Resources for Families
We hope that the following resources can be helpful for those with incarcerated loved ones.
The National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated
Located at Rutgers University, NRCCFI is the oldest and largest organization in the U.S. focused on children and families of the incarcerated and programs that serve them. They work to disseminate accurate and relevant information; guide the development of family strengthening policy and practice; train, prepare, and inspire those working in the field; and include the families in defining the issues and designing solutions.
See Us, Support Us: New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents
See Us, Support Us (SUSU) raises awareness about and increases support for children of incarcerated parents.
National Institute of Corrections (NIC): Resources for Children of Incarcerated Parents
The arrest of a parent can be traumatic for many children. These resources aim to help children cope with this loss and to maintain a relationship with their parent throughout their sentence.
Population Reference Bureau
A study conducted by sociologist Dr. Kristin Turney found that U.S. children of incarcerated parents are an extremely vulnerable group, and much more likely to have behavioral problems and physical and mental health conditions than their peers. Dr. Turney is She is also among a group of researchers using the Fragile Families and Wellbeing Study to understand the effects of incarceration on crucial aspects of child development, including parent-child relationships, school difficulties, and homelessness.
The Marshall Project: Families of the Incarcerated
Since 2014, The Marshall Project has been curating some of the best criminal justice reporting from around the web. In these records you will find the most recent and the most authoritative articles on the topics, people and events that are shaping the criminal justice conversation including content relevant to families of the incarcerated.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation: Parental Incarceration
Parental incarceration breaks up families — the building blocks of our communities and nation — and creates an unstable environment for kids that can have lasting effects on their development and well-being. The Annie E. Casey Foundation supports important research that furthers these conversations.
The Sentencing Project: Parents in Prison
This fact sheet provides key facts on parents in prison and policies that impede their ability to care for their children when released from prison.
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): Incarcerated Parents and Their Children
This report presents data from the 1997 Surveys of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities concerning inmates with children under the age of 18, whether or not inmates lived with their children prior to admission, and the children's current care givers.
Prison Policy Initiative - Both Sides of the Bars: How Mass Incarceration Punishes Families
This report shares results from the BJS's 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates, which revealed the ways in which prisons fail entire families — and society more broadly — by separating millions of children from their parents, and by enforcing harmful policies that perpetuate cycles of poverty and disadvantage.
Holt Miller Prisoner and Family Relationship Recidivism Study (1972)
The central finding of this research is that a strong and consistent positive relationship exists between parole success and maintaining strong family ties while in prison.
Boston Public Library: Reentry Resources for Returning Citizens, Their Families, and Loved Ones
This library guide contains information for individuals formally incarcerated or detained in county, state, or federal institutions, and are returning to or living in the state of Massachusetts.
Vera Institute of Justice: More Than 5 Million Children Have had an Incarcerated Parent
This page focuses more specifically on the numbers of incarcerated mothers and impact on their children.
The video below features Shaquille Mualimm-ak, from incarceratednationcampaign.org, who shares about his experience coping with having a parent behind bars. This video also includes an interview with and author and professor Alan Singer to discuss the causes and effects of having a parent incarcerated.
United States Department of Health and Human Services's report entitled "Incarceration and the Family: A Review of Research and Promising Approaches for Serving Fathers and Families" provides an overview of the current research underlying Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated Fathers and Their Partners (MFS-IP) and addresses issues concerning incarcerated men, their partner and parenting relationships, and the policies and programs that may assist them in their rehabilitation in prison and after release.
Summary Points
- The number of individuals involved in the criminal justice system is at a historic high. There are almost 2.3 million individuals in U.S. jails and prisons and more than 798,000 people on parole. It is estimated that 7,476,500 children have a parent who is in prison, in jail or under correctional supervision.
- Minority children are disproportionately affected by father imprisonment: In state prisons, 42% of fathers are African American, and African American children are seven and a half times more likely to have a parent in prison than white children (6.7% vs. 0.9%).
- Only 23% of state prisoners are married, but many are involved in intimate or co-parenting relationships.
- Father incarceration negatively affects family life. Spouses/partners face serious financial strains, social isolation and stigma, loneliness, and negative emotions such as anger and resentment.
- Children of incarcerated fathers also may experience numerous life stressors, including caregiver changes, increased poverty, and involvement with the child welfare system, in addition to the pain of parental separation. These stressors have been linked to increased rates of anxiety, depression, learning problems, and aggression.
- Fathers in prison face a host of problems that limit their ability to be successful at reentry including substance abuse, mental illness, low educational attainment, and poor employment histories.
- Most men plan to live with their families upon release, and those who report positive family and parenting relationships during reentry are less likely to recidivate. Family support services during incarceration and after release are an important strategy for increasing criminal desistance, yet family strengthening services are often a neglected aspect of rehabilitation.
- Marriage and relationship enhancement interventions in prison show promise in reducing negative interactions and in improving communication skills and relationship satisfaction.
- Findings from evaluations of parenting programs in prison also are encouraging: inmates involved in such programs indicate improved attitudes about the importance of fatherhood, increased parenting skills, and more frequent contact with their children.
- To be successful, family strengthening services for prisoners require coordination between criminal justice and human service agencies, which often have divergent goals and contrasting perspectives. Success is also tied to effective linkages between prisons and community partners.
- Obstacles to family strengthening efforts during incarceration and re-entry include distance between place of imprisonment and reentry community, difficulties in recruiting and retaining prisoners, inhospitable visiting rules, unsupportive extended family relations, and barriers to partner and child involvement such as transportation difficulties, busy schedules, and relationship strain.
- The evidence for marital partner education and parenting programs is just beginning to accumulate. This evidence is hampered by a lack of rigorous evaluation methods. Studies have rarely employed randomized controlled trials, which are the gold standard for program evaluation. Program assessments also have had limited follow-ups to assess the maintenance of behavioral change and frequently rely on non-standardized measures and self-reports to document change.
- Effective social policies are critical for reducing recidivism and decreasing the negative effects of incarceration on children and families.
RAND's report entitled "Programs for Incarcerated Parents" illustrates findings from a pilot study that explored the current landscape of prison-based programs for incarcerated parents and investigated the extent to which programs seek to mitigate the effects of policies and practices that disproportionately affect Black and Latinx families.
Key Findings
- Most facilities offer at least one program.
- Most programs appear to use nationally known — and, in some cases, researched-based — parenting interventions. Programs support parent well-being and nurture positive family relationships through parenting education; reading, writing, and literacy; and visitation supports.
- Few parenting programs offer reentry supports, direct supports for children, mental health supports, education and training, or legal supports; however, these services are commonly offered to residents at some correctional facilities.
- Most programs employ eligibility criteria to enroll parents, such as a child age requirement. Most administrators noted that programs are open to any caregivers.
- Programs meet relatively frequently, and nearly half of the programs surveyed meet one or more times per week.
- Besides program staff, classroom space and instructional or program-specific materials are the most-common resources used to support implementation.
- The most common funding source is facility discretionary funding. Most administrators reported that programs are implemented by facility staff.
- Administrators representing more than half of the programs reported that their programs supported gender and cultural responsiveness; however, strategies used for cultural responsivity were fairly limited.
- Survey respondents had overwhelmingly positive perceptions of the programs at their facilities and agreed that programs were successfully meeting objectives.
- The most commonly reported strength was the motivation of the participating parents. Other commonly reported strengths were effective resources, staff skills, and staff buy-in.
- Notably, the most common challenge was identical to the most common strength: lack of parent motivation. Other commonly cited challenges were staff burnout and limited funds.
- Facilities should consider adapting their program curricula to provide education that explicitly equips parents to address the unique social, emotional, and behavioral needs of their children, which might differ from those of children who are unaffected by incarceration.
- Facilities should explore the potential value of integrating parenting programs with reentry services, education and training, mental health supports, and legal supports to better prepare parents to reenter the community and contribute to the care of their families.
- Additional research should be conducted to explore the transferability of culturally responsive practices and sensitivity practices used in carceral settings, such as programs for incarcerated individuals and parents, given the limited set of culturally sensitive strategies implemented at the facilities in the sample and the scarcity of literature on developing culturally responsive programs for correctional populations.