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Catholic Charities of Columbia and Greene Counties has won a five-year contract to manage the visitors' centers in two correctional facilities in Hudson and Coxsackie.

An annual $22,000 grant from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision is allowing Catholic Charities to pay three part-time workers to staff the centers on weekend mornings and three holidays a year; the Coxsackie facility also allows visitors on Thursday mornings.

The agency's key role is to answer questions and explain facility rules and regulations before families visit their loved ones, "so that it is a more positive experience - to bring some energy and life into it," said Theresa Lux, executive director of Catholic Charities for the two counties.

Since the program started in May, the presence of the Catholic Charities "hosts" at the prison visitors' centers has already made a difference: They're "so well-received," Mrs. Lux said. "You can see the happiness and the reduction in frustration" among the visitors.

"The system is there and it's there to protect everybody, but it can be confusing the first time," she noted.

The Catholic Charities agency is looking for further funding to make clothing available for visitors who fail to heed dress codes. Staff would then launder the items and make them available for the next person. No one would have to turn around and go home because he or she didn't know the prisons' rules.

"Our vision is that this is something that would happen once, and they would learn from it," Mrs. Lux noted.

The agency also wants to stock the rooms - which are simply furnished with tables and chairs and spots to stash belongings not allowed inside the correctional facilities - with books, puzzles and games for children, as well as magazines and other items for adults. Staff members are also crafting posters and manuals with concise, understandable information about visiting procedures.

Though Catholic Charities has, in the past, worked with bail bonds programs in Columbia and Greene Counties and collaborated with incarcerated individuals on projects, the visitors' centers are helping to better serve another population.

"We saw this as an opportunity to be able to provide a little bit more," Mrs. Lux said. "We're really focused on the dignity for all. A lot of the families are affected by decisions that were not personally made by them."

Often, children get caught in the middle: "It can be very life-altering when those bonds are broken," the director said. "This is a chance to keep that family peace intact."

Catholic Charities is seeking a team of volunteers to assist the program. Mrs. Lux likens the position to customer service and said there would be a lengthy application process. (Contact the agency through www.catholiccharitiescg.org.)[[In-content Ad]]

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