WHEN MOMMY'S IN JAIL

The Adullum House Helps Children Who Need A Home

WETUMPKA - This one-story brick house in Wetumpka should be called the
house of hope. That is, hope for removing special children from facing a
future prison somewhere. The house, called Adullum, is a place where
children whose parents are imprisoned can stay and have a life, a life away
from crime and poverty. Through perseverance, Pete and Angie Spackman, both
natives of Great Britain, have built the house, named after the Biblical
cave where David sought refuge from Saul.

The children they care for come from tough circumstances: One child's
mother shot a man; another was born addicted to crack cocaine; one
previously lived in the hallway of a run-down apartment complex in Nashville.

They do it free of charge, relying on donations and a $7,000 grant from the
Tom and Amy Methvyn Foundation, a charitable organization. It is also a
testimony to their faith, they say, that other believers have helped them
build the house in a bedroom community of Montgomery, near Elmore County
Jail and the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women.

Since 1991, the couple has cared for children whose mothers were
imprisioned, as friends of the inmates, receiving temporary custody. They
began caring for children in their Deatsville home. Last year, the couple
received official approval from the state to operate the house they built
in Wetumpka as a boarding home and preschool for inmates' children. The
Department of Human Resources and state Attorney General's office both
approved the facility, Angie Spackman, 45, said.

If a mother can provide for a child, then she does, Angie Spackman said,
but the children there at Adullum generally "have no other option, no other
place to go."

"Most of our children, the fathers are an unknown entity or" there is no
other family, she said.

Women imprisoned grant one-year custody, and renew that annually if
necessary, Spackman said.

They provide three squares a day, operate an on-site home school and help
the children visit their parent regularly in prison. The Spackmans operate
the home, and a home-schooling program on their 18-acre lot.

The couple moved to the United States after working in 1987 for a prison
outreach program in Millbrook sponsored by the League of Prayer in
Montgomery. After their experience, they decided to move permanently to the
United States.

Over the years, the Spackmans have cared for about 20 children at both
locations, from birth through 10.

"We visit at the prison in conjunction with an organization called Aid to
Inmate Mothers," Angie Spackman said. Visits are monthly, she said.

The Spackmans built their house from scratch, mostly from donations, nearly
all small.

"We trust God to do the rest," said Angie Spackman, who has a sociology
degree from the University of Edinburgh and worked with troubled youths in
Scotland.

The children have regular toys - dolls from the movie "Toy Story," and Hot
Wheels cars. There is a swing set in the back and an enclosed trampoline.
They have physical education as part of their schooling, along with crafts
lessons and baking classes, all taught by the Spackmans' daughters or two
of the daughters' husbands.

The children participate in morning prayer meetings, which are more like
singalongs than church.The children's prayers are colored with the
knowledge their mothers are in jail.

"I pray for D.C.'s mom in jail," said Colton, a 6-year-old the family has
been caring since birth. D.C. is another 6-year-old the couple has cared
for since birth.

The house was looked on with some suspicion when it started, Elmore County
Sheriff Bill Franklin said.

"People were very reluctant to see and understand their side," Franklin
said. "They were set in their ways and couldn't understand why they wanted
to help 'the bad guys.'"

Franklin said Elmore County has become more sophisticated as it has become
a Montgomery bedroom community and more understanding of the Spackmans
since they started taking in children at the Wetumpka location nearly three
years ago.

Franklin calls the children of the imprisoned, "lost children." "The
children suffer," Franklin said. "We see it every day."

Today, with the program in place, "there are good things going on there,"
Franklin said.

Good things weren't always there for Pete Spackman, who has a prison
ministry and preaches to congregations around the country.

Growing up on the docks in Liverpool, England, he had 14 criminal
convictions in his teens and 20s, he said, most for stealing.

He had a lot of time to think. He emerged from that life at age 31 and
found God. It was at a prayer meeting that he met his wife.

The only holdovers from that life are the stories, a tattoo of a swallow on
his hand from his gang and an ability to do lots of pushups.

"When you're in that cell, that's the only thing you can do," Pete Spackman
said.

What he learned in prison he has used to raise money for the house.

He takes pledges to see how many pushups he can do in an hour. His system
is to do as many as he can in a minute, rest, move to the next minute. He
will do that 60 times. This time, he is trying to raise money to pave over
the dirt road that leads to the house. He thinks he will be able to do 720
push-ups. He is 59.

"Love is so powerful," said Pete Spackman, as he played with 2-year-old
Jasmine Malone having just returned from preaching in prison. Jasmine's
mother is in the Elmore County Jail.

He has been to gulags in Russia and prisons in Peru, where the prisoners
wandered in the courtyard without clothes.

If Pete Spackman is the body of the car, then Angie Spackman is the engine
that drives it. She deals with state officials and spreads the word about
the house.

She spoke to Attorney General Bill Pryor and the Department of Human
Resources, the department responsible for looking after foster children and
got approval from the state to take care of the children. Officially, the
home is registered as a boarding school.

They have five children now. They hope to build other facilities and expand
their ability to care for additional children. Adullum is licensed for 20,
but Angie Spackman said she would like to grow because of a need for the
children.

"I was told in August we have 39" pregnant women at Tutwiler, and some of
those would be prime candidates for the Adullum house, she said.

When they grow, Angie Spackman said they would still rely on donations from
local churches and individuals. They also try to get more grants. The
Spackmans receive no federal funding.

Bill Hallmark, Jasmine's grandfather, took Jasmine to the Adullum House,
after he and his wife, Carol decided they couldn't handle raising her on
their own.

"I'm willing to do most anything to help the Adullum House," he said,
walking out of the Elmore County Jail, having just visited Jasmine's
mother, Jill Hallmark.

From short-term needs to several years the length a child stays varies,
Angie Spackman said. The departures are hard, full of tears, full of fears.

"It's overwhelming. We haven't even touched the tip of the iceberg," she
said. "Everyone assumes that someone is looking after these children ...
and often they go into the most horrific situations."

"This is something that should have been done a long time ago. It's taken a
great deal of effort to convince people that it could be done."

The children, she said, "deserve the same opportunities that your children
and my children have.

"This is preventive prison work."