The Koger-Harris Family
The Koger-Harris Family, living just outside the nation’s capital, has ample experience with the negative impact of incarceration on families. William Koger, the father, lives with his mother, Sandra Koger, and three boys – Isaiah, Demetri, and Dashawn. But it is the absence of the mother, Sherrie Harris, who was imprisoned at Hazelton Penitentiary, in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia beginning in 2006, that loomed over the household.
William took on the unexpected role of primary caregiver to the children, but he was in and out of jobs and in and out of prison himself. After being injured in a car accident, he was unemployed and often in pain. Sandra, the grandmother, also provided extensive care of the three boys, but the family was stretched financially and often unable to afford food or medicine. The children were emotionally scarred by their mother’s absence and sometimes withdrew into their shells or acted out. Only when pressed did they express their intense yearning for their mother to come home and provide them with the love they were missing.
In 2016, Sherrie Harris was released to a halfway house in Washington, DC and was allowed to visit with her boys on the weekends. However, the boys' grandmother and father were wary, in part because it is so difficult for returning citizens to find jobs and housing. Although Sherrie's homecoming was a moment of great joy for her children, the future of the family as a whole remained fluid and uncertain.
