The Responsible Fatherhood, Healthy Marriage and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Reentering Fathers and Their Partners (MFS-IP) initiative was established in 2006 by the federal Office of Family Assistance (OFA), and required grantees serve fathers who were either incarcerated or recently released, as well as their spouses or committed partners. The grantees were required to deliver services to support healthy marriage and were also permitted to provide activities designed to improve parenting and support economic stability. From 2006 to 2011, the 12 MFS-IP sites delivered a…
This fact sheet explains close to 2.7 million children have a parent in prison or jail, describes the increased risked faced by children of incarcerated parents, and highlights efforts by Reentry Council agencies to ensure children of incarcerated parents are not negatively impacted. Accomplishments of Reentry Council agencies are listed and include the development of materials for children about having an incarcerated parent and tips for caregivers on talking to children about incarceration, the establishment of an online consolidation of the federal resources available to support children…
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Journal Article Approximately one in four incarcerated male young offenders in the UK is an actual or expectant father. This paper reviews evidence on the effectiveness of parenting interventions for male young offenders. We conducted systematic searches across 20 databases and consulted experts. Twelve relevant evaluations were identified: 10 from the UK, of programmes for incarcerated young offenders, and two from the US, of programmes for young parolees. None used experimental methods or included a comparison group. They suggest that participants like the courses, find them useful, and the interventions…
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Journal Article The absence of a father figure has been linked to very poor developmental outcomes for the child. During incarceration, there are limited opportunities for visitation between fathers and their children. The Baby Elmo Program provides incarcerated teen fathers with parenting training and visitation with their children with the stated goal of enhancing father-child interactional quality. Forty-one incarcerated teen fathers and their infants ranging from 1 to 15 months of age participated in the present study. During individual sessions, a trained facilitator prepared fathers for visits with…
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This annotated bibliography focuses on quantitative research on the consequences of paternal and maternal incarceration for children that attempts to control for selection using standard statistical techniques, uses broadly representative data, and differentiates consequences of paternal incarceration from consequences of maternal incarceration. Although the bibliography focuses primarily on research in the United States, a small number of studies using data from European countries are also included. The first section includes descriptive work showing how common paternal and maternal…
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Journal Article The movement towards family focused justice emphasizes families, especially parents, as a critical component of juvenile offender rehabilitation, especially probation. However, there is a dearth of research on how probation officers involve the parents of juvenile offenders. This qualitative investigation attempts to fill that gap by exploring probation officers' practices with parents. Using a grounded theory approach, a conceptual model of the ideal parent of juvenile justice involved youth was developed. Probation officers explained that the ideal parent was able to support their child,…
This report summarizes both the research and stakeholder input shared during the Listening Session on Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents held in Washington, DC in September 2013. The session was organized by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in partnership with the White House Domestic Policy Council and Office of Public Engagement and included more than 40 participants. Participants included those from relevant government agencies and departments, individuals recognized by the White House in June 2013 as Champions of Change for…
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Journal Article More than 1.5 million children have a father in prison, yet little is known about what fathers experience as parents while detained. The author describes common issues that more than 250 fathers have raised during 4-week fathering groups at a federal holding facility. Issues center on their concerns about how to interact with their children and with the mother(s) of their children. Suggestions for work with the fathers and, by extension, their family members are discussed. (Author abstract)
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Journal Article High rates of imprisonment among American fathers have motivated an ongoing examination of incarceration's role in family life. A growing literature suggests that incarceration creates material and socioemotional challenges not only for prisoners and former prisoners but also for their families and communities. The authors examined the relationship between fathers' incarceration and one such challenge: the housing insecurity of the mothers of their children. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,125) and a series of longitudinal regression models, they found…
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Journal Article An estimated 1.5 million children have a parent held in a state or federal prison in the United States, an increase of more than half a million since 1991. Many of these children have disruptions in familial relationships such as growing up in foster care, with grandparents or other relatives, or moving around among an array of temporary caretakers. Incarcerated parents have few opportunities for parenting from the inside, and they worry about the impact of their separation on their children. Children of African American families are hit particularly hard. Nearly half the parents behind bars…
