Visits offered to families of Ohio’s detained youths

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The state is using a federal grant to provide free bus rides to families of young people detained in state juvenile detention centers as a way of helping with the rehabilitation process and make it easier for the youths to re-enter the community.

The Department of Youth Services began the program with visits over Mother’s Day and planned to continue them with bus trips Saturday, the day before Father’s Day.

Families must call their child’s social worker to get on the visitation list and then reserve a seat on the bus through their child’s parole officer.

Tonya Thompson of Columbus, with no driver’s license and no money for a bus ticket, said she was heartbroken when she learned where her 15-year-old son would serve his time on a robbery charge: at Indian River Juvenile Correctional Facility in Massillon in Northeast Ohio, about a two-hour drive.

She’d been able to visit him twice weekly when he was jailed in Columbus, but until she went on last month’s bus trip, her visits were limited to letters and occasional calls.

“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have got to see him,” she said.

The 44-year-old hairdresser called the visit heartwarming and said she hoped to make it again.