Prisons Need ‘Child-Friendly’ Facilities for Incarcerated Parents:
Study
Crime
Report: 7.05.2019 by Brian Demo
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.
“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 by the authors, the number of children with at least one
parent incarcerated has ”risen sharply” over the past decade. The majority of
the incarcerated parents are fathers, but the number of incarcerated mothers
has more than doubled.
The
researchers 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.”
Accordingly,
authorities should treat families as “partners,” involving them as a unit in
all justice processes, the researchers said.
The
researchers provided a list of programs that
they said serve as models of engagement for families of the incarcerated.
The
programs included religious nonprofits such as the non-profit Jewish
organization, The Aleph Institute. Even the Girl Scouts has 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.
Programs
administered by the federal Bureau of Prisons include education to parents,
teaching living skills, and literacy-building services at a number of
institutions. READ
MORE >>
Prison
2016: Highlights-US PIAAC Survey of
Incarcerated Adults: Their Skills, Work Experience, Education, and
Training, NCES Number:
2016040
2013: Evaluating the Effectiveness of
Correctional Education, Rand
2013: Saving Futures, Saving Dollars: The
Impact of Education on Crime Reduction and Earnings; Alliance
for Excellent Education
2011: Correctional Education, OVAE
2010: Prison Count, PEW
2009: One in 31: The Long Reach of American
Corrections, PEW
2006: Locked Up Locked Out: Educational
Perspective on US Prison Population, ETS
2003: Literacy Behind Bars, NAAL 2003
2003: Education And Correctional
Populations, BJS
1994: Literacy Behind Prison Walls, NCES
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