An Inmate's Daughter

In the summer between 7th and 8th grade, Jenna MacDonald does the dumbest thing ever. She tries to save a little girl from drowning. Jenna's family has a secret and her mother wants it kept. Jenna's father is in prison for murder. "Prison reflects on wives and children," Mom says. Keeping the fact of prison secret is made more difficult when the newspaper runs a story about Jenna's "Good Samaritan" rescue at the McNeil Island Corrections Center. Mom is mad, and Jenna just wants to fit in. "He may be in prison, but he's still my dad," Jenna says. As she writes in her journal, the children of prisoners are doing time too.

Like more than two million children in the United States, Jenna and her brother struggle with the stigma, loss, separation, and shame of having a parent in prison. This heart-warming story shows what it's like to be one of the innocent victims.