Too often, our corrections system destroys families rather than strengthens them. Yet, prisoners desperately need the support, accountability and encouragement that their family members can provide. Take action to protect our families!

For more information on families of the incarcerated, visit the Incarceration and the Family key issue page.

Pray

Spread the Word

Hold the Government Accountable

Change the Law

Pray

• Pray for the hearts of incarcerated mothers and fathers to be softened towards their families.

• Pray for prison officials to recognize the value of prisoners’ families and allow them to visit without harassment.

• Pray for prison officials to prioritize and provide quality medical care for inmates so that they do not carry dangerous diseases back to their families when they are released.

• Ask God to transform the hearts and lives of violent, abusive inmates and prison officials so that prisons are safe places to visit and inmates do not carry the scars of abuse back to their families when they are released.

• Pray that prison officials would value the dignity of motherhood so that women are not shackled during labor and delivery.

• Ask God to grant harmony and peace to prisoners’ families when they are released so that these families can become unified and strong.

• Pray that phone companies and corrections departments would value family interactions and so provide fair telephone rates for prisoners.

• Pray that corrections officials would understand the importance of housing inmates as close as possible to their families so that relationships can continue in-person.

• Pray that state officials and judges would understand the extenuating circumstances surrounding incarcerated parents’ relationships with their children and would be cautious in terminating incarcerated mothers and fathers’ custody.

Spread the Word

Talk with your families and friends about how our justice system should strengthen families rather than tear them down.

• Over 50 percent of state prison inmates and over 60 per cent of federal prison inmates have minor children. Most men and women in prison are parents of minor children. (Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009)

• Over 2 percent of U.S. residents under 18 years old have a parent living behind bars (Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009)

• Over 10 percent of mothers in prison report that their children are in foster care (Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009)

• The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 requires states to file a petition to terminate parents’ rights to their child if the child has been in foster care for 15 of the previous 22 months. The states are supposed to pursue “reasonable efforts” to reunify children with their parents. But, some don’t do this if the parent is incarcerated. Some even speed up the process to terminate custody. (Parental Incarceration: How to Avoid a Death Sentence for Families, Shriver National Center on Poverty, 2007)

• Most state and federal prisoners are housed over 100 miles from their home towns, making regular contact a significant challenge. Also, some prisons only allow children to visit if the inmate appears on their birth certificates and only allow custodial parents to bring children to the facility. Once families do arrive at prisons, many prisons have no hospitable space for them to visit with their loved one. (Incarcerated Parents and Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2000; Family Members Experiences with Incarceration and Reentry, Western Criminology Review, 2006)

• High telephone rates limit family members’ ability to stay in touch long-distance. In some states, a local, 15 minute call can cost as much as $4.80. Families in some states must pay up to $17.30 for a 15 minute interstate phone call. (Family Members Experiences with Incarceration and Reentry, Western Criminology Review, 2006; The Campaign to Promote Equitable Telephone Charges)

• Women are the fastest growing segment of the prison population today. When mothers give birth behind bars, their babies are often whisked away from them, offering no opportunity to develop bonds with their infant. In a most barbaric practice, some prisons shackle women during labor and delivery. (Hard Hit: The Growth in the Imprisonment of Women, 1977-2004, Institute on Women and Criminal Justice, 2006; The Rebecca Project for Human Rights)

• Restrictions on welfare benefits keep some ex-offenders from reuniting with their families and hinder them from financially supporting their families after release. Some state impose a lifetime ban on receiving welfare benefits for all drug offenders, and federal law allows Public Housing Authorities to deny residence to people with criminal convictions. (Life Sentences: Denying Welfare Benefits to Women Convicted of Drug Offense, The Sentencing Project, 2002; Women in the Criminal Justice System, The Sentencing Project, 2007)

• We have a vested interest in making sure that our criminal justice system strengthens families rather than tears them down. Families are crucial to helping offenders turn their lives around. Offenders who are able to maintain ties with their families while they are in prison have much better chances of avoiding criminal lifestyles when they are released. And, those who can draw on the support and accountability of their families when they step out of prison succeed in our communities far better. (Prisoners and Families: Parenting Issues During Incarceration, Creasie Finney Hairston, 2001)

• Having a mother or father behind bars is deeply trying for children. Children with incarcerated parents are more prone to aggressive, anti-social behavior and suffer from family instability and economic hardship. We need to foster rather than destroy parents’ relationships with their children. (Parental Incarceration and Children’s Physically Aggressive Behaviors, University of Michigan, 2009; Children of Incarcerated Parents, National Council of State Legislatures, 2009)

Hold the Government Accountable

Write a letter to your newspaper editor to urge support for prisoners’ families.

Dear Editor:

Swelling prison populations mean that a staggering number of families in the United States have a member locked behind bars. 1.5 million children have a mom or a dad that lives in prison, and most prisoners are parents of minor children. Because hard and fast evidence shows that families are crucial to helping offenders stay away from crime after they are released, we must hold our criminal justice system accountable to protect and strengthen prisoners’ families - rather than tear them down.

There are many ways the government must do this. Prisoners should be kept in facilities closest to their families; families should be allowed to visit without harassment; telephone rates for inmate’s call to their families must be fair and affordable; pregnant inmates must not be shackled during labor and delivery.

All of us benefit when families are strong and released prisoners become healthy, contributing members of our communities. It’s time our corrections system started working for us and influenced our families for good.

Change the Law

• Write to your government representatives to urge them to support policies that strengthen offenders’ families. Use this sample letter to help you get started:

Dear Representative / Senator ______________:

We can no longer deny that our criminal justice system is affecting hundreds of thousands of families across our country. Most prisoners have minor children, and over 1.5 million children are growing up with a parent behind bars. Our communities suffer when families are ripped apart and when ex-offenders do not have the support of their families to get back on their feet once they are released. It’s time for us to take a hard look at the prison policies that harm our families and push for something better.

In order to strengthen families, we need corrections policies that allow families of prisoners to visit easily and without harassment. We must change laws that hamper responsible incarcerated parents from maintaining custody of their children. We need to cut violence and disease out of prisons so that visiting family members are not put at risk. We should require fair, competitive telephone rates for prisoners so that families can stay in touch with their loved one behind bars. We must repeal policies that keep mentors from interacting with prisoners before and after release. And, we must stop the barbaric practice of shackling pregnant inmates during their labor and delivery.

With roughly 65,000 prisoners returning from prison each year, the stakes for strengthening inmate’s relationships with their families could not be higher.

Please speak out on behalf of our prisoners’ families and our communities.

• Write to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about their Inmate Telephone Service. Use this sample letter:

The Hon. Julius Genachowski, Chairman

Federal Communications Commission

445 12th Street, S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20554

Re: Implementation of the Pay Telephone Reclassification and Compensation Provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, CC Docket No. 96-128; Inmate Telephone Service Rates

Dear Chairman Genachowski:

We urge the Federal Communications Commission to take immediate action on the vexing problem of the extortionate rates charged for interstate long distance telephone calls by prison inmates, especially the rates charged to innocent family members and others receiving collect calls from prisoners. While other telecommunications rates have been declining in recent decades, interstate inmate rates continue to climb.

Typical interstate inmate collect calling rates include a per-call charge of $3.95 plus as much as $0.89 per minute, and many prisons permit no alternatives to collect calling. At that rate, one hour of conversation per week can result in a monthly telephone bill of $300, a huge financial burden for the low income innocent families and loved ones receiving and paying for these calls.

Inmate telephone service now stands in isolation as the last remaining telecommunications monopoly niche. In 2007, a rulemaking proposal filed in CC Docket No. 96-128 on behalf of Martha Wright, representing prisoners and their families, requested relief from these excessive monopoly rates in the form of: (1) benchmarks capping the interstate long distance debit rates charged to prison inmates at $0.20 per minute and the interstate long distance rates charged to persons receiving collect calls from prisoners at $0.25 per minute, with no per-call charges; and (2) a requirement that inmate calling service providers offer a debit calling option.

Not only has the market failed to bring about reasonable interstate inmate calling rates, but it has also become increasingly clear that service providers could -- and, in a few cases, actually do -- offer long distance telephone services to prisoners at reasonable rates. The Wright petitioners demonstrated that interstate long distance telephone services could be provided profitably to all prisoners at the requested benchmark rates, and even a cost study submitted by the inmate calling service providers largely supports the requested benchmark rates.

The urgency of Commission action on this issue has become more widely recognized in recent years. The American Bar Association adopted a recommendation in 2005 that inmate telephone services be provided “at the lowest possible rates,” and the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, led by correctional officials and other experts, urged policymakers the following year to “support family and community bonds . . . by minimizing the cost of prisoners’ telephone calls.”

Numerous penological studies and reports have documented society’s vital interest in reducing recidivism by ensuring that prisoners maintain regular contact with their families and loved ones while in prison. Excessive inmate telephone rates sever these crucial community and family ties. The growing trend in outsourcing incarceration to privately administered facilities in other states, precluding family visits, has aggravated the disruptive effects of unreasonable interstate inmate calling rates.

We are aware that some correctional authorities use the commissions paid by inmate calling service providers to fund programs benefiting prisoners, but, in many states, those payments are simply deposited in the general treasury instead. Given the extortionate rates generated by these commissions -- in some cases, reaching 65 percent of gross revenues -- the benefits of prisoner programs in a few states is vastly outweighed by the harm done to prisoners’ families, most of whom are low income and disproportionately members of minority groups, and ultimately to taxpayers through higher recidivism and incarceration rates.

The large number of inmates due to be released in the coming decade underscores the need for immediate relief to facilitate their reentry into society. Furthermore, more reasonable long distance inmate telephone rates would reduce the incentive to use contraband cell phones in prison, thereby ameliorating another increasingly vexing problem.

Given the excessiveness of interstate inmate long distance rates relative to any credible measure of costs, the Commission’s plenary authority over interstate telecommunications rates and the critical need for reform, we call upon the Commission to provide relief by implementing the requested benchmark rates, requiring a debit calling option and providing any necessary related relief, such as a “fresh look” period to renegotiate inmate calling service contracts.

Moreover, the long-pending nature of this proceeding, the overwhelming record and broad public support for the Wright proposal, and the pressing need for relief in this difficult economic environment, especially for families at the bottom of the income scale, makes this proceeding appropriate for immediate Commission action.