Writings

"To children out there who have a parent who is incarcerated, we want you to know that you are enough, you do matter, your feelings are valid, and this experience does not define you."

"Spirituality is not only about healing and finding peace, it is also about making meaning of your broken pieces and putting the pieces back together to make you feel whole."

"The inconsistent communication made it impossible for me to hear more of my father’s stories."

"Being on time is a great way to let Daddy know how important he is to me and how much I value our time together."

"My dad’s sentence feels like a life sentence because I never had and never will have him home with me. My grief seems to be stuck on prison time."

"Fifteen years later, I wonder if there’s a way to take a photo that embraces the actual place and replaces indignation with real smiles and memories."

"The pain and outrage I feel is why I want to advocate for child-sensitive arrest protocols, data collection, and training."

"When my mom gets incarcerated, she tries to restore our relationship, but that’s the only time she tries. After a while, it gets tiring."

"Though it seems lifetimes past, the pain of missing my father and experiencing my life unravel will never leave me."

"It bothered me that the ants could crawl into my daddy's strong arms. But I couldn't."

"Developing resilience in the face of mass incarceration."

Jacobia Dahm is a Berlin-based photographer who worked alongside the Osborne Association a few years ago to meet families impacted by incarceration for this photo project. Some of the families in the pictures are Osborne participants.

"Families are largely invisible. I wanted to create something that represented the people I loved and that told a story we rarely hear."

"I miss you so much, and it’s one of those days when I wish I can just call you and tell you everything, but when you call, I push my feelings down because I don't want you to hear me cry."

"Chil­dren should­n’t bear the costs of their parents’ miscon­duct — but I did. "

"If young people grow up hearing this false narrative about how their life is meant to go, they may just buy into it. I know this because I was one of those kids that bought into the lies."

"If my father had access to adequate systems of support for both his physical and mental health, my family would look very different today."

 "I want to help people who have been told they cannot be successful because they come from a poor neighborhood. I want to be able to tell them that there is more to believe than the negative stereotypes."

"No parent deserves to stop parenting because they are not at home."

"I didn’t wanna forget him ever… he was my dad. And what if I never get a chance to visit him again...So just in case, I sat there taking pictures in my mind and storing them in this little section I have where all the thoughts about him were."