This is a guest post from Ethan Vincent, Turning Point director. Ethan's post was originally published in June 2011. Watch the newest episode of Turning Point on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 10pm ET/8pm MT.
From the moment I met Sister Teresa Fitzgerald, or “Sis Tesa” as her many employees call her, I knew I was in the presence of greatness. It wasn’t just her firm handshake, her strong New York accent or the way she could instantly break into laughter that had me hooked. It was her stoic and silent ability to peer deep into the heart of the matter and sympathize. Sis Tesa runs an organization called Hour Children which helps female ex-convicts reunite with their families, continue their education and reintegrate into a society that allows little to no room for anyone who has served time behind bars. Beyond the statistical successes of Hour Children (lowering the arrest rate of local ex-cons from 30 to 4 percent, for example) Sis Tesa has created a utopia for women where only the present and future matter.
She took me on a tour around the block, bursting into thrift stores and beauty parlors, where a variety of women stopped their work, smiled and chitchatted with us. Sis Tesa introduced each woman with a joke, and the affinity they had for each other was evident within seconds. Their history is mostly defined by years of struggle, both inside and outside of the prison system. Some work on being a better mother while incarcerated and others take care of the children left behind by imprisoned women. When mothers are arrested, sentenced and put in prison, where do their children end up? Often the support system is lacking and children are placed in foster care or given up for adoption. Many mothers have no way of reconnecting with their children after they have served their sentence. No one will give them the time of day and legal matters are quickly dismissed when their history of prison time comes into play. However, with the help of Sis Tesa, one of the female prisons in upstate New York offers a nursery program for inmates, allowing mothers to stay with their children for the first 18 months of their lives. There are only five state penitentiaries like this in the U.S. In addition, Sis Tesa helps temporarily place many of the children, closely tracking their progress and assisting in temporal needs, waiting for the mother's return. It truly is an amazing program.
As a documentary filmmaker, you are always in search of moments, slices of reality that pierce, move forward and transcend the everyday. With Sister Teresa’s story there was nothing lacking and many surprises were waiting just around the corner. When the producers of Turning Point mentioned that we would be spending time with the inmates of the Taconic Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, New York, the usual images of a harsh prison environment á la MSNBC’s Lockup came to mind. Though Taconic is not a high security facility like those on sensational TV shows, entering the nursery area with Sis Tesa altered my perception of female inmates forever. Escorted through the many razor-wired gates and mesh doors, we entered the first floor of the nursery area where women spent time with their toddlers, playing, reading, chatting with other women and generally doing what all good mothers want: spending time with their children. I remember this little one-year-old taking his first steps and all the women in the nursery clapping, cheering and participating in the event. It was then that the green inmate garb began to fade, and my preconceived notion of the uniformed female criminal crumbled into this primal image of a loving mother taking pride in her child. Amid this celebration for the toddler, Sis Tesa, always teaching, training and encouraging, took the time to talk about the responsibility of a mother, aimed mostly at a young woman named Nicole, who was to be released from prison with her son the next day.
We were there filming, of course, that next day. Gates opened, guards escorted Nicole for the last time and we filmed Nicole hugging Sis Tesa and struggling to secure the seatbelt to the car seat of her son, like any new mother would. I have to admit in my pessimistic nature, there was a part of me that thought, Well, good luck with this. Let’s see if you can really pull this off. I was still judging. But Sis Tesa carried herself with the exact opposite emotion. Her message that morning was simply, Your future starts now. Let’s get to work.
Days later, I conducted one of my most emotional interviews with Joanna Flores. She runs the educational center at Hour Children and has this amazing, polished presence. She's always dressed in full business attire, looking sharp and professional. We filmed her sending her twelve-year-old son off to school and taking her daughter to kindergarten. In a moment of spontaneity, while putting on makeup in the bathroom, she revealed with tears in her eyes that she was going to finally tell her son about her prison past. I remember thinking, Oh yeah, that’s right. You’re an ex-con, because I had literally forgotten about it. Moments later, Joanna revealed that she was lured into smuggling diamonds from Tijuana to New York, only to be arrested with five kilos of cocaine at the baggage claim of JFK Airport. Bitter tears of regret streamed down her face and I found myself truly sympathizing with her younger self, this naïve teenager from Mexico, who was trying to support her impoverished family by taking a job that had seemed like the perfect fix. Four years later, and after having been transferred through six different correctional facilities, Joanna had taught herself English, taken business courses and stayed close to her son, ready to embrace the future. When Joanna was released, Sister Tesa was there to receive her with open arms, ready to help another young mother.
Sis Tesa reminded me in a quaint chapel in Queens that giving others hope—seeing beyond the mistakes of their past and offering everyone a clean slate—is what Christ was and still is all about. She taught me on a very personal yet pro-active level just how important it is to give others that feeling of hope, compassion and encouragement, but most importantly to actually do something about it. In essence, that is what BYUtv's Turning Point is all about. We cannot be unaffected by this driving force of service that creates characters like Sister Teresa Fitzgerald. And believing in yourself is just as important as believing in others. Seeing the good around you and the good in people is the first step towards the strength that will allow you to change things, to find your own 'Turning Point' and to create that utopia that Sister Teresa did—where only the present and future matter.
Do you know someone with a Turning Point story? Click here to find out how to submit their story to BYUtv.