Families and Service Providers Respond to Recommendations
In response to the proposed recommendations by CSG, a series of focus groups and town hall-style meetings were convened by NRCCFI in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, California and Illinois. Focus groups included incarcerated parents, formerly incarcerated women, youth affected by parental incarceration, caregivers, family members and service providers. These are their responses; most were incorporated into the final version of the CSG Action Plan.
Response to Research on Children of the Incarcerated
The following comments from focus group participants suggest the tone and scope of their responses to the recommendations. Responses follow the quotations.
“Research needs to look at what is working within families that are coping well and not just what is breaking down.” —Adult child of incarcerated father
“Mentoring programs are great, but so are visiting programs that include transportation and counseling, and if we only evaluate mentoring programs—even if they show tremendous results—how do we know that the visiting programs wouldn’t yield the same or better child outcomes?” —Service Provider
“One study asked my child, “Did you ever wish you had a different parent?” Now, who hasn’t wished that? But for my child this increased upset, made him cry all night and wet the bed for the first time in 4 years. This type of question just isn’t right to ask children dealing with parents in prison.” —Caregiver of an 8-year-old child of incarcerated mother.
- Policymakers should advocate for research but should also take care to study variations in life circumstances for these families; do not limit research to people in public systems.
- Evaluate a variety of programs and do not let biases against maintaining connections between children and their incarcerated parents influence funding and policy decisions about what types of programs get evaluated.
- Carefully evaluate the potential for research protocols to inadvertently cause harm: They should not increase stigma, decrease willingness to be honest or interfere with access to supports.
- Evaluate the effect of training (on the specific needs and concerns of children of the incarcerated) of program staff and volunteers on program effectiveness and child outcomes.
- Conduct research on the unique challenges experienced by caregivers of children with a parent in prison, as well as the effectiveness of existing services designed to address these challenges.
- Conduct studies (not yet done) on the presence and role of trauma, stigma and shame in the lives of these families.
Response to Sharing of Information: Coordination across Service Systems
- Provide incentives to encourage effective information-sharing among agencies that may already collect relevant data on children of incarcerated parents; and include guidelines that insure the confidentiality of children and families as well as to protect incarcerated parents.
- Establish a navigator system across programs that are accessible to a broad array of caregivers in contact with the criminal justice system.
