by KEN HECHTMAN

Entering the St-Henri offices and facilities of Continuité familiale auprès des détenues (CFAD), the first impression is of a wrong turn into someone's loft apartment. The reception area is set up to look like a living room. Deliberately so, as the rest of the place follows the same informal theme.

CFAD, a community group that helps mothers and children caught up in the justice system, is a non-institutional organization for people who have spent far too much time in institutions. "We're not professionals and we don't want to be," says funding researcher Tracy Théberge. "We want to be people who help people. Most everyone here has been through the system. Once in a while we hire a skilled worker who hasn't but we try not to."

"We do trailer visits between children and their mothers in Tanguay [women's prison]," says Marvine MacFarlane, describing the range of their services. "We have a food bank and discount clothing bazaar - prices start at a nickel with nothing over a dollar - we teach job skills and training - "

CFAD's cook Carol Lee cuts in, "‘Who was your last employer?' ‘CFAD!' At least we have something to put on our résumé."

"We also run programs and activities to keep the kids off the streets" MacFarlane continues. "Arts and crafts, summer and winter camps, group outings for swimming, fishing, ice-skating. Anything to take their minds off the fact that mommy's in jail."

Her own responsibility is the music program, Courage in Music. "We see that from age 10 on, the kids get into the same problems as their parents. Music detours the mind of the restless child," MacFarlane says. "It gives them a sense of value."

The youngest band member, eight-year-old Alex Smart, has been the group's drummer for three years. He describes their repertoire as a mix of reggae, hip hop and popular music. Courage in Music plays four to five community shows a month; recent ones include Cry of the Congo, Jamaica Day and Haile Selassie's birthday. Their next show, at the Sala Rossa on August 8, is a benefit for CFAD and a commemoration of Prisoners' Justice Day (Aug. 10).

Prisoners' Justice Day is a worldwide event that began in Canada as a result of the deaths of two prisoners at Millhaven Prison in Kingston, Ontario, in 1974 and 1976. The prison guards had deactivated the emergency call buttons in the solitary cells, resulting in the bleeding death of Eddie Nalon on Aug. 10, 1974. Two years later, the call buttons had not been reconnected and Bobby Landers died after leaving a written description of the symptoms of a heart attack. On Aug. 10, prisoners around the world fast, refuse to do prison work and refuse to leave their cells. On the outside, prison reform and prison abolition activists mark the day with educational events. Other events this year include a free video night on Aug. 9 at Sala Rossa and a six-hour radio marathon on CKUT from 1–7 p.m., Aug. 10.

Rock Against Prisons benefit show, Friday Aug 8, 7:30pm at the Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent), $6-$10