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Strengthening the Families of the Incarcerated |
Of all the factors that help inmates after their release, an intact family is the most important in helping them stay on the right path. Research shows that when returning inmates have a supportive family, they are more likely to find a job, less likely to use drugs, and less likely to be involved in criminal activities. The support and accountability that a stable family provides have a clear, positive impact. Studies also show that children of inmates who are able to visit with their parents have increased cognitive skills, improved academic self-esteem, and greater self control, and they change schools much less often. The improvement of the children has an amazing impact on the incarcerated parent, too, with significantly reduced recidivism of the parent after release.
Our communities have a huge stake in the successful reentry of inmates after they serve their sentences. Over 700,000 inmates will be released from prison this year. These returning inmates will be our neighbors. Will they have the stability and support of an intact family? Or will they be cast adrift with no social network other than their old friends that got them in trouble in the first place? A supportive family often makes the difference between inmates becoming healthy, contributing members of society or returning to criminal behavior.
You'd think that prisons would do all they can to strengthen the families of inmates. Prison officials should make preserving and strengthening families a top priority. Unfortunately, many don't. And that is bad for all of us: the prisoner, the family, and the community. Many prison policies are distinctly un-friendly to families and make it very hard for them to remain together during incarceration. In fact, prison policies often end up undercutting rather than reinforcing family cohesion. These anti-family policies are having a dreadful impact on our communities.
If we are to reduce recidivism we should change these family un-friendly policies:
- Most inmates are imprisoned hundreds of miles from their families, without public transportation available for their families to come for visits.
- Many prisons prohibit relatives other than the custodial parent from bringing their children to visit their parent. Thus, the caregiver that often works two jobs to support the family is the only one who can bring the children to visit. No grandparents, aunts or brothers are allowed to bring them.
- Other prisons prohibit children from visiting unless the incarcerated parent is listed on their birth certificate. This cuts off contact for parents not listed and places them in a Catch-22 because many states consider failure to visit or communicate with a child in foster care as grounds to terminate all parental rights.
- Federal law requires a hearing to permanently terminate a parent's relationship with his or her child after 12 months. Many inmates receive no notice of these hearings and have no representation. Even inmates with short sentences can lose parental rights permanently.
- After traveling many hours to the prison, many families are forced to wait outside (no matter the weather conditions) without seating, food, water or sanitary facilities. And once inside the visiting room, many prisons have no books or activities for children.
- Many prisons have no visiting hours in the evenings or on weekends, eliminating visits for working spouses and parents.
- Most prisons limit prisoners to collect calls, charging exorbitant rates to their families, who are among the poorest residents of the US. Some states charge as much as $3.95 to place the call plus $0.89 per minute. Families are prohibited from using discount cards that allow the rest of us to make calls for less than 10 cents a minute.
- The lack of adequate health care exposes inmates to Hepatitis, Tuberculosis, Staph infections, HIV-Aids and many other communicable diseases. This places the inmates' families and communities at risk when they are released.
- The climate of violence, including prison rape, inside our correctional institutions often leaves inmates scarred physically and emotionally, making their transition home much harder. The skills inmates develop to survive in a violent prison make them anti-social when they get out, making life very difficult for their families.
- Many prisons prohibit religious volunteers who work with inmates inside prison from having any contact with the inmate after release, cutting off offenders and their families from the very people who can be the best influence for them.
- In a most barbaric policy, many prisons require pregnant inmates to be shackled during childbirth. Some allow the mother to hold her child for a few minutes before removing the baby. Others take the child from the mother without even letting her hold the child she has just delivered.
The policies of every state prison system are different, as are the policies of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. No system has all of the bad policies listed above. However, a majority of states have many of these bad policies, and the result is the destruction of many incarcerated families.
The family is the basic structure of our society. As it dissolves, crime and delinquency skyrocket. Justice Fellowship hopes you will join us in reforming states' policies so that families are strengthened during and after incarceration. You can help us by contacting you legislators and asking them to review your state's policies regarding the issues listed above. If those policies undercut inmate families, ask your legislators to work with you to change them. I hope you will use the resources on our website and those listed below to inform your legislators about these issues, and to stay informed yourself. Please let us know of your progress. The result will be stronger families, and safer communities.
In His Service,
Pat Nolan
Vice President, Prison Fellowship
Resources
Justice Fellowship’s informational page on Incarceration and the Family
Justice Fellowship’s informational page on Women in Prison
Justice Fellowship’s informational page on Inmate Telephones
The Rebecca Project’s Anti-Shackling Coalition
Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons
La Bodega de La Familia
Women in Prison Project
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