basic
parenting skills.''

Barbero, after asking prisoners to reflect that evening on the
question, ''Why am I afraid to change?'' introduced the day's topic,
how birth order impacts children's personalities into adulthood. She
asked the men to consider their childhood and their children's
experience.

Child development is among the basic teachings. A doctor from Boston
Medical Center comes in to answer questions. Also, the men can
participate in a South Bay program that has them choose a children's
book to read on tape and to send to their children, who read the book
and write a letter about it to their father.

The reading program is one way fathers can keep in contact with their
children, which Barbero identified a big concern among the men.

''An important topic is how to keep the connections with children
open even though they don't live with them,'' Barbero said. ''They
want to find a way and need encouragement that it's all right to keep
calling and say `I want to see my son.'''

That day, two men who are advocates from Boston Healthy Start's
Father Friendly Initiative, which works mostly with men of color to
give up substance abuse and to find jobs, came in to talk about child
support payments as part of the initiative's work with the revenue
department.

''That's why we're here. We know that a lot of you blew off something
that is really important because you didn't know,'' Bill Alexander
said, adding that men whose children receive welfare must pay the
government back for that taxpayer support.

He also told them that the Father Friendly Initiative is prepared to
go to court to have the men's payments adjusted while they are in
prison, and then to help them find a job upon release.

''This program is about responsible fatherhood,'' he said. ''We are
not trying to get you out of paying child support.''

In an interview later, Alexander said that both his group and the
Department of Revenue recognize that the men often have problems to
overcome before they can be financially responsible parents.

''The DOR recognizes that there is a difference between dead-beat
dads and dead-broke dads,'' Alexander said. ''For those who don't
have economic potential, they allow them to get into shape.''

Both the Departments of Revenue and Corrections are trying to use the
time with this captive audience to address what often keeps the men
from their financial responsibilities, namely, establishing paternity
and modifying their payment orders.

''We are making a connection with them so that when they are back in
the community, we can make referrals to workforce agencies and
fatherhood programs,'' said Marilyn Rae Smith, chief legal counsel
for the revenue department's child support enforcement division.

LoBuglio said he hopes that in the end the push on parenting will
make the fathers recognize their obligation, but will also help them
see their kids as a major incentive to stay out of trouble once they
leave prison.

''A benefit would be if they used the fact that they have a child to
wake them up that they are heading nowhere fast,'' he said. ''And
with the services out there now, they actually do have the
opportunity to meet their obligations and to become a positive part
of their child's life.''

Devon Darden, 35, who has five children, two of whom live with him,
is in prison for assault and battery. The class is a chance, he said,
to avoid repeating the family violence he saw as a child. He also
hopes he will be able to help his children avoid the mistakes he has
made.

''I don't want them to live the lifestyle that I lived,'' he said.
''I want my children to have a better life than I had.''