Advocates for jailed moms get funding

Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM) has received a $5,000 grant from the Illinois Bar Foundation in  support of legal assistance and client education programs in correctional institutions around the state.

Established in 1985, CLAIM recently expanded services to mothers in downstate county facilities and secured volunteers for a clinic that serves mothers in Cook County Jail.

Timely assistance and information helps clients make sound decisions about the best interests of their children and can prevent permanent destruction of families of those convicted of non-violent offenses, said executive director Gail T. Smith.

An overwhelming majority of CLAIM clients have suffered domestic violence. The agency tries to reduce violence by providing legal aid, education and a sense of dignity and hope to women prisoners.

“We make the court system accessible to women who have no other access, and provide services to a population barred from services by most agencies,” Smith said. “We keep children with trusted caregivers and out of the foster care system.”

Through intensive legal counseling and referrals to supportive services, CLAIM has been able to reduce recidivism to about 6.6 percent, compared with a rate of 40 to 50 percent among all women released from incarceration in Illinois.

On-site services are provided currently to about 800 individuals. CLAIM staff and volunteers have conducted classes in criminal procedure, family and child custody law to several hundred women in jail and in pretrial detention.

For more information, call Gail Smith at (312) 675-0912, ext. 14.