GIG HARBOR, Wash. — Markel Tramble will be 4 years old in July, so he’s not really sure where he goes to visit his mother once a week.
He doesn’t really care, because he’s having fun. ”It’s been a long time coming. Honestly, it’s a fun place now,” said Markel’s mother, Leslie Tramble.
Starting this month, they’re meeting in a newly renovated playroom, thanks to donations from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and Olympia’s Hands On Children’s Museum.
Tramble is serving 39-month sentence at the Washington Corrections Center for Women near Gig Harbor for a 2023 domestic violence conviction.
Once a week, she gets to visit with Markel.
”To actually be able to play, actually take it upon himself to have fun, while he visits his mother, there’s nothing more you could ask for,” said Tramble.
Deputy Corrections Secretary Sean Murphy called the new interactive play area “bridges of hope,” offering opportunities for family member to bond while a relative is serving time.
“They’re designed to bring families together to create moments of joy and normalcy in the midst of what could be perceived as very, very difficult circumstances on a family,” said Murphy.
He said incarcerated parents are 11 times less likely to re-offend if they “actively engage” with family members during visits.
A similarly renovated visitation area opened at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen earlier this year, and another is scheduled to host visitors at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center this summer.
The state hopes to have Imagination Libraries in all eleven state prisons eventually, according to a Department of Corrections spokesperson.