Stitches Pass Time at Federal

Lock-Up

Inmates at Sunset Park Facility Make Clothes for Homeless

By Linda Busetti

Sharon, Tiana and Emily crocheted beautiful matching scarf and hat sets for people like Marcia and her daughter Samantha who wait outside C.H.I.P.S., a soup kitchen in Park Slope.

But the three women, who are imprisoned in the Metropolitan Detention Center, did not get to deliver the warm colorful scarves, hats and ponchos personally to Sister Mary Maloney, S.F.P., who runs C.H.I.P.S. (Park Slope Christian Help).

Instead, Father James McDevitt, chaplain at the MDC, along with Justin Andrews, an associate warden, delivered several large bags overflowing with crocheted items, which will be distributed to the poor and to pregnant women and women with infants housed in C.H.I.P.S.’ Frances Residency program.

Linda Busetti Photo

DELIVERING GIFTS: Father James McDevitt, chaplain, and Justin Andrews, associate warden of the Metropolitan Detention Center, present crocheted scarves, hats and baby clothes made by women at the facility to Sister Mary Maloney, S.F.P., for people served by C.H.I.P.S. (Christian Help in Park Slope).

Father McDevitt, Catholic chaplain at the MDC, put together this simple project for women prisoners because, “There is nothing for them to do.”

Commuters traveling up Third Ave. may not realize that at 29th St. just west of the BQE, they pass the MDC, the largest federal detention center in the country.

Inmates awaiting trial or sentencing, who are easily distinguished by their khaki uniforms, do not have work assignments. Only those in green jumpsuits, who have been sentenced or are serving time, are assigned jobs.

Sometimes there is the diversion of a visit. In the men’s building, the visiting room is full of women and children who have come to sit on the long rows of plastic chairs to speak with boyfriends, husbands or fathers. It has the look of a train station waiting room with very little privacy.

But, as a rule, women inmates don’t get many visitors, Father McDevitt says. These women, who in many cases tried to keep things going for everyone else on the outside, often receive little support for themselves.

About 90% of the women inmates have suffered physical or sexual abuse at some time in their lives, he said. And yet, some continue “to try to manage their families from here,” Father McDevitt said.

Father McDevitt, who is originally from the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT, began his prison ministry as a seminarian during summers. His bishop, Bishop William Lori, has fully supported his ministry over the past 11 years at the federal correctional institutions at Allenwood, PA, and Danbury, CT, and, for the past six years, at the Sunset Park facility.

There are currently 1,071 Catholics among the 2,442 inmates at MDC. About 10,000 people move in and out of the facility each year as they await trial, sentencing and, if convicted, placement to serve time. Their offenses range from white-collar crime to murder, but a large percentage is drug-related.

The average inmate stays at MDC about five or six months. Some serve out their sentences there.

When a man or woman arrives at MDC, it is very traumatic, with the loss of not only freedom, but also a job, home, and time with family and friends. For some it is overwhelming. Either Father McDevitt, Rabbi Jacob Hoenig or the Rev. Loren Van Galder is available seven days a week to meet spiritual needs. This may be breaking the news of a death of a relative or helping an inmate deal with a threatened divorce. Father McDevitt says that after he breaks bad news, prisoners step in to “take care of each other.”

Father McDevitt tries to celebrate Mass once a week for each floor within the facility. The “chapel” is a small room set up with plastic chairs. Sixty to 80 people from a floor attend each Mass. Because prisoners from different floors are not allowed to mix, Father McDevitt may celebrate Mass 10 times in one weekend.

As he waits to be buzzed through one locked door after another, he comes to an elevator bank where inmates, who work in dining services, are being searched to make sure they haven’t hidden anything in their clothes or boots. One young fellow comes over and eagerly asks when his unit will be having Mass.

One of the reasons Father McDevitt started the crocheting project was to help the women fill their time productively. For Valerie, the activity “takes off the stress” of long hours in the MDC’s East Building.

With donations of yarn from local parishes, about 28 women at the detention center have been crocheting warm scarves and hats for the homeless for about a year. Sixty other women are on a waiting list, waiting for more yarn and plastic crochet needles.

The women live in a large dorm-like room with rows of bunk beds. They store their yarn and needles in tall lockers nearby. They don’t have the privacy of a cell with a door as men do in the MDC’s West Building.

Sharon, Tiana and Emily each brought out a plastic bag bulging with their handiwork. Tucked in with the scarves and yarn are letters granting permission for them to have the crochet needles. The women don’t knit because they are not permitted to have metal knitting needles.

The plastic needles break easily. One woman reminded Father McDevitt she needs new G and F crochet hooks.
In the common area of a women’s unit, where they spend most of their day, Gladys said that she has “really enjoyed” crocheting. Angelica has become so proficient she can make a scarf in three days. In another unit, Luz has spent hours on the project. It is much better than sitting around watching television, they all agree.

How did they all learn to crochet? “Shirley taught me,” each answers. Sitting at a McDonald’s style table is a shy young woman whose face suddenly opens up in a smile at the recognition.

Donations of yarn in all colors can be sent to St. John the Evangelist Church, 250 21st St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11215. Federal regulations require that the yarn be sent to a church and not directly to the prison.

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