Corrections_Today_May_June_2020_Vol.82_No.3

ACA’s General Session

To date, his son has yet to be found, but hundreds of other children have been rescued fol- lowing his disappearance. But the boy’s father wasn’t the only one to give these children a home. When Ballard told his wife about the brother and sister in the compound, especially the girl, who Ballard called “[his] hero,” his wife immediately declared that she wanted to adopt them. “I can’t deny what I feel,” Katherine told Bal- lard. “I want to be their mother.” After three years of working through Haiti’s adoption system, Ballard and Katherine were able to bring Coline and Colin Ballard to the U.S. Bal- lard also showed the audience a video of him and his wife picking the siblings up in Haiti and intro- ducing them to their six other children in America. Katherine would also go on to start Children Need Families (CNF), an organization to assist orphanages and adoption agencies find homes for children by offering grant subsidiaries to help with the cost involved with the adoption process. Since the founding, they have found homes for 33 Haitian children, and will continue to adopt more by partnering OUR and CNF.

Afterwards, Ballard opened the floor for a Q&A portion. Here, he spoke about the connections that OUR and corrections professionals can form, primarily through organizations that put a focus on the healing and aftercare of trafficking victims. He noted that female prison populations are increasing and can include women who were arrested and in- carcerated for prostitution even though they were trafficking victims. “You have credibility,” Ballard said of the audi- ence. “You are the best evangelizers for the cause because you know it’s real. You see it up close and personal. Your voice is a powerful voice in the world to spread the message.” After he finished, President Mohr returned to the stage to call Ballard “a true American hero,” and one of the most powerful speakers they’ve seen at an ACA conference. He and ACA Execu- tive Director James A. Gondles Jr. thanked Ballard and all the sponsors of the General Session before dismissing the audience. For more information about Operation Under- ground Railroad, visit ourrescue.org. For more information about Children Need Families, visit cnfnow.org. — Alexander Carrigan

78 — May/June 2020 Corrections Today