This Best Practices Tool-Kit aims to systematically identify empirical evidence regarding prison programs and practices for incarcerated parents and their children. It highlights several practices and program strategies that are proven, promising or exemplary best practices and provides references for more extensive reading, if desired. The objective of the tool kit is to offer a sound evidence base that will better inform policymakers, practitioners and researchers on prison programs and practices geared toward building the parental skills of incarcerated parents. (Author abstract)
Brief
The two papers summarized in this brief examined theeffects of incarceration on the labor market outcomes of married and unmarried fathers. Consistent with previous research, researchers find strong evidence that spending time in prison reduces the likelihood of work and the level of earnings and wages. These findings are consistent with earlier studies which generally report a 10 to 30 percent lossin annual earnings and a 25 to 30 percent reduction in the probability of working associated with imprisonment. (Author abstract, modified)
We examine the consequences of incarceration for non-resident White, Latino, and African American fathers' contact with children and their formal and informal child support agreements. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we found that fathers' current incarceration presented serious obstacles to maintaining contact with children and interfered with the establishment of informal financial support agreements with mothers. Recent and past incarceration were strongly and negatively associated with how often non-Latino White fathers saw their children, while having a…
Brief
This brief uses both quantitative and qualitative data to examine how risk factors such as physical abuse, substance abuse, and incarceration are related to father involvement and relationship status among unmarried couples. The authors also examine how parents' relationship status and quality mediate the association between fathers' risk behaviors and involvement with children.
This paper examines the consequences of incarceration for non-resident White, Latino, and African American fathers' contact with children and their formal and informal child support agreements three years after the child's birth. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, fathers' current incarceration is found to present serious obstacles to maintaining contact with children, as well as to interfere with the establishment of informal but not formal financial support agreements with mothers. The effects of past incarceration, however, vary significantly by race and…
The populations targeted by the Healthy Marriage Initiative and the Serious and Violent Offender Re-entry Initiative (SVORI) and other reentry programs can overlap considerably. The majority of incarcerated individuals are parents, and of these, roughly a quarter are married and 46 percent were living with their children and presumably their child's mother at the time of their arrest. Marital, cohabiting and parent-child relationships are at especially high risk of disruption when parents are involved in the criminal justice system. For those who want to continue their family relationships,…