Kids reunite with locked-up moms near Mother's Day

FOLSOM, Calif. (AP) — "Hi, baby," Catherine La France cooed as she swept granddaughter Arianna into her arms and danced around the prison yard with the 3-year-old.

She pulled her two daughters into a bear hug, and the girls burst into tears. La France hadn't seen Arianna's mother, 18-year-old Samantha La France, in six months, and she last saw Summer La France, 14, nearly three years ago.

They soon dropped into easy banter as barbed concertina wire high above them glinted in the sun and guards armed with pepper spray discreetly patrolled nearby.

"This is my birthday present and Mother's Day at the same time," Catherine La France said at the stark, concrete-block-walled prison for low-risk offenders where she has been locked up for nearly two years. La France, who has prior residential burglary convictions, turned 39 two days earlier and won't be released for three more years, when she completes a sentence for repeatedly using a bogus credit card to defraud businesses.

Three generations of La France women got 4 ½ precious hours together at Folsom Women's Facility east of Sacramento more than a week before Mother's Day, which is Sunday. It happened through a free, nonprofit program called Get on the Bus that arranges for children to visit their incarcerated parents in California prisons around Mother's and Father's days.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/kids-reunite-locked-moms-near-mothers-day