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                                    Resources
                                    Resources By Area of Practice
                                    Topics In Corrections
                                    Children of Incarcerated Parents

      

                    
          
    Children of Incarcerated Parents
The arrest of a parent can be traumatic for many children. As noted in a comprehensive review of research on children with incarcerated parents, “The arrest and removal of a mother or father from a child’s life forces that child to confront emotional, social and economic consequences that may trigger behavior problems, poor outcomes in school and a disruption or severance of the relationship with the incarcerated parent that may persist even after the parent is released from prison.” (Hairston 2007)
                   NIC Resources
          Communicating with Families and Children in Correctional Facilities; Part 2
          Communicating with Families and Children in Correctional Facilities [Webinar]
          Model Practices for Parents in Prisons and Jails: Reducing Barriers to Family Connections
          Promising and Innovative Practices for Children of Incarcerated Parents: [Webinar]
          Video Visiting in Corrections: Benefits, Limitations, and Implementation Considerations

  Related NIC Microsites
          Family Strengthening Project

The goal of the Family Strengthening Project is to develop training materials and implement evidence-informed, model policies that can be adopted by local jails and state prisons to reduce the traumatic impact of parental incarceration on children and improve reentry outcomes for parents.

Learn more about reducing harm when a parent is incarcerated

Topic Categories and Resources
The following grey bars are accordions that can be expanded to show a list of "top-shelf" resources that have been hand-picked by our library team around this topic. If you would like additional research assistance on this topic, please contact our help desk. They have access to specialized databases and thousands of resources you won't find online. Click on a grey box below to browse resources in that section.
            
      Accordion    Research
      
      Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents

            
      
This Listening Session allowed juvenile justice professionals, families, and allies to share their expertise and experiences regarding the mentoring of children of incarcerated parents.
              Children with Incarcerated Parents - Considering Children's Outcomes in the Context of Complex Family Experiences

            
      
“This issue examines the needs of children with incarcerated parents. These children are often overlooked in our schools, clinics, and social service settings. As noted in many ways throughout the article, this is not a homogeneous group - the experiences of these children are varied and changing
  
      Theory-Based Multimodal Parenting Intervention for Incarcerated Parents and Their Children (2019)
              Addressing the Needs of Incarcerated Mothers and Their Children in Illinois (February 2020)
              Hidden Consequences: The Impact Of Incarceration On Dependent Children (2017)
              Attachment in Young Children with Incarcerated Fathers (2017)
              Parent-Child Visiting Practices in Prisons and Jails (2017)
              Mental Health of Adolescents with Currently and Formerly Incarcerated Parents (2016)
              An Exploratory Study Examining Risk Communication among Adolescent Children, Their Incarcerated Mothers, and Their Caregivers (2016)
              Coping With Confinement: Adolescents' Experiences with Parental Incarceration (2014)
              Characteristics and Effects of the Co-parenting Alliance between Incarcerated Parents and Child Caregivers (2014)
              Impact of Family-Inclusive Case Management on Reentry Outcomes: Interim Report on the Safer Return Demonstration Evaluation (2011)
              Accordion    Policy
      
      Safeguarding Children of Arrested Parents

            
      
"Law enforcement agencies will find the information contained in this document highly instructive as they seek to enhance their policies and procedures and gain understanding about the trauma children experience when law enforcement carries out its investigative and arrest responsibilities." This
  
      Child Support and Reentry (2021)
              Accordion    Programs
      
      Toolkit for Developing Family-Focused Jail Programs

            
      
"Through no fault of their own, millions of children have been exposed to and affected by the criminal justice system by witnessing their parent being arrested, by seeing their parent in court, or by visiting their parent in jail or prison. Indeed, many of the thousands of adult men and women who
              Prison Parenting Programs: Resources for Parenting Instructors in Prisons and Jails

            
      
This is a great resource for those correctional educators wanting to improve or start parenting programs. "The resources in this handbook are grouped according to the predominant focus of the program. Those programs comprised of several components are listed in the Multi-Faceted Programs section" (p
  
      Reading Unites Families: An Interactive Literacy Program for Incarcerated Fathers and Their Children (2015)
              Directory of Programs Serving Children & Families of the Incarcerated
              Accordion    Statistics
      
      Parents Behind Bars: What Happens to Their Children?

            
      
"Children do not often figure in discussions of incarceration, but new research finds more than five million U.S. children have had at least one parent in prison at one time or another-about three times higher than earlier estimates that included only children with a parent currently incarcerated"
              Parents in State Prisons

            
      
“Today, the parents of 1 in every 50 children in the United States are in prison. 1 Over half of those parents are serving time for non-violent offenses.2 The gains in public safety benefits stemming from incarcerating a record number of parents are dubious, but the potential adverse consequences
              Accordion    Resources
      
      Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration

            
      
Accession Number
              027415

            Sesame Workshop's initiative, Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration, provides much-needed bilingual (English/Spanish) multimedia tools for families with young children (ages 3-8) who have an incarcerated parent. These FREE resources include a resource kit with A Guide for Parents and
              Stronger Together

            
      
Accession Number
              027981

            This collection of handbooks is an excellent resource for anyone who cares for or works with children who have incarcerated parents. These “handbooks include information, tools, and resources, as well as vignettes and quotes to illustrate real-life examples. They are written for a diverse and broad
              How To Explain A Parent's Arrest To A Child

            
      
These four pocket-sized cards are wonderful tools to remind law enforcement staff about the impacts on a child whose parents are being arrested or incarcerated. Sections of each card explain: child's perception of arrest; what to say; how children might act and how you should respond; and when
              Children in Foster Care with Parents in Federal Prison: A Toolkit for Child Welfare Agencies, Federal Prisons, and Residential Reentry Centers

            
      
“The purpose of this toolkit is to help facilitate communication and cooperation between child welfare agencies and federal prisons so that parents can stay engaged in their children’s lives” (p. 3). This toolkit contains: FAQS (frequently asked questions) for Social Workers; FAQS for Unit Teams
  
      FindHelp.org by Aunt Bertha
              The National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated
              The Changing Nature of Correctional Visitation Can Video Visitation Provide the Same Benefits as In-Person Visits? (2016)
              Mentoring for Children of Incarcerated Parents (2016)
              Why Children With Parents in Prison Are Especially Burdened (2015)
              Reentry MythBusters: Children of Incarcerated Parents Series (2013)
              Accordion    Family Strengthening Project
      
            Family Strengthening Project

The purpose of this cooperative agreement is to develop low-cost high-impact family strengthening policies that can be implemented in local jails and state prisons; including developing training materials with an implementation strategy for training correctional institutions about the model policies. Model policies should be based on existing research, promising practice, and guidance from experts from both the correctional and child welfare communities.

The project objectives include the following:

Identify a committee of subject matter experts for children of incarcerated parents that can represent correctional and child welfare communities and can be utilized as experts throughout the project.
	Develop a national model of family strengthening policies that can be adopted and implemented by local jails and state prisons; Model policies may include, but are not limited to: assessment and referral for incarcerated parents visiting policies and procedures; visiting room and waiting room environments; parenting and related programming offered in correctional facilities; family reunification and reentry planning; child development training for staff; and accessing community-based services.
	Develop training materials that will inform correctional policy and practice in local jails and state prisons to include implementation strategies;
	Provide training and Technical Assistance;
	Design and execute an implementation evaluation protocol to track implementation of model policies and initial process outcomes; and
	Design an evaluation protocol to track implementation of model policies and outcomes.Learn More Here

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