Children of Incarcerated Parents

July 25, 2011 Rachel Bachman and LaShawn Jackson Bachman&Jackson2011

Quiz   How many of the 1,518,535 estimated prisoners in the United States are parents?

 809,800 prisoners are parents (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008).

   In 2007, it was estimated that 12,600 of the 22,864 adult prisoners were parents.

The number of incarcerated mothers has increased by 131% from 1991-2007.

• 1991: 29,500 2007: 65,600 The number of children with a father in prison has grown by 77%.

Approximately how many minors have at least one parent in either state or federal prison?

 1,706,600 minors have at least one parent in prison.

Quiz  What is the average age of children with incarcerated parents?

 The average age is 8 (Mumola, 2000).

 What percent of prisoners have contact with their children during their sentence?

  Over half report no visit (Mumola, 2000).

40% of mothers and 60% of fathers report no weekly contact of any kind (phone calls, visits, or letters) (Mumola, 2000).

 What percent of a family’s monthly income is spent on staying in contact with incarcerated family members?

  Christian (2005) and Christian, Mellow, & Thomas (2006), found that families in the Bronx spent approximately 15% of their monthly income to maintain contact with an incarcerated family member.

Prisoner initiated collect calls cost the receiver three times more than calls from a pay phone, and five to ten times more than a call from a residential phone (Hairston, 1998).

Quiz   As of 2007, what was the racial/ethnic breakdown of all mothers in the nation’s prisons?

 48% of all mothers were white   28% of all mothers were black 17% of all mothers were Hispanic  (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008) As of 2007, what was the racial/ethnic breakdown of all fathers in the nation’s prisons?

   More than 4 in 10 fathers were black 3 in 10 fathers were white 2 in 10 fathers were Hispanic

Definitions



Federal Prison:

When someone has broken a federal law. 71% of federal inmates have sentences longer than 5 years.



State Prison:

Are usually for felony convictions and sentences are typically more than one year.



Jail:

Locally operated to confine a person before or after adjudication, typically for misdemeanors; sentences are usually one year or less.

When a parent is arrested

 There is no requirement that any institution or agency inquire about a child’s existence or any process for tracking their whereabouts when a parent is imprisoned.

 Most police departments do not have a formal process for children when their parents are arrested. Some are left home alone, some are put into a police car themselves, still others return to an empty home and are not notified of their parents arrest.

Maintaining Contact with an Incarcerated Parent

    Writing letters is the most common method of staying in touch.

Phone contact from prisons is expensive and limited. o Travel costs associated with visiting a parent in prison are high.

In 2004, 62% of parents in a state correctional facility and 84% of parents in a federal correctional facility were housed more than 100 miles from their place of residence at arrest (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008).

Children must abide the restrictions of the prison.

 “It’s got a lot of doors you can’t open. There’s this desk with two guards. They call us over. And you can hug him [dad] and go and sit down. You can’t get up, but if say you had to go to the bathroom, you can’t go back in there” (Nesmith & Ruhland, 2008).

“It wasn’t safe there because there were a lot of people who just looked like real bad and this and that. There was a lot of arguing with other people.”

Caregivers

 Children’s current caregiver while parent is in state prison:   Other parent: 84.2% Grandparent: 15.1%   Other relatives: 6.2% Foster home or agency: 2.9%  Friends, other: 2.9% “I don’t really have anybody to look up to. I have nobody to follow in their footsteps.”

Children’s Experiences

Invisible Children documentary:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqFXxvAdQZ4

Attachment Style and Children

 Types of attachment  Secure/Autonomous     Insecure Anxious Avoidant Disorganized Study conducted by Poehlmann (2005) found that 63% of children had insecure attachment representations of their incarcerated mothers and similar proportion had insecure attachment representations of caregivers

Prison Nurseries

 9 Programs exist in 8 states in the United States including California, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Washington, and West Virginia (wpaonline.org)

Internalizing Behaviors

  Internalizing behavior in children is classified as the internal psychological world that exists within the child (Poehlmann et al., 2008) Internalized Behavior includes:  Depression  Anxiety  Inhibited communication  Withdrawn “ They bully me, say nasty things. I don’t let them know I care, but sometimes I cry on the way home.” (Boswell, 2002)

Internalizing Behaviors

 Children’s anxiety following parental arrest can be influenced by trauma during parental arrest, uncertainty during trial, and children losing sense of control due to parents removal from the family (Murray & Murray, 2010)

Behavioral Outcomes Before Parental Incarceration   Many exposed to or experienced physical, sexual, or verbal abuse before parental incarceration Children use verbal and physical aggression as well as sexual acting out as a way to deal with the violence they were exposed to.  “Sandra did crack to deal with the violence, but that didn’t solve nothing. Sandra believes that’s also why her son got into snorting cocaine—to get the nerve to come in the house and fight his daddy. Her son thought nobody could hurt him when he was high” (DeHart & Alexandrer, 2009).

Externalizing Behaviors School Counselors May Identify             Reactions to social stigma Post Traumatic Stress Depression Aggressive/Violent Behavior Defiance Risky behaviors Rebellious behavior Delinquency Withdrawal Regression School performance problems Joining gangs “We all struggle with our identity. Will we become our parent behind bars? Is being a criminal part of who we are?” –Anonymous, 15

Opposing Views on Behavioral Outcomes

 Child’s home environment while parent is in prison is a greater predictor of antisocial behavior.

 Hanlon et al. (2005) studied 88 children of incarcerated addict mothers and found that 86% reported passing grades in school and 31% denied being involved in deviant activities. Those that were involved in delinquent activity primarily were charged for minor property crime or theft.

What School Counselors Need to Know

1 .

Warning Signs 2 .

Legal Issues 3 .

Community resources 4 .

Interventions

How Schools Can Help



Schools should:

 Seek to identify students with incarcerated parents.

 Have professional development for school personnel to educate them about the specific issues of those students.

 Build connections with community agencies.

Role of a School Counselor

         Advocate for child’s best interests.

Become a stable adult presence in their life.

Reduce the stigma of incarceration in the school community.

Connect students and caregivers with community resources.

Increase protective factors.

Improve resiliency.

Start a group if there are multiple students with incarcerated students in your school.

Be aware of the financial restrictions on maintaining parental contact and help when possible and appropriate.

Work with students to prepare for parent’s release.

Ethics

 Respect student’s privacy and confidentiality.

 Developmental and cultural sensitivity.

 Reframing from favoritism.

  “I guess some caseworkers assume your mom is a bad person when they hear she’s incarcerated. But they should keep an open mind and remember that every child has only one mother, one father. The ones we’re given are special to us, even if we can’t live with them, even if they’re not perfect.” –Anonymous Awareness of personal values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

Legal Considerations

Custody/Guardianship

  Be aware of who has rights to information about the student.

State Custody if in foster care.

 Sometimes parents still retain educational decision making rights.

 Foster parents generally have limited rights.

Kinship Care

 Education Affidavit must be submitted each year which provides help in school enrollment and allows a caregiver to make the full range of education decisions for the child. The parent or legal guardian does retain final say.

 Child may be eligible for benefits such as food stamps, cash assistance, social security, or medical assistance. (People’s Law Library of MD)

Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)

 Passed in 1997 in an effort to avoid long stays in foster care.  Mandates that states initiate parental rights termination when a child has been in foster care for 15 of the past 22 months.

 Once parental rights are terminated, the parent has no rights to find out anything about their child, including if they are adopted. Source: Sherry, 2010

Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), cont.

 ASFA criticized for:    Not only punishing parents for their crimes, but punishing children by taking them permanently away from parents (Sherry, 2010).

It is nearly impossible for incarcerated parents to complete the case plan that could help them retain parental rights.

Placing a timeline on termination without creating an equal mandate of assistance or support programs.

 Judging parental fitness on only time spent away, not including any other factors or examining what is truly in the best interests of the child.

 “All the system saw was a drug addicted mother. “We don’t want this baby to be affected by this drug addicted mother. The baby could do better without her.” They wanted to protect little Ahmad. Why didn’t they care about his mother? My mother was abusive to herself, not to Ahmad. Ahmad ate. Ahmad had clothes. Ahmad had love. But the system associated her abuse of herself with abuse of me. Were they right to do that? No. What would have helped me most is compassion for my mom.” Ahmad, 21 

Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (P.L. 110-351)  Signed into law on October 7, 2008  Subsidized Guardianship Payments for Relatives  Promoting permanent families  Notice to Relatives When Children Enter Foster Care  Kinship Navigator Programs

Community Resources

Mentoring Programs

 Function to:  Provide a consistent adult presence and friend.

   Advocate for youth in court settings.

When appropriate, support the relationship with the incarcerated parent.

Connect with community support systems.

     Staying Connected Center for Children, Inc.

Institute for Interactive Instruction US Dream Academy Big Brothers/Big Sisters

Support, Visitation & Outreach Programs

   Family Contacts and Reintegration Committee  Examining policies and procedures Girl Scouts Beyond Bars   Incarcerated mothers have twice monthly troop meetings.

Help paroled mothers become positive role models Fathers in Prison Working with Children  Fathers create monthly reading days for their kids.

Children of Incarcerated Parents Bill of Rights



http://www.fcnetwork.

org/billofrights.pdf

Interventions

     Group Therapy Opportunity to lessen stigma Bibliotherapy Provides child with relevant information Individual Therapy Story Stem Narrative therapy Mentoring programs “When I started, I felt I had no one to talk to. In less than three months of going to weekly therapy sessions, I learned how to open up to a stranger; how not to blame myself for what people did to me. I learned not to blame myself for my brother’s passing away—I was doing everything I could to help him. I learned to deal with problems instead of running away from them; and I learned to figure out who I want in my life instead of just keeping anyone around because I want someone to be there for me.” -Teresa, 17, mother incarcerated since age 4

Interventions

   Successful interventions account for possible differences in gender, developmental stages, and cultural factors.

Support Groups  Provides a safe environment to share feelings and experiences  Based on a grief and loss model that is therapeutic and didactic Using Choice Theory as a theoretical framework   Learn to understand positive and negative consequences in decision making Learn how to listen, accept, negotiate and compromise “ I think there should be a program to help kids cope with the fact that their mother is arrested. Therapy, to see how the child is feeling and let them know what’s going. I know I needed something” –Shana, 19

Conclusions

 Further research is needed on how to best meet the specific needs of this population.

 Advocating for improved services and visitation programs where appropriate.

 Research indicates that one of the most important things for a child is to establish a stable and caring relationship with an adult.