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Nassau mentoring program helps kids of jailed mothers
Quick ReadStatistics show that children of incarcerated parents are more at risk of failing in school and of eventually going to jail themselves.
Photo credit: Newsday / Ken Sawchuk | Rachel Valdez, 36, middle, with her daughter Mequantash, 11, left, and Kumat, 18, right, in the family's home on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation. Valdez served time in prison and believes a mentoring program would have been beneficial for her children while she was away. (Nov. 12, 2009)
It was only when Rachel Valdez was in jail that the guilt hit her.
Valdez, 36, of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, was doing time in Suffolk County jail for stealing to support her drug addiction. Her three children were living with family members. She thought they were doing fine, until one day behind bars she got a call from her then-5-year-old daughter, Mehquantash.
"She said, 'Mom,...
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