Adults, Youths Tackle Woes Halfway

CAMDEN, N.J. — “You ready?” Paris Nichols asks the 2-year-old girl sitting in a small plastic chair.

She nods and smiles. Nichols is a big man. Humming like a machine, he lifts the chair, girl and all, and twirls them. She laughs and waves her hands.

Two months ago, Nichols, 36, was in prison for selling drugs. Now he is part of a pioneering program that helps rehabilitate him and takes care of medically fragile children at the same time.

Nichols lives at Garrett House, a halfway house for men just released from New Jersey state prison. A few doors away is Dooley House, which houses children in need of care. Some have AIDS. Others are addicted to drugs. Many have been abused.

For at least two hours a week, he and other ex-offenders fulfill their community service requirement at Dooley House. Soon, both Nichols and the little girl will move on. He will be set free, and she will return home, be adopted or be placed in foster care. Both have had difficult starts in life. But for now, they are helping each other.

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“Many of the ex-offenders say that their experience at Dooley House is often the first time that they felt that they have been completely accepted by somebody who doesn’t know or care what their past has been,” said Jan Kauffman, a spokeswoman for Volunteers of America Delaware Valley, the nonprofit agency that runs Garrett House.

“They also say that their work there is often the first time that they have given to somebody for no other reason than to do so. They aren’t looking for anything back, except that they do find that they get a lot of love back. For many of the men, it’s the first positive relationship that they’ve had.”

The program began spontaneously 10 years ago, when the Garrett House residents helped Dooley House open by painting walls and carrying furniture. Now the ex-offenders clean and help with the babies. They feed them. Some walk and rock the sweating, trembling infants who are withdrawing from drugs that entered their systems while they were in the womb.

Convicted drug dealers often excuse their actions as being part of a victimless crime, said Daniel Lombardo, president of the Volunteers of America Delaware Valley. But “when they start relating to babies--especially crack babies or babies with HIV whose moms were IV drug users--all of a sudden the victimless crime has a victim. They begin to think differently about the consequences of their actions.”

The Dooley House is a kind of liminal space on the edge of society. The ex-offenders have just come from prison where they had to think only about themselves in order to survive. In turn, these children, who have been taken from society, pull the men outside of themselves. The youngsters toddle up, wanting to be touched. They offer toys and ask questions.

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“Some of the ex-offenders have become hardened,” said Emery Troy, the director of Dooley House. “And after learning how a baby can attach to them--how when they come into the house, that baby runs to them and wants to be held by them--they can say, ‘Somebody wants me. I’m good for something.’ So their self-esteem starts to come back. They want to be somebody, even if it is only for this house.”

Nichols, who wears gold loop earrings, lowers the plastic chair, and the 2-year-old jumps out. Two other little girls push each other and demand a turn. Nichols glances at a 19-month-old girl, bobbing and prancing nearby. She has a feeding tube running through her nose and into her stomach. She is dancing with Barney, who appears on TV.

Dooley House can accommodate six children, up to the age of 12. Each can stay as long as three months. The state Division of Youth and Family Services funds them. Dooley House also receives donations from corporations, churches and individuals. In fact, the first check that Dooley House received was from a group of ex-offenders who decided one year to give all of their Christmas money to the children.

To work at Dooley House, Nichols had to fill out an application. He answered questions about HIV, children and his criminal history. If he had been convicted of arson, sexual assault or child abuse, he would not have been accepted. In his job, he helps registered and licensed practical nurses, other health care workers and a doctor.

The only major problems at Dooley House, said Troy, are medical; an ex-offender has never caused trouble.

“These kids are a spark,” Nichols said. “They lighten up your day.”

“When you see a child smile, that makes you smile,” said Michael Diggs, 21, convicted of robbery and still facing five months at Garrett House. “As long as I know I made them happy at one point in time, that they weren’t miserable throughout their entire life, I’ll be all right.”

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In a few days, Diggs and Nichols will return to the Dooley House living room, cluttered with books, dolls and Legos. But one of the children may have moved on.

“These guys are used to sudden changes,” Troy says. “Their whole life has been filled with that. The only difference here is that it’s probably more positive than anything that has ever happened in their life before.”