Children of Prisoners: Innocent and At Risk

It is estimated that 1.7 million children in the United States have a father or mother behind prison bars. Even though these children have done nothing wrong, they are frequently stigmatized by shame, poverty and family instability. As a result, these children often suffer poor school performance and behavioral and emotional problems.

When I left for prison, my 5-year-old daughter didn't understand any of the legal aspects. All she knew was that one day I was there and the next day I disappeared from her life. She felt abandoned.

Children of Incarcerated Parents: An Action Plan for Federal Policymakers is a report just released by the Council of State Governments (CSG) that suggests several modest and common sense policy changes that would increase family contacts during incarceration and reverse unreasonable corrections practices that do great harm to the families and in particular the most vulnerable -- the children of prisoners.

Evidence shows that maintaining the child-parent relationship during a parent's incarceration improves a child's emotional development and their behavior, and will help keep him or her from following their parent to prison. Yet, many prison policies make it difficult for family members to maintain contact with an incarcerated relative. Just two of these policies make clear the barriers put in the way of family connections. First, most offenders are sent to prisons far from their family -- 60 percent of incarcerated parents are housed more than 100 miles away from their previous residence. Second, for families who are too far from the prison to visit in person, telephone calls are a lifeline. Yet, the prisons charge exorbitant rates for these phone calls. You and I can make a collect call for 10-cents-per-minute. Most prisons charge inmate families 10 times that -- $1 a minute. And this huge financial burden is placed on those who can least afford it, families of prisoners. They are gouging the poorest of the poor.

My wife sent me my children's homework, and I would review it with them on the phone. Gail also sent me the Box Car Kids books that they were reading in school so that I could discuss the stories with them. This kept me included in their everyday lives, even though we were 1,700 miles apart. At today's phone rates we couldn't afford those calls now, cutting off a meaningful and special way of communicating between children and their incarcerated parent.

The CSG report is a practical guide that will be very useful for corrections officials, legislators and advocates for children and families. It recommends several reasonable changes in policies that will limit the harm done to children with parents in prison, and prepare the children to become vibrant, contributing members of society when they grow up. Here are some of the important recommendations:

• Place parents in prisons as close as possible to their family and no more than 100 miles from their children
• Limit telephone charges to the actual cost of the calls
• Increase visiting hours and make visitation policies more "user friendly" with reasonable hours, protection from the elements and sanitary facilities available
• Reverse the policy under the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) which often terminates the parents' relationship with their children while they are incarcerated.
• Ensure that needed health care is available to the children of prisoners

It is important to remember that it is not just government that should reach out and help the children of the incarcerated. Community groups should insure that these children are not left out of programs and activities. Several churches in the Southern California area have established the Get on the Bus program which takes children to see their incarcerated parents on Mothers Day and Fathers Day. What a blessing it is for the children to see their parents - and it is a blessing for the parents as well to hold and hug their sweet children, whom they would never see without the program. Tears of joy flow from the momemt the buses arrive until they depart. There is a similar program in New York State.

Prison Fellowship has a long-standing commitment to children of incarcerated parents. For 27 years, it has supported families of incarcerated parents through its Angel Tree program, including Christmas gifts, camping and mentoring opportunities. The program links children of prisoners with a local church congregation to help break the intergenerational cycle of crime and bring reconciliation and hope to families separated by incarceration.

Since 1982, Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree has delivered Christmas gifts to more than 8 million prisoners' children nationwide, provided camping experiences to some 40,000 children of prisoners, and mentored some 5,000 prisoners' children. Each of the children touched by the Angel Tree program knows that they are special and that they are loved unconditionally by many people, That goes a long way to overconming the stigma of having a parent in prison.

It is important that these reforms be implemented in each of the state prison systems as well as in federal prisons. Justice Fellowship, the criminal justice reform program of Prison Fellowship, will work closely with the Council of State Governments to encourage state and federal policy makers to implement these policies and make a priority of meeting the needs of these oft-neglected children.

Read the Council of State Governments Report
Find out more about Angel Tree
Become an advocate for criminal justice reform
Find out more about the impact of prison on families
Learn more about Get on the Bus

 

 

Follow Pat Nolan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/justicereform

Comments

[gwhit]

You make some valuable points, but ignore two of the glaring issues:

1. If you don't want to be separated from your children and forcing them to grow up without you- don't commit a crime that sends you to prison. Generally if you commit a small crime or a less serious crime you end up in a county facility close to home. Typically, only those who commit larger offenses (felonies, etc) are sent to state or federal lock-ups far away.

2. The money from inmate family phone calls goes to support prison operations- medical care, facility expenses, recidivism programs, etc. that would otherwise not get covered. Prison budgets are shrinking at the same time as prison populations are growing. Income from inmate phone calls reduces the burdens on the tax payer for the expenses created by the inmates. Why should they not have to help cover some of the expenses they incur? Why should the taxpayer bear all the expense for their criminal activities?

[GPBilly]

"Typically, only those who commit larger offenses (felonies, etc) are sent to state or federal lock-ups far away."

Typically most local facilities farm out a significant portion of their population. These placements are often several hundred miles away and don't have anything to do with the crime committed.

Many of these problems become a chicken and the egg scenario. While many who sympathize with the children of the incarcerated agree that the "taxpayer (shouldn't) bear all the expense for (sic) their criminal activities" we also know that a strong connection between parent and family leads to less risk of recidivism for the adult and less chance of offense for the child. The question you should ask is "Does the taxpayer want their children to bear the expense of these childrens' criminal activity" or worse, become a victim of their crime.

Successful re-entry, through best practices like these, is what will ultimately lower tax rates.

[Pat Nolan - Huffpost Blogger]

Obviously, if the offender had thougt of many issues they probably wouldn't have committed the crime. But we are facing a situation in which the parent has committed a crime and the children are innocent. Do we visit the sins of the parents onto the children? That just isn't right. We need to limit the damage done to these children so that they can lead priductive, law-abiding lives as adults.
As for the phone calls, we are not asking that they be free, but that the state merely charge what the calls cost. The burden of paying for the programs you mention should not fall on the families of the inamtes - which is who is paying for them right now through the surcharges on the phone calls.