WHO: Nancy P. Gardner, 61, Route 9, Clayton, has worked for 12 years as a volunteer at the Cape Vincent Correctional Facility and for two years at the Watertown Correctional Facility.

She and her husband, David M. Gardner, teach a Bible-based marriage and parenting program for men. Mrs. Gardner recently became an AmeriCorpsVISTA volunteer, which allows her to expand her work to other facilities and to meet with inmates' families.

Her aim for the next year is to find enough volunteers and in-kind donations to offer "Fatherhood: A Parenting Class for Men" at the Riverview, Ogdensburg, Gouverneur, Watertown and Cape Vincent correctional facilities.

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED? "Chaplain (Robert E.) Durham was the chaplain at Watertown and Cape Vincent at one point in time and he came around to the churches and spoke about the need of visiting in the prisons and volunteers in the prisons.

"Chaplain Durham mentioned there was a marriage and parenting group available at Cape Vincent. So we went to Watertown and we tried it for a couple nights and we really loved doing it. We've been doing it since July of '96."

WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT IT WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED? "It's a Bible-based program; it's through the Protestant ministries. We show videos from like Dr. (James) Dobson, who is a big Focus on the Family person, and Assemblies of God 'Dad's Coaching Clinic,' and then we have a movie, 'A Vow To Cherish.' We show the videos and the movies and we discuss everything that's in them.

"I just loved the feedback we get during the classes. As a volunteer I cannot have feedback after they leave the facility, but I can during the classes, and we run the classes for 10 weeks."

WHAT HAS BEEN SOME OF THE FEEDBACK? "I gave them an assignment to write a letter home to each of their children, telling them what they thought about them.

"One man raised his hand and said, 'I only write to their mother and she says dad loves ya.' And he basically wrote the letters home to each child and came in tears the next week and said, 'They love me.'

"And he had in his hand letters from each of his children. Of course I had to cry. My husband was kind of weepy. But something as simple as that made a huge difference in their lives."

DID YOU HAVE ANY RESERVATIONS ABOUT GOING INTO THE PRISONS? "The very first night I went into Cape Vincent — I've never had it happen since — they had a fire drill. This alarm started going off, and I'm looking, 'Where do I hide, where do I run, what do I do?'

"The inmates looked at me and they saw me panicking, my eyes must have gotten real big and wide, and they said, 'It's just a fire drill.' We all had to go out in the yard and they all had to be counted and we went back into the class and had a great class.

"That was my introduction to going into the prisons."

HOW MANY MEN HAVE YOU WORKED WITH OVER THE YEARS? "Wow — 1,200 people. I'm amazed. If even half of them changed their lives, that's 600 people who have changed their lives. We know of people who have gotten custody of their children because our diploma was in their files. People who have never written to their kids have written to their kids for the first time."

WHAT DID YOU HAVE TO DO TO BECOME A VISTA MEMBER? "Basically I went to an all-week convention, and we had morning and afternoon lectures and discussions on the rules and regulations of VISTA. We're full-time volunteers. I work 40 hours a week, but I'm still a volunteer."

WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY DO NOW? "I have a federal grant (of $12,800). My grant says that I will train the volunteers to do this program and I will assess the visiting centers and the hospitality centers and upgrade them for children ages 4 to 10."

WHAT'S THE GOAL? "Number one would be to lower the recidivism rates. If these inmates have a deeper and closer contact with their children and have deeper family ties, it's expected they would not be back in, or the percentages would be down."

WHAT DO YOU HOPE HAPPENS AT THE END OF THIS YEAR? "I would really like to see this whole thing up and running, by itself; that there's enough volunteers so that my supervisors have no extra work.

"There should be roughly maybe 70 to 75 men that have been through this program and have a better chance of not coming back to this facility. I would like to see the word spread about this program so that other people are signing up.

"I would like to see lives changed, I really would."

If you know someone who would be a good subject for a Times Q&A, contact Rachael Hanley at rhanley@wdt.net.