Resources from the former CWLA Federal Resource Center for Children of Prisoners:

How to Develop Parent/Child Programs that Work*

Basic Policies

• Visiting schedules. Children and their incarcerated parents should be permitted to have, at minimum, weekly visits. Visiting schedules should be flexible and permit weekday, weekend, and evening visits.
  
   
• Special visits. Opportunities for extended visits (daylong or overnight) involving incarcerated parents, children, and other family members should be provided.
  
   
• Permission and escorts. Written permission from children's mothers should not be required for children to visit their incarcerated parents. Persons who are allowed to accompany a child on a visit should include an adult on the prisoner's visiting list or an adult in an official capacity such as the child's social worker.
  
   
• Children's visiting areas. Child-centered, supervised areas should be established and maintained in all prisons. Toys, books, games, and other activities appropriate for children of different ages should be provided.
  
   
• Parent support services. Parent education, parent support groups, and family counseling should be made available to prisoners. These services should be provided by social services staff who are professionally prepared in the social and behavioral sciences and who are knowledgeable about family dynamics. Both corrections staff and staff of community agencies are appropriate service providers.

Examples of Corrections Programs

• FamilyWorks' Children's Centers at Sing Sing and Woodbourne Correctional Facilities in New York hosted more than 6,000 visits last year for incarcerated parents and their children in a cozy, child-oriented setting staffed by trained program participants, under the supervision of FamilyWorks staff.
  
   
• The Read-to-Me Program encourages offenders in correctional institutions to read to their children. The Indiana Read-to Me program began at one women's prison and has expanded to four institutions for both men and women prisoners and their children. More than 50 offenders from the Indiana Women's Prison, the Plainfield Correctional Facility, the Rockville Correctional Facility, and the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility are actively involved in the program since its inception in the fall of 2000.
  
  The Read-to-Me program has four primary objectives: to break the cycle of incarceration and low literacy, to educate parents to become their child's first teacher, to instruct parents in the use of children's books to teach the children in their lives, and to make personal connects with the children during the period of incarceration. The Indiana State Library Development Office provides the children's books, the cassette recorders, and postage for mailing the tapes and books, and the Indiana Center for the Book provides the audio or videocassettes.
  
   
• In New York, both Bedford C.I. and Arthur Kill C.I. have equipped recreation centers for visiting children, set up through the cooperative efforts of inmates and staff. Funds from inmate vending machines were used to purchase toys and furniture. The prison art classes paint murals on the walls, and a floor-covering class installed carpeting. Inmates maintain all of the equipment and are responsible for cleaning the center. At Bedford, this visiting area is staffed by a teacher and eight inmate caregivers; at Arthur Kill, the institution uses volunteers from the Foster Grandparent program.
  
  The program is intended to foster a closer relationship between the mother and child, provide a well-staffed recreation and education program for children, and teach inmates to become competent caregivers and mothers. It has the added benefit of making the adult visiting area an easier place to talk. In addition to these two institutions, the department reports that several women's institutions have outside play areas for children, and no problems have been reported relating to injuries or supervision.

• Oregon Department of Corrections uses the best research-based parenting practices available--the Oregon Social Learning Center and the department jointly developed a comprehensive parenting curriculum for inmates. The 12-week curriculum teaches inmates how to be effective parents, both from prison and upon release.
  
   
• Indiana Women's Prison. In addition to the parenting skills acquired by participating in class, offenders benefit from completing the requirements of Parenting Piece By Piece, by earning an additional six hours of visitation each month with their children in a family-oriented visitation area. Offenders develop methods and share techniques they use to remain connected to their children while incarcerated. Offenders are able to distinguish the difference between discipline and punishment, as well as behavior that could be considered abusive or neglectful. Since many offenders do not exercise good control of impulses, some find very useful the study of methods to establish an environment in which their children learn to exercise self-control. In a survey, offenders participating in the class were able to identify, independently, the skills, qualities, and roles of parents that contribute to the healthy and positive development of children.

• By giving family members a means to weigh in on prison policies and proposals, Washington Correctional Institute for Women's Family Council may not only ease tensions within prisons, but help inmates maintain close family ties that can give them a better chance for a successful parole. The goals are to establish effective lines of communication between the institution, inmate families, and significant relationships; promote better understanding regarding the correctional programming that affects family members and significant relationships; and promote a better understanding by the institution of the effect that correctional programming has on maintaining family and significant relationships.
  
   
• The Family Visiting Program in New York State provides free bus service from New York City and Buffalo to facilities across the state, with stops at some enroute locations whenever possible.
  
   
• Indiana Women's Prison's Responsible Mother/Healthy Baby program. Comprehensive intake, Family Care plan, parenting class, Outreach/Case Management Program.
  
   
• The Texas Department of Criminal Justice publishes A Guide for the Families of Offenders, providing a brief description of the correctional system and policies. The guide discusses information about visiting, mail, family assistance, religious needs, health, discipline, the inmate grievance procedures, and other topics. The guide is available upon request from the department, and a condensed version is also available on the Internet. Each facility has a designated family liaison officer to promote contact between offenders and their families. This officer is a contact person for families and can offer explanations when needed. This officer can also provide families with information about the offender's classification, location, and physical health, and notify offenders about family emergencies.
  
   
• The California Department of Corrections is required by statute to contract with a private nonprofit agency to provide prison visitor services. The required services include shelter from inclement weather, transportation assistance, child care for visitor's children, emergency clothing, information on visiting processing, and referrals to other agencies and services. These services are available at no cost to visitors.

Extended Visits

• The Tennessee Prison for Women sponsors a weekend visitation program that allows children ages 3 months to 6 years to spend a weekend with their inmate mothers. Through recent renovations, the Tennessee Prison for Women has established separate quarters away from the general inmate population for the child visitation program. Through the efforts of this program, infant and toddler children of qualifying inmates have the opportunity to bond with their incarcerated mothers during approved weekend hours. An approved child visitation allows only one child per visit; however, a total of 16 children may stay with their mothers in single-cell units in the new visitation space dedicated for the program. The child and mother eat their meals in a more relaxed family setting within the unit. There is also space dedicated for activities designed to foster child development.
  
   
• Parent and Children Together (PACT) at the South Dakota Women's Prison is an extended visitation program available for inmate mothers and their children. The primary goal of PACT is to enable the incarcerated mother to have her minor children with her in prison for a weekend visit once each month, in addition to regular visiting hours.
  
   
• Family Ark Summer Day Camp at the Indiana Women's Prison runs Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for two weeks every summer. The children come from across the state and stay with host families around the prison. Fifty to 70 children of incarcerated mothers participate. The activities are normal camp activities of arts and crafts, games, pony rides, etc., and occur on the prison grounds. The highlight last year was the teddy bears given to the children with their mother's voice recorded inside.

Enhanced Visitation

• The Mother Goose Program is a joint venture of the South Dakota Department of Education and Cultural Affairs, South Dakota State Library, South Dakota Head Start, and South Dakota Discovery Center & Aquarium. Female inmates attend classes that focus on helping them introduce and encourage math and science skills to children ages 4-7. Inmates are allowed to keep and send home all of the books and materials used in the class.
  
   
• Oregon Department of Corrections. Upon successful completion of the parenting education program, a limited number of approved inmates may participate in therapeutic visiting. The therapeutic visiting program also has a 12-week course that allows inmates the opportunity to participate in several therapeutic visits with their children and their caregivers, accompanied by a family therapist. During the supervised visits, inmates work on specific skills learned in Phase 1 (e.g., limit-setting and positive reinforcement) and receive feedback from the family therapist.
  
   
• Children's Day. Since 1987, PACT has helped sponsor Children's Day at FCI, Fort Worth, Texas. On Father's Day each year, children ages 2-14 are escorted inside the compound to visit with their fathers. Children have the opportunity to visit their fathers' rooms, eat lunch, and spend a few hours just with dad. The day also consists of carnival activities. This is a very special time for both the inmate fathers and their children. It also relieves many of the fears children have concerning the whereabouts of their father.

Support Groups

• In Pennsylvania, Support for Kids with Incarcerated Parents (SKIP) began in 1987 and provides support groups for kids with parents in prison. SKIP can be conducted during prison visitation with just the children or through the local community. The SKIP curriculum available through PACT consists of 30 lesson plans addressing five problem areas: self-esteem (developing respect for self), family relationships (developing respect for others), decisionmaking (understanding choices and consequences), substance abuse (coping with a family member who is a substance abuser), and prison life (coping with a parent in prison). More than 4,000 children have participated in SKIP since 1987. Evaluations of these children have consistently shown improved self-esteem and improvement in school behavior.
  
   
• Parent support groups meet regularly to deal with self-help issues. In Wisconsin, one correctional institution conducts Fatherworks, a support group that gives inmates an opportunity to explore relationships with their own parents and to develop healthy relationships with their children. Another facility conducts ParentShare, a parent support group for families with young children.