(NEW ORLEANS) -- It may be early in December but in the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office on Saturday it was Christmas morning for five inmates and their daughters.
Inside the OPSO cafeteria, complete with a Christmas tree, presents donated from local church groups and a visit from Santa, incarcerated mothers had the chance to hug, laugh and learn with their children.
For one inmate named Vicki, it was the first time seeing her daughter, 13-year-old Ladaysha, in person in more than a year.
"There is so much I want to tell her and let her know that she's greatly loved and appreciated. I couldn't wait for the opportunity to hold her and smell her,” Vicki said.
Part of the Girl Scouts’ Beyond Bars program, the event came from a partnership between Girl Scouts Louisiana East and the OPSO to give well-behaved inmates the chance to celebrate the holidays outside their cells.
Jill Pollard, Chief Development Officer for Girl Scouts Louisiana East, said the program aims to teach mothers important parenting skills in the traditional girl scout experience.
"It gives them hope, it gives them skills, them options, opportunities," Pollard said.
Sheriff Marlin Gusman said the partnership is a way to help prepare inmates for life after incarceration.
“Whether it's financial literacy, whether it's parenting, all those of skills are important for the growth and development, not only of themselves but for their children," Gusman said.
The Beyond Bars program has been going on for several years and goes beyond one Christmas party, with the intent for inmates learn lessons needed for when they complete their sentences.
For Vicki, who was charged with vehicular homicides more than a year ago, the program has provided her hope for a better life for her and her daughter.
“Rehabilitation is what's best for us, it helps us and it helps us not want to come back,” she said. “I just don't want her to make the same mistakes and I just want her to go the right direction.”