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'Open Book' connects children to inmate parents

Posted at 11:40 PM, Oct 25, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-26 10:49:34-04

If you're a parent, you've laid down next to your little one, cracked open a bed time story and read to them as they fell asleep after a busy day of life.

Then there's a man, wearing a jail jumpsuit, tats from head to toe, reading "Cat in the Hat" to his 3-year-old sitting on his lap. The Anne Arundel County Public Library uses words to unlock a new world at the Ordinance Road Correctional Center in Glen Burnie. 

The program is called Open Book. It allows inmates locked up for 18 months on charges of drugs, DUIs and theft to bond with their children over a book. 

Those who are smart and understand our society say a program like this helps children get a head start on reading before school starts. Those who know the system say this program helps those behind bars come out in the  free world, understanding what it means to bond with their children. 

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