Illinois has operated without a state budget for nine months. This means some things are getting paid for. And others - aren’t. Today, a story of three generations of one family who are impacted by the lack of a state budget. Illinois Public Radio’s Tony Arnold reports.
Pearl Mullen is a grandmother. And for two years, she’s been taking care of two of her 15 grandkids. When the 8-year-old sees his mom, Mullen says she can’t pull him away.
MULLEN: He just don’t know what to do. He can’t sit still. Mom. He pulls on her. He hugs her. He jumps on her. I have to calm him down. It’s almost like he’s gift-wrapping her, taking her back with us.
That joyful description Mullen told me about that the first time I talked to her around Thanksgiving. I’ve kept in touch with Mullen for four months, which was the last time her grandson saw his mom. Mullen’s daughter, the mom of the eight year old, is in prison three hours away downstate.
Once a month Mullen and her grandchildren would ride a bus that took Chicago kids to see their incarcerated mothers. It also helped moms stay connected to their kids. But that bus Mullen told me about at Thanksgiving it went away. The buses stopped because the state stopped paying a non-profit called Lutheran Social Services.
I checked in with Mullen last month - and she told me the older son’s behavior had changed.
MULLEN: He whines. He wants to eat when he’s not hungry. You know, and I know he’s depressed.
More recently he started doing what kids do. Asking why. Why is there no more bus? Which puts Mullen on the spot to explain what’s happening in Springfield.
MULLEN: I told my grandson like this: That sometimes money runs out of things and they have to wait to build back up. So he kinda understands like, “Grandma, is the money building back up?” It’s a fun way to tell him. “Yeah, I think they’re building the money.”
Actually - the state is not building the money. But someone else is. A couple groups around Chicago recently decided if the state won’t do it, they will. Holly Krig is with Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration. She says for one bus ride - it’s about 17 hundred dollars. And so far they've raised enough money for a bus ride for 55 people to the Logan Correctional Center right before Mother’s Day.
KRIG: Everybody’s gotta understand how crucial this is and what the generational impact when people aren’t able to maintain those crucial bonds between incarcerated parents and their children.
Krig says it’s in the government’s interest to keep the family bond, regardless of what moms did to be in prison. But fundraising isn’t easy. She’s worried about raising enough money for buses during the summer break, when kids are out of school. All three generations of the Mullen family are excited for at least one more bus trip.
MULLEN: I get up, I don’t care how I feel because that day, I know that day I’m going to visit and take her children. That means the world to me.
Mullen says until her daughter is out on parole next year, it’s important for her to be with her family. Because the bus program isn’t just for the children. It’s to remind parents someone is there waiting for them to get out.