Crafters to make baby hats, sweaters for women's prison

Area crafters are being sought to create crocheted and knitted baby items for women and their babies at the Indiana Women's Prison.

Nickie Taylor and Pat Schrieber, teachers at Bainbridge Elementary, will be hosting an informational meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Putnam County Public Library to provide crafters with more information. The goal is to create hats and sweaters for babies born to the inmates.

Taylor said around 25 babies are born to women at the prison each year. Through conversations with prison officials, they learned the women who are close to their release date may be able to keep their babies on-site as determined by Indiana Department of Correction criteria, while those who still have a significant amount of time to serve could lose custody of their child.

The prison hosts quarterly baby showers for all the moms-to-be. The hats and sweaters will be placed in the baby shower gift bags.

She noted the creations will be two-fold. First, the clothing items will help to give the moms a leg up as they care for their children behind bars and help them prepare to make the transition out of prison. Also, the mothers who will lose custody of their child will have something by which to remember the infant.

"We think this is a nice gesture to let these women know people are still thinking about you and people still love you," Taylor explained.

Taylor said the first meeting will inform participants of the statistics, as well as provide the patterns currently being used. The organizers also encourage participants to share patterns to be used for the program as well.

The two had considered several options when planning the project. They had considered sending the items to area hospitals, but too many restrictions led them down this path.

"We feel we have been so blessed, we want to give back. We want to give back and share our good fortune," Taylor said.

Anyone who is interested, but is unable to attend the introductory meeting, can contact Taylor at 317-442-6340 or by email at pooh2nick@yahoo.com.

She noted the group will probably meet every couple of months for updates and donating the created items to the project.