EX-PRISONER SHAPES UP FOR SON'S SAKE

Every night, for three years and two months, Zoilo Rivera lay in his bed in
Fort Dix federal prison in New Jersey, thinking. He thought about his
arrest for dealing heroin. He thought about how his father had been absent
all his life. Most of all, Mr. Rivera thought about his own son and doing
right by him.

"While I was in prison I was thinking of a plan," said Mr. Rivera, now 36.
"The wheels were always turning on how I'm going to do this when I come
home and how I'm going to get my son."

When Mr. Rivera's son was 9 years old, he watched his drug-addicted mother
beat his 6-year-old sister to death. Mr. Rivera's son was placed in the
Edenwald Center, a residential treatment center and part of the Jewish
Child Care Association, a beneficiary of the UJA-Federation of New York.
UJA is one of seven local charities supported by The New York Times
Neediest Cases Fund.

"I was going through some bad times in my life and I chose the easy way
out, and I paid the consequences," Mr. Rivera said.

Mr. Rivera thought about getting out of prison, staying clean, getting a
job and making a home where he and his son could live together. He wanted
to be a good father.

But it would not be easy. His life always seemed to be taking him in a
different direction, one that had nothing to do with being a good parent or
a good man.

This was not the first time he had been in prison. He was arrested in 1992
for selling heroin and sentenced to five years' probation. When he was
released, he went back to his old life.

"I got arrested again," Mr. Rivera said. "This was the one that hit me in
the head." He was convicted of possession of heroin with intent to distribute.

If he spent his nights thinking, Mr. Rivera spent his days in action.

"I did all the programs that were available to me," he said, looking at a
pile of 20 framed certificates from 20 different prison programs.

For the first time in his life, Mr. Rivera had a goal. He also knew that he
needed help to achieve it. He participated in substance abuse and sobriety
programs. He learned about criminal behavior, and about readjusting to
society after release. He also studied basic principles of accounting,
finance and investment.

"Knowing this man for two years, there are some people that go through
these programs just to go through these programs," said Pat Lawrence, the
caseworker at the Jewish Child Care Association who has worked with him and
his son for the past two years. "I really believe he took them to heart."

Mrs. Lawrence took Mr. Rivera's son on monthly two-hour drives to the
prison. The visits kept them both going. "Every visit and every phone
conversation that I had with this kid, it would just break my heart,
dearly, to know that I left him like that," Mr. Rivera said.

Mrs. Lawrence added: "I was always impressed from the very first, with Mr.
Rivera's sincerity and his hard work and motivation. He never lost his goal."

Mr. Rivera entered prison with a fourth-grade reading level. When he left,
he had the reading skills of a college freshman.

Mr. Rivera studied, read and wrote letters every day. In May 1998, he
started writing to the judge on his case. He worked with his lawyer and was
eventually able to get a reduced sentence. In addition, his participation
in the residential drug abuse program reduced his sentence further. Mr.
Rivera was released in December 2000 into the custody of his aunt,
Monserrate Rodriguez, for six months.

He got a job at a recycling plant. And when he was laid off, he dug in his
heels and found another job at Kmart. Over a year, Mrs. Lawrence planned
out with Mr. Rivera the things he would have to do to regain custody of his
son. One important thing for Mr. Rivera was to start a life in a new
neighborhood.

But starting again meant finding and affording an apartment. In October,
Mrs. Lawrence arranged for Mr. Rivera to receive $1,400 of Neediest money.
It paid for the security deposit and one month's rent in his new home in
the Bronx.

Another $1,500 of Neediest money paid for a bedroom set for his son, a
futon, a kitchen table, two end tables and pots and pans to furnish the
apartment and supply the kitchen. Mr. Rivera and his son worked together to
clean, paint and carpet the apartment. They moved in together in November.

After his first six months at Kmart, Mr. Rivera was promoted and given a
raise. He is now a supervisor. And he plans to take a second job, part
time, so he can put away money for his son's education.

"I take all the hours they give me; I never say no to work," Mr. Rivera said.

"I wanted to show him that I did something bad and I turned it into
something good. I wanted to spend the rest of my life for him and just do
things for him. I don't want him to go through the same stuff that I went
through."