This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 29, 2011 - This Thursday night, St. Louis' Community Cinema series takes us inside Hilltop Prison in Gatesville, Texas, with an opportunity to meet five little Girls Scouts who are not headed in to sell cookies but instead are visiting their mothers. The documentary, "Troop 1500," captures the realities that more than 1.5 million American children face who have a parent behind bars.
The film shows the emotional rollercoaster of what life is like for families estranged by the prison system. "Troop 1500" follows Caitlin, Mikaela, Jasmine, Jessica and Naomi -- all members of the troop that takes them to their mothers -- Kenya, Melissa, Ida and Susan -- who are all serving sentences for serious crimes. The film delves into what the girls' daily lives are like balancing family, schoolwork and extracurricular activities under the care of dads, friends and grandparents along with the longing to have their mothers free of the prison system.
The film is part of the Community Cinema Series, a partnership among Nine Network, Independent Television Service (ITVS) and Missouri History Museum.
Filmmakers Ellen Spiro and Karen Bernstein (after volunteering for two years with this prison) decided to capture the troop on film and gained impressive access to Gatesville Prison, Girl Scouts USA and the families themselves. Spiro and Bernstein also trained the girls in videography and allowed them to conduct their own interviews asking some difficult questions and getting some tough answers.
Following the film, a panel discussion will include Jean Kilroy-Bensinger, 49 and son Ryan, 23 who will be speaking from personal experience about how the prison system fractured their family. Kilroy-Bensinger served for several years in federal and state prison while her children were teenagers.
Her incarceration was a shock for her family who had no idea about her gambling addiction that led her to write counterfeit checks. "If there was something to gamble on I would," said Kilroy-Bensinger. "We had a pretty normal life and I just screwed the whole thing up. We lost our house; my children had to change school districts and they lost their mother."
Kilroy-Bensinger recollects that from June 2005 until March 2009, while she was in prison, she did not see anyone except an attorney with her divorce papers. Trying to reconnect with her sons after prison was difficult especially for her youngest son, Ryan. "It was too hard for him to see me. The scars were just too deep." He avoided her calls and when he finally did pick up and make a plan to meet, "he would never show up and we went through this time and time again and I would just wait for hours."
Kilroy-Bensinger has not seen yet "Troop 1500" but feels strongly that it is important to hear these stories, "I can tell you that the biggest thing that people need to recognize is the need for forgiveness and understanding. The stigma that we put on our family is terrible and there has to be forgiveness from our community and from our families so we can succeed," said Kilroy-Bensinger. "It is really easy to do for puppies and newborns but not so much for felons."
Today, Kilroy-Bensinger works managing the books at the Center for Women in Transition, which she credits as being her reason for surviving after prison. She now has a great relationship with her sons, although she admitted she is nervous to be on the panel with Ryan because "he is honest to the point of painful about what crime does to a family."
Rosa Dudman Mayer is a freelance writer.