Wanting Contact: Advocacy group announces correspondence bill

Carrie Adams lived three streetlights away from her two children and did not see them for two years. Adams, originally from Palos Heights, a Chicago suburb, was one of several people gathered Sunday at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore to stand up for parents' rights. The people came from as far away as Sheboygan, Wis., as members of Project Prevent, an organization striving to join hundreds of advocacy groups across the country to fight for the same issue: families. In Sycamore on Sunday, the group announced a bill they hope to see passed called The Jake and Braidy Child's Right to Correspondence, named after Adams' two children, whom she hasn't seen in four years. If the bill were to pass, it would become the first federal law to give children the right to receive mail, e-mail or packages from a parent or grandparent, without interception. “We want the bill to be able to stand up for any child that will be separated from a parent or family member, and have in place the security of receiving any communication from that family member and maintaining a voice for those children,” Adams said. “It's imperative to keep those lines of communication open.” Along the sidewalks of the courthouse, members of Project Prevent talked about what they call injustices in the court system, sharing stories of court appearances they believe were skewed and discussing the emotional distress children have been through. The group decided to meet in Sycamore because of the downtown statue, whose inscription reads: “To the memory of the men who fought to preserve the union: ‘That the nation shall under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.'” “What is written on that statue says it all for us,” said Brian Fears, a member of Project Prevent. “It's supposed to be a country for the people, and if anything, it's in spite of the people. It's what we're all here for - for our families.” Adams wore a shirt with the drawings of her two children, now 17 and 14, and carried posters with phrases such as “Thinking of you” written on them. Recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, Adams has a new urgency to help others realize the severity of the current system and how it has damaged her relationship with her own children, she said. “We want to reunite the family again,” she said. “Children need a voice in these situations, and they need to be protected.”