Girl Scouts Meeting with Inmates at PWCC

KIDK in Pocatello highlights the Girl Scouts Behind Bars program. Please see the link below for video and the story.

http://www.kidk.com/news/42934147.html?video=pop&t=a

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Story by Wes Horrocks of KIDK

POCATELLO - A new Girl Scout troop is being organized in Pocatello, and unlike most troops they'll spend one day a month at the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center.

The girls are part of a program called Girl Scouts Beyond Bars, and will actually be at the prison to spend time building relationships with their moms. Tami Romriell, Assistant to the Warden and organizer of the program said, "I've been working on this since last year."

Six inmates and 10 girls, ages five to 16, are involved in the new program.

At Saturday's first meeting the girls and their mothers learned to trust through a blindfolded Easter egg hunt. Romriell said, "I wanted to make sure as much as possible that they were going to be good mothers when they got back."

But the inmates and their daughters aren't the only ones benefiting. People assigned to care for the girls are also happy about the new program. "For many of them this is their daughter that's up here, that's incarcerated. So they certainly want their daughters to be better," said Romriell.

The program follows a handbook designed to help mothers and their daughters reconnect.
Stephanie Richardson, Marketing and Membership Specialist with the Silver Sage Girl Scouts Council said, "We're really trying to get them to communicate again, build trust back up again."Romriell added, "Just a lot of different activities that help that bond become stronger again."The idea for the special girl scout troop started in Maryland in 1992. Now 40 councils across the country are involved. Richardson said, "Even if we only teach them one skill they can build on that, and we've made a difference."

And organizers are excited to watch everyones progress. "I actually totally forgot I was up at the women's prison," said Richardson.

Eyewitness News will continue to follow this troop in the future and let you know how they're doing.

Also, troop leaders are looking for community volunteers to help out with the new program.