The information gathered during the intake phase at the outset of a person's incarceration should provide a template of needs and strengths in managing family relationships. (See Policy Statement 8, Development of Intake Procedure.) Corrections staff should collaborate with staff of social service agencies (including fatherhood and child-support programs) to develop programming and services at the prison to address a broad range of family issues and responsibilities. These may include the challenges faced not only by incarcerated mothers and fathers, but also those of inmates in other care-giving roles, such as those individuals who care for sick or aging friends or relatives. Corrections administrators may find it useful to seek input from and explore strengths of incarcerated caregivers who may lend support for mentoring or other programming efforts.

Enhancing parenting practices and the family environment is the most effective and enduring strategy for combating juvenile delinquency and behavioral, social, and emotional problems. The likelihood that youth will develop delinquency problems increases as family risk factors increase relative to protective factors. (See sidebar, Family Risk and Protective Factors Affecting Youth Development.)

Administrators should develop or reexamine and revise existing parenting programs within the correctional facility to address these factors. Parenting classes should include information on child development and parent-child interactions to help parents better understand their role in their children's emotional and intellectual development. For individuals with a history of violence or sex offenses, or when assessment determines a risk that participating individuals will commit such offenses, classes should specifically consider the impact of parental physical or sexual abuse on children. Programs should address the different child-rearing issues of mothers and fathers, single parents, and stepparents. Parents of all types need to learn how to more effectively manage their children's behavior at various ages and how to intervene when problems occur. While a number of parenting programs address the care of infants and young children, few focus adequately on issues involving teens or young adults. Parenting programs in prisons and jails should be based upon research-based programs that include development of parenting skills specific to the developmental stage of the child; mentoring and support that increase the parent's sense of mastery and confidence; didactic instruction combined with group practice; individualized follow-up tailored to the specific needs of the family; supervised practice with the child; and involvement of the whole family. ^[2]  

Programming should also be expanded to address broader family roles and responsibilities, such as attending to elderly or other dependent family members and developing interventions that build and maintain those relationships. Caring for family members over varying ages may raise a host of additional issues that need to be assessed, such as health and mental health, education, elder homecare, transportation, and recreational programs.

Additionally, programs should offer anger management or other domestic violence classes to inmates with a history of family violence. The evaluation of family violence history should explore whether there are successful strategies that the family has used in the past to curtail violence so that programming can build on those approaches.

Example: Family and Fatherhood Program, McNeil Island Corrections Center (WA)

The program promotes positive family relationships and helps incarcerated men learn skills to be active and involved fathers. A Family Dynamics educational program deals with family relationships and responsibility. Participants look back at their roots and childhood to learn how to deal with family members in a positive manner. A violence prevention element is also included in this program to help participants learn to utilize other techniques and skills in dealing with stressful situations. The curriculum currently being used is "Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and Communities: A Violence Prevention Parent Training Program."

Parenting programs should also address child-support responsibilities, as they do in Indiana, Missouri, and other jurisdictions. ^[3]   To help fund these programs, state child-support agencies could draw on their federal performance incentive payments-payments made by the federal government to state child-support agencies based on program performance in five areas (paternity establishment, order establishment, collections on current support, collections on arrears, and cost-effectiveness). ^[4]   State child-support agencies could also use federal grants specifically designated to support and facilitate noncustodial parents' access to and visitation of their children, including parenting classes, development of parenting plans, and visitation drop-off centers. ^[5]  

Programming should be careful to address cultural issues particular to raising black and Hispanic children and acknowledge differences among individual families within cultural groups. Nearly half of all incarcerated parents are black, about a quarter are white, and as many as 19 percent of state and 30 percent of federal prisoners are Hispanic. ^[6]   Aggressive recruiting of staff that can identify with the language, background, and experience of inmates with parenting issues-or at least thoughtful, culturally conscious training for existing staff-may be needed to make a meaningful impact on prisoners with parenting issues. Whenever possible, programs should include approaches for tapping the skills of inmates who have demonstrated good parenting skills or other care-giving experience. For example, inmates can be trained to serve as peer mentors or facilitators of discussion groups.

While not all families or family members will wish to be involved in helping the offender to prepare for re-entry, programs should be designed to foster their involvement at any juncture in the incarceration or re-entry period. Corrections administrators should make information about the process easily accessible and provide referrals to services for family members who may be uncertain about whether they want to have contact with the offender during incarceration or upon his or her release. In some cases, lack of contact with family or other supportive social networks may serve as an indicator of an individual's need for services or programming to promote pro-social behavior or to build interpersonal skills. In other cases, such as for individuals with a history of victimization by family members, there may be good reasons to avoid contact. Corrections staff or staff of partner organizations should gather information and assess individuals and their families to determine such needs, ideally at intake to the facility. (See Policy Statement 8, Development of Intake Procedure, for more on conducting such assessments; see Policy Statement 14, Behaviors and Attitudes, for information on programming options to build interpersonal skills.)

Corrections administrators should also ensure that staff (or partners from family service agencies and other organizations) provide follow-up for prisoners at risk of losing custody of their children or other dependents. Corrections or community-based organization staff should develop a comprehensive understanding of the implications of a period of incarceration on custody and other child welfare regulations, in order to help parents anticipate and address issues that may arise during the course of their incarceration. (See Epilogue to Part II, Integration into the Community, for more on barriers to family reunification.)

In addition, policymakers should promote cross-training and other initiatives to educate child welfare and family services organization staff about the challenges of parenting from prison and jail and to engage the support of these organizations in providing services to ensure the best outcomes for prisoners and their children. To help children stay connected to incarcerated parents, child welfare agencies should develop policies which encourage stable kinship care placements. Further, incarcerated parents should be given a fair opportunity to participate in permanency planning and judicial proceedings. (See Policy Statement 3, Incorporating Re-Entry into Organizations' Missions and Work Plans, and Policy Statement 34, Children and Family Systems, for more on engaging and understanding family service agencies.)