Michael Burton views baby photos with inmate Kelley Coles. (Clay Jackson Photo)
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Michael Burton views baby photos with inmate Kelley Coles. (Clay Jackson Photo)
By BRENDA S. EDWARDS
brenda@amnews.com
SOUTH FORK - Michael Burton shuttles babies.
He transports babies from Angel House in Casey County to Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women in Pewee Valley to visit their mothers who are incarcerated there.
When Burton, 56, pulls his van into the parking lot at the prison, the babies are usually crying and hungry from the 2 1/2-hour drive, and the mothers gather in the chapel to get reacquainted with their children.
Burton likes his job. He makes sure he gets the babies to the facility on time so they can spend two full hours with their mothers once a week. He also helps carry the babies into the prison.
Burton has been shuttling babies more than 14 years from Angel House to halfway houses and women's prisons across the state. He's on the road most weekdays with a van full of infants and volunteers who help with the babies.
The babies are cared for by volunteers at Angel House, part of the Galilean Home ministries operated by Jerry and Sandy Tucker.
Burton's major role is to pick up infants shortly after birth at the hospital, take them to Angel House, then transport them weekly to prisons to see their moms.
"I usually put the baby in the arms of their mother the first time at the prison," said Burton.
Recalls taking 23 babies
Burton recalls when he was taking 23 babies under the age of 2 to the federal prison in Lexington to visit their mothers. But those numbers have decreased, and now only a few are transported there.
Burton's longest trip was to Canada to get the baby of a mother imprisoned for a crime in the United States.
"Her mother had the baby in Toronto, Canada, and was willing to give up the baby and let her come with me. Hope (Burton's wife) and I drove to Toronto in the middle of winter. We had no paperwork nor proof of who we were. The mother gave us the baby and a box of clothes, and we came back to Kentucky with the baby."
They baby stayed at Angel House until the mother got out of prison.
He also has picked up infants or delivered them back to their moms in prisons in Connecticut, West Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia and Mississippi.
Most of the time he takes a helper along.
"Sometimes I pick up the baby myself," said Burton of the newborns in hospitals. He gets the armband from the mother and matches it to the baby at the hospital, then heads for the Angel House.
"I try to feed and change the baby before I leave the hospital, but I have had to stop four or five times on the way home if the baby needs me. On a normal day, the transport goes without a hitch. They send me because I can do this by myself."
Fourteen babies right now
Angel House currently has 14 babies. Most are transported to see their mothers in the Pewee Valley facility, but a few babies are kept for women in county detention centers or on house arrest. The infants stay at Angel House from three to six months until the mothers get situated, he said.
Burton is a former teacher at the Galilean Home but says this job is more enjoyable. "Its rewarding and a challenge."
The rewards come when former Angel House babies grow up and write appreciation letters or visit the facility.
"One boy who was two days old when we got him is now 13," said Burton. "He grew up with my sons and was like a brother. We visit him in Missouri on his birthday and holidays. He plans a visit here this summer."
Another boy who came to the Galilean Home when he was 4 years old and stayed until he was 10 called the house while he was in the Air Force in Colorado.
Of the more than 500 babies that have stayed at Angel House, there have been five sets of twins, and only one child who was left behind.
Burton brought the baby to Angel House when he was two days old. His mother got out of prison when he was 6 months old but never contacted the home.
"The child is 11 years old now and calls Jerry and Sandy Tucker Mom and Dad, and all the kids here are his brothers and sisters. He is a normal child and will be here until he is 18 years old."