MA'ALAEA, Maui — Having spent the past six years in prison, Terrence Vasquez was a near stranger to his 10-year-old daughter, Tiara, when they joined the Maui Community Correctional Center's No Na Kamali'i program for incarcerated dads and their children.

The program's parenting classes and weekly play groups restored their father-daughter bond, and the two were inseparable yesterday during an outing to the Maui Ocean Center aquarium.

"Now we're so close," said Vasquez, 36, of Kula, who is serving a 20-year sentence for manslaughter in connection with a traffic death.

Tiara, a slender, energetic girl, said she enjoys her weekly visits with her father and has a long list of activities planned for when he gets out that includes fishing, camping, movies, picnics and family nights.

Six inmate dads and their 14 children participated in the supervised excursion, the first such field trip for No Na Kamali'i, a partnership between the Maui jail, Neighborhood Place of Wailuku, the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center, the Keiki O Ka 'Aina Program and the Hui Malama Learning Center.

Vasquez, who spent five years of his sentence in an Oklahoma prison, was clearly touched to be able to share a day out with his daughter. Phone calls and letters were the only contact he had with her while on the Mainland. "I saw her spell her first words in crayon and then saw her spelling whole sentences, and now she's such a good reader," he said.

A total of 42 fathers have enrolled in the 10-week program since its inception in June 2004. It is open to inmates who have earned "community status" through good behavior and demonstrated interest in self-improvement. They meet twice a week for parenting and literacy classes, and on Thursdays spend two hours in a play group with their children.

Venus Rosete-Hill of Neighborhood Place said studies show that inmates who maintain close ties with their children are more successful after their release, and that the kids do better, too.

"Hopefully, the program prevents the revolving door," she said. "It also makes the men more confident as parents and relieves the anxiety some feel while in jail" because they are absent fathers.

Paea Tasini, 30, of Lahaina, is serving a one-year term for a probation violation stemming from a marijuana case. He said he spends much of the time during regular family visits at the jail talking with his wife, but the weekly play group sessions allow him to focus on 3-year-old twins Paea Jr. and Victoria Ann and 18-month-old Tui.

"I feel like I still have my family and that I'm still close to them," Tasini said. "It takes more than half of the bitterness away from having to do jail time."

Noah Mariano, 24, of Moloka'i, serving a one-year term for robbery, said the No Na Kamali'i program is teaching him to be a better parent and to understand what his 4-year-old son Keola wants: "a father's attention."

"It's made me see how valuable my son is and how valuable it is being a father to him. It's really important."

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.