Metro jail opens space for family time

The Metropolitan Detention Center unveiled a new place Wednesday for children to spend quality time with their parents, turning jail time into family time. There are no glass separators. No phones to talk through. Here, jailed parents and their children can be like a real family. “Marvelous miracles happen here,” said children’s advocate Angie Vachio. “You’re sitting at the site of some wonderful, wonderful things where children will see their parents, where parents will be able to hold them and love them.” Instead of bars on this newest cell at the jail, you’ll find board games like Monopoly and Uno. “We want to make sure the children who are unheard of and unseen of people who are incarcerated or arrested are taken care of,” said Chief Ronald Torres of the Bernalillo County Corrections Department. Experts say children with parents behind bars worry constantly about their moms and dads. This is a chance for them to get peace of mind. “The detainment of a parent for one moment never stops the love they have for their child,” said Vachio. It’s also an opportunity for people in jail to get parenting skills that could prevent kids from following in their parent’s footsteps. “Parents make changes, sometimes not for themselves but for their children. That’s what this is. This is public safety at its best,” said Vachio. The program currently focuses on mothers who are locked up, but the jail is planning to expand the program to fathers too. It is estimated that about 10,000 children in New Mexico have a mother or father behind bars at some point during the year.