Should parents who are locked up also be locked away from their kids?
If the answer is “no,” then how much time should incarcerated parents be permitted to have with their children—and how could they use that time?
With over one million parents behind bars, the question is critical for the long-term health of their children—estimated at between 1.5 million and 2.3 million, according to a recent study published in the Florida Law Review.
“The long-term impact of incarceration on children depends on a variety of factors, including their age,” said the authors of the study, entitled, The Intersection of Juvenile Justice and Early Childhood: How to Maximize Family Engagement.
The authors wrote that “separation due to parental incarceration can affect the attachment between parent and child, which has been linked to poor child outcomes, including poor peer relationships and cognitive abilities.”
According to figures cited in the study, the number of children with incarcerated parents has “risen sharply in the last decade.” The majority of the incarcerated parents are fathers, but the number of incarcerated mothers has more than doubled, said the authors.
The study focused on methods authorities can take to improve the quality of family engagement, which they defined as “the systemic inclusion of family in activities that promote children’s development and overall well-being, including the planning, structure, implementation and evaluation of these activities.”
For juvenile justice cases, the study’s authors said that family engagement differs from family involvement. In proceedings, family engagement means decision makers “listen to families as partners, while a justice organization that focuses on family involvement talks to families about proceedings or plans.”
In bringing families together Rutgers University–Camden provided a list of programs and opportunities for help.
Some programs are non government. They include religious nonprofits such as the non-profit Jewish organization, The Aleph Institute. Even the Girl Scouts have a program, which includes seeking to help parents and daughters participate in organized discussions about family life, conflict resolution, and violence and drug abuse prevention. Families take on leadership roles in Girl Scout activity planning and implementation, said the Scouts.
Programs administered by the Federal Bureau of Prisons include educating parents, teaching living skills, and providing literacy-building services at a number of institutions, wrote Rutgers–Camden.
But there are many other models.
Some programs have made headlines. The Middletown Press, a newspaper in Connecticut, reported on a program called Women Overcoming Recidivism Through Hard Work, or W.O.R.T.H. After a two-week orientation of the program, mentees choose a family member, teacher, or “other supportive person” for help. A counselor can share observations of a prisoner with the person chosen. The counselor and the chosen person can then offer feedback and brainstorm solutions, said the paper.
Under the program, a counselor can share observations of a prisoner with the person chosen. The counselor and the chosen person can then offer feedback and brainstorm solutions, said the paper.
Montana State Prison delivered a basic solution by increasing visitation days from two to four, with scheduling on a first-come basis and reservations required at least seven days prior, reported The Great Falls Tribune.
On its website, the YMCA lists a program in the Louisville, Ky. area called Y-NOW, which serves youth participants–ages 11-15–who live in the metro area and have at least one incarcerated parent. “Youth are referred into the free program by their family, school or others,” reported Louisville news outlet, 89.3 WFPL.
Building family engagement could start soon after birth. In many facilities, babies born to incarcerated pregnant mothers are taken away within 48 to 72 hours and sent to either a relative or foster care, but some prisons have changed their approach, NBC News reported.
In the Bedford Hills, N.Y., women’s prison, infants are allowed to remain with their mothers in a prison nursery until the infants reach one year–or even 18 months–of age. The nursery is separated from the general population. Each mom receives a cot and her own small cell, where she sleeps inches from her child’s crib.
The Florida Law Review study recommended a series of approaches other facilities could take to broaden family engagement. Recommendations included:
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- Creating more child-friendly environments inside prisons
- Supplementing in-person family interactions with video communications;
- Providing adequate legal representation and family involvement in the juvenile justice system
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However, efforts and recommendations to increase family interactions have attracted critics and reservations.
Video chats turned into business opportunities. Facilities have outsourced video chat services to corporations, and remote set-ups can carry fees of up to a dollar per minute (not including other expenses). After repeated communication with family in prison, cost could prove burdensome for users from low-income households.
Another criticism is the painful memories or trauma that may come from a prison upbringing, even if staff work hard to create nurturing environments for kids. Naomi Schaefer Riley is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where her work focuses on child welfare and foster care issues. In a 2019 piece in National Affairs, she wrote of a scenario in which a mother raises a child in a prison nursery, receives a longer sentence for violating prison rules, and then–rather than getting out close to the baby’s departure–is forced to part ways with the infant for the remainder of her sentence.
“Keep in mind that while they are in the prison nursery, they have almost no contact with any other adult like a father or grandmother–the people who are most likely to take them if they are forced to leave,” Riley said.
However, “For incarcerated youth who are parents themselves, in-person visitation with their children in a space conducive to play is vital to supporting family engagement during incarceration,” said the authors in the Florida Law Review article.
“Juvenile justice facilities often have policies and practices that can hinder quality visitation, including visits in large communal spaces or requiring the incarcerated parent to wear shackles during visitation,” said the article.
The authors cited a program called Just Beginning (JB), a structured visitation program aimed particularly at young fathers in juvenile and adult criminal justice facilities. The program “began in three counties in California in 2008 and has since expanded to 16 sites across six states.” It’s also available to mothers, said the study.
Evidence suggests that the program has had a productive impact, the study said.
The author’s quoted one teen father who admitted he had refused to see his son because “I couldn’t let my guard down to be a dad in regular visitation [areas].”
But, he added, “in the JB room I feel relaxed to play with him and make funny faces with him.”
The authors of the study were: Shani M. King, professor of law and director of the Center of Children and Families at the University of Florida Levin College of Law; Hannah Ayasse, Training and Development Coordinator at the Just Beginning Fatherhood Program at Georgetown University; Alyssa Mikytuck, MPP, researcher and PhD Candidate at Georgetown University; Rachel F. Barr, professor, infant cognition, co-director of Graduate Studies at Georgetown University; Jennifer F. Woodlard, associate professor of Developmental Studies, Community & Law at Georgetown University; and Terry Harrak, consultant at the Youth Law Center.
Brian Demo is a TCR news intern. Readers’ comments are welcome.
1 Comment
My husband is in the BOP facility at Butner North Carolina. The visitation room is one large room with hundreds of chairs that are sectioned in pairs, three in one set and 4 in a set and so forth. Children can visit but it is hard to hear and you cannot have any physical contact at all. Hugs can be given only at the front desk when you enter or exit. There are a few board games and toys children can be play with but they are in poor shape.. It is a cold and uninviting room. And as you put in your article it is very Trumatic experience for children. They have had in the past family days but in the last year they haven’t had anything for the men and their families other than regular visits . It is really hard for mothers of these children to have to take them and visit their fathers is such a cold place. It would be helpful if it was more inviting and if the guards were more kind and you were not scared to make the wrong move. I did like your article and I like what other facilities have done for the young fathers in other facilities.