Family & Corrections Network
The
Second North American Conference on
Fathers Behind Bars and on the Street
November 6-8, 2002 St. Louis, MO
Reuniting Incarcerated Dads and Their Kids
by Gretchen Nehls Newby
A Collaborative Model between Friends Outside and the San Francisco Department of Human Services
The Collaboration
Many children of incarcerated parents find themselves in foster care for extended periods of time…sometimes until they reach maturity. In the past, incarcerated parents have not been considered as a viable future placement, nor have they been engaged in the process of identifying kinship placement opportunities.
The San Francisco Department of Human Services (SFDHS), recognizing the importance of kinship placement as opposed to foster placement and the need to engage incarcerated dads in the lives of their children, made a commitment to use all reasonable means to reunite children and fathers after release.
SFDHS recognized the right of the incarcerated parent to resume or establish their role as caregiver, and they recognized the right of the child to be in the care of their biological parent, wherever possible.
SFDHS social workers, however, found it very difficult to establish and maintain communication with the incarcerated father in order to explore possibilities and prepare for reunification. Visits to the prison to meet regularly with the dad were very important and very hard to accomplish. There were issues involving institution rules and logistics, trust, privacy and confidentiality, and discomfort with the prison environment.
SFDHS approached Friends Outside, a community based nonprofit, for assistance. Friends Outside has been providing programs and services to individuals and families involved in the criminal justice system for 47 years and currently holds contracts with the California Department of Corrections and several local county jails. A collaborative partnership was formed, a contractual agreement made, and two Friends Outside case managers were placed on site at SFDHS. Experienced in working with incarcerated people and negotiating the maze of institution rules and logistics, these two people act as liaison between the incarcerated parent and the SFDHS social worker assigned to the children. They also develop a case management relationship with the incarcerated parent, encouraging and supporting them in their preparation for release and the assumption of the full parenting role.
It is important to note that there are financial resources provided by the State of California that are designated for facilitating the successful reunification of parents and children who are in foster care. These resources are diverted from the foster care system, and become available as more and more children are successfully reunited with their biological parent and are thereby removed from the costly foster system. These resources allow for close monitoring and support of the reunified family; support services in the home and in the community; and continuing case management until the family attains self sufficiency.
The Principles
There are certain important principles that make this unique and highly successful program work.
1. Incarcerated parents are not “invisible”; they have rights, strengths, and the best interests of their children at heart. With appropriate preparation and support, many of them can establish or recapture the role of primary caregiver to their children after their release.
2. Children of incarcerated parents have a right to be in the care of their biological parent, wherever possible, and that parent is going to be preferable to a foster parent in most cases.
3. Children who are raised in foster care experience developmental delays, emotional difficulties, and less likelihood of success as adults. Many of these children end up in the criminal justice system. Children raised in the custody of their biological parents may also experience problems, but given the same type of support as foster families, these children can have a high probability of success.
4. If an incarcerated parent cannot or will not assume custody of his/her children after release, then they can still be engaged in the process of finding another kinship placement for them. During this process, contact with the children may be resumed and relationships strengthened or established, thereby providing the children with much needed parental love and attention.
5. The prospect of reuniting children with their incarcerated parent after release, introduces the concept of hope to both child and parent. This hopeful-ness encourages both to get involved in preparing for reunification, supported by the Friends Outside and SFDHS social workers and all the resources at their disposal. Incarcerated parents who are looking forward to the prospect of reunification are less likely to recidivate, and children who are looking forward to reunification are more likely to adopt an optimistic outlook toward life. This is in dramatic contrast to the child who is placed in foster care with no prospects of having a family life with his/her biological family. That child will “mature out of the foster system”, becoming independent at the age of 18, poorly prepared and not yet ready to take on adult responsibilities.
6. Reunification programs for incarcerated parents need to be strengths-based, family-centered, coordinated, and fully articulated.
Process
Once it has been established that a child in foster care has an incarcerated parent, that parent is found and contacted by mail and then in person.
The first meeting or meetings establishes whether or not reunification is feasible. Obstacles to reunification might include lengthy sentence, type of offense, physical and mental capacity, health issues, or the parent’s unwillingness to assume the role of caregiver.
A needs assessment is conducted by the Friends Outside case manager and the incarcerated parent, identifying strengths and areas that may need attention. After reviewing the resources available to the parent in the institution, the Friends Outside case manager encourages voluntary participation in programs and services that are agreed to be appropriate, and intervenes with the institution staff to facilitate the parent’s participa-tion in these opportunities.
The Friends Outside case manager meets several times with the parent until release, supporting them as they prepare emotionally for reunification. During this time, the children are brought to the prison to visit with their parent as often as possible. The Friends Outside case manager helps the incarcerated parent to prepare for these visits, while the SFDHS social worker is doing parallel preparation with the children and foster parents.
The Friends Outside network is engaged in this preparation process. The Friends Outside Case Manager at the institution may be involved in supporting the parent one-on-one, or may arrange for them to participate in the parenting education program conducted by Friends Outside.
Friends Outside staff at the institution’s Visitor Center may speak to the foster parents and the SFDHS social worker prior to visits, to help them prepare for logistical and emotional issues.
They will also encourage them to stop by the Visitor Center before and after the visit in order to transition and to make contact with a friendly, familiar person who understands the stress of prison visits.
Continuing Support After Reunification
The role of the Friends Outside case manager ends when the parent is released back to the community.
The role of the SFDHS social worker continues, however, as immediate and long term needs are identified and community resources accessed.
These needs may include family and individual therapy, job training, child care, financial assistance, in-home care, housekeeping, tutoring, transportation, mentoring, medical care, respite care, involvement in a faith community, involvement in a twelve-step program, parole monitoring, meal planning, shopping assistance, parenting education, and support groups for single parents.
In some cases, there is a “co-parenting” arrangement, where another family member (including family of affinity) may live in the home and provide surrogate parenting along side the biological parent. This “co-parent” may be a step parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, older sibling, godparent, or close friend.
The SFDHS social worker helps the family meet the challenges of this non-traditional family structure, while continuing to “think outside the box” to identify other creative ways to provide support to the family. In some cases, the parent’s own former foster parents provided that necessary support. Often, the use of this “family-centered” and “strengths-based” philosophy generates unconventional and highly successful support systems that help to ensure the success of the newly reunified family.
Conclusion
Recognizing that extraordinary situations require extraordinary solutions, the San Francisco Department of Human Services has entered into a collaborative agreement with Friends Outside, a community based organization with vast experience in the criminal justice system. This unlikely partnership has resulted in a unique and innovative model that offers possibilities for family reunification, and removes the cloak of “invisibility” from incarcerated parents.
Based on the premise that both incarcerated parents and their children have rights, and it is the responsibility of social services to move forward from that premise, opportunities can be found and great things accomplished.
It is, as always, important to “think outside the box”.
Contact: Gretchen Newby. Executive Director, Friends Outside National Organization, 209/938-0727, PO Box 4085, Stockton, CA 95204.