News on the Site and in the Field

Here you will find the latest updates from this site and in the field including the following:

New! Rutgers University, Camden, NJ offers one of the first college credit courses on Children of the Incarcerated in the Country
New! 2 Funds for College Scholarships for Those Impacted by Crime: Children of the Incarcerated and Children of Victims of Crime
New! The Bill of Rights for Children of Incarcerated Parents Technical Assistance Project-Contextual Factors
Call for Stories from Children of Incarcerated Parents
Call for Papers Focusing on Incarcerated Mothers from Demeter Press
Child Welfare and Policy News
Pennsylvania Resources
Resources for Service Providers
International News
College and Children of the Incarcerated

Click on any of the above links for more information. Jump down for even more current news.

New! Rutgers University, Camden, NJ offers one of the first college credit courses on Children of the Incarcerated in the Country

50:202:356:Sec.A2:85138 ATG 123
5/29-6/21 M,Tu,W,Th 10:50am-1:30pm
This course provides a framework for understanding and responding to the needs of children and families of the incarcerated, focusing on emerging best practices in systems that serve them such as Corrections, Education, and Child Welfare. It will examine the impact of parental incarceration on children at various ages in the context of current studies on brain development, trauma, toxic stress, attachment and resilience theories. Includes discussion of the impact of race, culture, family dynamics and coping styles in families impacted by the criminal justice system.
http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/Academics/summer/ccas.html#202

New! 2 Funds for College Scholarships for Those Impacted by Crime: Children of the Incarcerated and Children of Victims of Crime

Peanut Scholarship Fund at Southern Illinois at Carbondale

http://ccj.siuc.edu/waystoGive.html
The Peanut Scholarship Fund: This fund was established to assist a good student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale who has financial difficulty because one or both parents have been involved in crime. This includes parents who are incarcerated or who because of being victims of crime are unable to provide financial support. The fund recognizes the nickname of a young man in this situation.

Children Impacted by crime Scholarships

New! The Bill of Rights for Children of Incarcerated Parents Technical Assistance Project-Contextual Factors.

Click here to read this paper by Susan D. Phillips, Ph.D., addressing contextual factors of this project including differences in rates of prison expansion, prison population size and rate of incarceration, rate of parental incarceration and indicators of child well-being.

Call for Stories from Children of Incarcerated Parents

Are you an adult who experienced the incarceration of a parent as a child? Are you interested in sharing your story, in your own words, with others? Children of Incarcerated Parents (CIP) is editing a book of life stories by adults who had a parent in jail and/or prison when they were growing up. The book will describe adult perspectives on parental incarceration. This will not be a book ABOUT children of incarcerated parents, it will be a book BY adults who experienced the incarceration of a parent as children.
There is no requirement that you have ever lived with your incarcerated parent or that you have had an active relationship with your parent who has been in jail or prison.
CIP is also interested in those who are the second generation of incarcerated people. They will provide you with editorial assistance to help you write the story you want to tell. Written work can be sent electronically or by mail.

If you are interested in sharing your story and participating in this important project, please email or write CIP at:

cipstories@gmail.com

Denise Johnston
Box 41-286
Eagle Rock, California 90041

Call for Papers on Incarcerated Mothers

Demeter Press is seeking submissions for an edited collection titled “Criminalized Mothers: Criminalizing Motherhood”, co-edited by Joanne Minaker and Bryan Hogeveen. There is very little information available about the effects of parental incarceration from the point of view of adult children. This book could help guide future research, policy and practice by opening a window onto a wider variety of experiences of parental incarceration than we typically have available to us. The call for papers is focused on incarcerated mothers

For details, click here.

Child Welfare and Policy News

A recent report issued by the US Government Accountability Office entitled: “CHILD WELFARE- More Information and Collaboration Could Promote Ties Between Foster Care Children and Their Incarcerated Parents” (September 2011) recommends that child welfare agencies across the country offer training and resources to Child welfare practitioners. This report suggests that child welfare agency staff need tools that will assist them in 1.) Identifying the children with incarcerated parents who are or come into, their systems; 2.) Implementing strategies for collaboration, communication, visitation and reunification that will promote ties between children and their incarcerated parents; and 3.) Providing clear and realistic guidelines and protocols for understanding and managing barriers to reunification for this population.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation has a new publication – “When a Parent is Incarcerated: A Primer for Social Workers ( 2011.) is a primer thats goal is to provide relevant and practi¬cal information for public child welfare agencies and social workers when working with incarcerated parents.
New Jersey’s Department of Youth and Family Services has created a comprehensive training for Child welfare workers statewide. “The Impact of Parental Incarceration on Children in the Child Welfare System” (November 2011) was written by NRCCFI Director Ann Adalist-Estrin, and has been delivered through the new Jersey Child Welfare Partnership to approximately 200 Child welfare workers in new Jersey since December 2011.
Ann Adalist-Estrin is in the early stages of planning adaptations of this curriculum for 3 other states. See Training and TA for more information.

Pennsylvania Resources

Miss America tells lawmakers to look to ease hurt for children of jailed parents (Metro Philadelphia, Feb 10, 2012). The glitz of pageantry and the grit of prisons represent two separate worlds that are seemingly irreconcilable. But this year’s Miss America, Lauren Kaeppeler of Kenosha, Wisc., was in Philadelphia on Thursday to unite the two. Kaeppeler appeared at City Hall with the Pennsylvania Prison Society to help present a report, “The Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children.” Her own father served 12 months in a federal penitentiary for mail fraud when she was 17, and she competed on the platform of helping children with incarcerated parents. “No matter the crime, no matter the reason your parents are in prison, children feel the same,” she said, recounting how embarrassed and isolated she and her sisters, aged 11 and 14 at the time, felt. The report, generated by a joint state government committee see link below) makes concrete recommendations to help remedy some of those emotions for children in the 100,000 households with incarcerated parents in Pennsylvania. The state’s prison population has increased 535 percent over the past 30 years. Visit this resource here.
The Effect s of Parental Incarceration on Children: Needs and Responsive Services is a Report to the Advisory Committee, Joint State Government Commission for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Dec 2011, 152 page) which can be found by clicking here.

Resources for Services Providers

Caring for children when a parent is arrested: A guide to legal options & resources (by Gail Smith, Attorney at Law, Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers , 2011). This 46 page booklet is written simply and provides an overview of key issues for arrested parents including short-term guardianship, school enrollment, ending guardianship, fathers’ custody, foster care and other relevant information. For more information, click here.

International News

Chinese Heart Association International Conference on the Families of the Incarcerated

The Chinese Red Heart Association is a non-profit organization in Taiwan (R.O.C) serving families of the incarcerated that has helped more than 4,000 families since beginning in 1089. CRHA wants to know the strategies other organizations in different countries have developed to deal with the specific challenges families face when their loved ones are in prison. They believe exchange of experiences can bring new motivations to this field worth more concern but often overlooked in Taiwan.

CHRA plans to hold an International Conference on the Families of the Incarcerated in September 2012. Academics and professionals paying close attention to the situations of families of the incarcerated will be invited to participate in discussion. The goal is to gain an understanding of available services – such as clients and particular experiences influencing your service model.

CHRA recently mailed invitations to related organizations in U. S. A., Hong Kong, and Singapore. Due to finding that their Chinese website was insufficient, they recently updated it with English version (http://www.redheart.org.tw//index.php?code=list&ids=32), whose content comprehensively introduces the history, mission, and service achievements of the Department of Services to the Families of the Incarcerated in Chinese Red Heart Association.

For detailed information of the International Conference on the Families of the Incarcerated click here.

Next Generation

Next Generation consolidates the results of work by many research and service organizations across Australia and incorporates VACRO’s experience in providing services and support to the families and children of offenders in Victoria. Their paper, Next Genration on the Outside, proposes a coordinated framework for work by many stakeholders that will improve responses to the needs of children and families of offenders.

If you would like further information about Next Generation or to discuss VACRO’s work in this area, please contact:

Mary-Ann Robinson,
Manager, Research and Development
mrobinson@vacro.org.au

Report on the UN Day of Discussion

The report of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s 2011 Day of General Discussion (DGD) on the theme ‘children of incarcerated parents’ has now finished. The Day was a great success, with 200 participants (the largest number ever) and detailed discussions on the issues in this first-ever major international gathering on the issue.

Below are a few updates since the Day was held at the end of September, including webcasting, what’s next and exhibition. If you have any questions or want to get in touch, please email them at childrenofprisoners@quno.ch.

Webcasting

The Day was webcast and the videos are now available to view online. The meeting took place in two working groups (to cover all the variety of issues related to parental incarceration), which were broadcast separately. The links are below.

Opening plenary, Working Group 1 (Babies and children living with or visiting a parent in prison) and closing plenary session
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnCYl5FMPjE&feature=g-upl
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B37lLSkyhuc&feature=g-upl
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUsfjR5n89E&feature=g-upl
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnCYl5FMPjE&feature=g-upl
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV0NuFft_rg&feature=g-upl

The first contribution in Part 1 is in French, afterwards contributions are in English. Each video is about 1 hour long.

Please note that the sound quality is very poor until 5 minutes into Part 2. Contributions are all translated into English. Videos vary in length between 4 minutes and 35 minutes.

What’s next?

The Committee on the Rights of the Child is currently drafting its report of the DGD, which is expected to be presented at its forthcoming (Jan-Feb 2012) session. It will detail the main points and recommendations from the Day, as well as describe any next steps the Committee proposes to take. Members of the NGO Working Group on children of incarcerated parents are hoping to meet with the Committee at that session to discuss progress and ways of helping them to take forward this issue. We will keep you updated of these developments.

The Quaker UN Office is producing its own synthesis from the Day, drawing together the relevant points and good practice that came out during the discussions and in the written submissions received before the Day. This should be ready in early 2012 and we will let you know when it is ready.

Exhibition

People who came to Geneva for the Day of General Discussion may remember the ‘Collateral Convicts’ exhibition that accompanied the DGD and which described children’s experiences of having a parent in prison. Several participants at the DGD asked if they could borrow it to use in their home regions and we are happy to announce that we can lend it out. Because the panels are very large and therefore expensive to transport, we are encouraging people in the first instance to use the electronic files of the exhibition to get their own hard copies of the exhibition produced, or alternatively to project the panels electronically. If you are interested in doing this and would like to receive the electronic files, please get in touch at childrenofprisoners@quno.ch. Also, if you want to borrow the original panels, please contact us and we can discuss possibilities.

College and Children of the Incarcerated

The college application process can be daunting, but even more than that is the prospect of paying for the ever-rising costs of higher education. At the National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated, the third most common request is for information on scholarships for children with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated parents (CIPs). We have been unable to provide very many specific resources for CIPs and their families. This is primarily because there are few organizations that provide scholarships for this specific segment of students preparing to or attending higher educational institutions. Read more here.

More Current News …

International News: UN Day of Discussion, International Symposium, New Website and Study, and the 2012 International Study Week/Seminar for Children of Prisoners
New Report: Safeguarding NY’s Children of Incarcerated Parents
NYC Premiere of Mothers of Bedford
Family Justice Program Publication: Setting an Agenda for Family-focused Justice Reform
Blog of Interest - Immigrant Children of Incarcerated Parents
A Resource for Caregivers – Difficult Questions Children Ask, and Answers that Can Help: A Caregiver’s Guide
NRCCFI Special Project – Visiting and How to Get There: A Survey of Program Models Offering Transportation for Prison Visiting

International News: UN Day of Discussion, International Symposium, New Website and Study, and the 2012 International Study Week/Seminar for Children of Prisoners

UN day of discussion on children of incarcerated parents is taking place in Geneva on Sept 30. FCN was part of the petitioning committee that worked to have Children of the Incarcerated be the focus of this year’s day of discussion in the committee on the rights of the child. The deadline for submitting written items is August 5. For more info, visit the following link: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/discussion2011.htm.
Save the Date! FCN will be collaborating with the Chinese Red Heart Association – a non-profit organization in Taiwan serving families of the incarcerated – as they host an International Symposium on Children of the Incarcerated on Sept 13-14 2012 in Taipei. The purpose of this symposium is to become the cradle of new ideas and understand more about international services (such as clients and particular experiences influencing various service models). FCN Executive Director, Ann Adalist-Estrin will be presenting on Responding to the Needs of Children and Families of the Incarcerated in the US. For an English version of their website, visit http://www.redheart.org.tw/index.php?code=list&ids=32. More info to come.
Pillars in New Zealand has a new web site for children of the incarcerated as well as a 2010 follow up report on their 2009 study on CIPs http://www.pillars.org.nz/.
Wells of Hope will present an International Study Week/Seminar on Children of Prisoners on June 4-9th, 2012 in Kampala, Uganda. This study week/seminar will discuss and jointly develop an Action Agenda for Children Whose Parents Are in Prison, while promoting friendship, solidarity, and one spirit among people serving vulnerable children whose parents are in prison from all over the world. The week includes visiting remote villages and isolated peoples – especially grandmothers – who care for the children of their children in prison. For more information, visit them online at www.wellsofhope.net.

Safeguarding NY’s Children of Incarcerated Parents

Check out this new report from the Osborne Association’s New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents, here.

NYC Premiere of Mothers of Bedford

When: Thursday, June 30, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Maysles Cinema, 343 Malcolm X Blvd/ Lenox Ave (Between 127th & 128th Streets
Visit here to see the trailer.

Family Justice Program Publication: Setting an Agenda for Family-focused Justice Reform

Vera Institute of Justice is pleased to announce a Family Justice Program publication titled, “Setting an Agenda for Family-focused Justice Reform” with the help of FCN and other organizations with like-minded goals. You may also be interested in a guest blog by Chris Wildeman from Yale commenting on the report.

First Focus Blog – Uniting Our Voices for Immigrant Children of Incarcerated Parents

For more information and resources, visit First Focus.

Arizona Family Members Behind Bars: Difficult Questions Children Ask, and Answers that Can Help: A Caregiver’s Guide to Arizona’s Criminal Justice System from Arrest to Release

This guide, from Kare Family Center of the Arizona’s Children Association, Pima Prevention Partnership, and the AZ Stars Collaboration – is newly available in both English and Spanish, along with an accompanying Activity Packet. Visit our Products and Publications, Available from Our Partners page for more info.

Visiting and How to Get There: A Survey of Program Models Offering Transportation for Prison Visiting

By Dee Ann Newell Policy Forum Writer and Eva DeLair Special Projects Coordinator, NRCCFI

“at the time of my incarceration […] the receiving prison was located about 2 hours from my home but there was no direct bus transportation to the prison. Each time my mother attempted to bring my son to prison she had to get a ride and that was not easy, she had to depend on the kindness of others, even when offering to pay their expenses getting to prison was a hassle.” -Anonymous

Strong family ties during imprisonment can have a positive impact on people returning from prison and on their children. Some research suggests that parenting programs in prison reduce recidivism, improving the chances of successful re-entry. People returning home from prison who have access to family support fare better than those who do not on a range of re-entry outcomes. Read More =>

For past news, visit our Archived News page.

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The National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated at Family & Corrections Network

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