Parental Incarceration, Termination of Parental Rights, and Adoption

1. Parental Incarceration, Termination of Parental Rights, and Adoption A Case Study of the Intersection Between the Child Welfare and Criminal Justice Systems Charlene Wear Simmons, Ph.D.

2. ACJR PresentationOutline • Incarceration trends, previous research findings • San Francisco case study findings • Policy recommendations • Case study logistics, other sources of information • For more information: http://www.cjcj.org/justice_policy_journal

3. Many Children Have Incarcerated Parents • 52% of state inmates and 63 % of federal inmates are parents of an estimated 1,706,600 minor children (3% of the U.S. population under age 18) (BJS 2007). Many more are in jail. • Incarcerated women (62 percent) are more likely than men (51 percent) to report being a parent. • The number of children with a mother in prison increased 131 percent between 1991 and midyear 2007. • Parental incarceration is “…a childhood risk that is concentrated among black children and children of low-education parents” (Wildman 2009).

4. Children with Incarcerated Parents Are More Likely to be in Foster Care • Children whose parents are involved in the criminal justice system have an above average likelihood of entering foster care (Phillips et al. 2004). • Maternal incarceration can affect the length of time the children spend in foster care and child welfare agencies’ plans whether to reunite families (Ehrensaft et al. 2003). • Reunification is less likely, and adoption more likely, for the children of incarcerated mothers(Ehrensaft et al. 2003; Dworsky 2004).

5. What is the Relationship Between Parental Incarceration, Termination of Parental Rights and Adoption? • Anecdotal stories; lack of solid data • San Francisco case file study: reviewed all child welfare adoption case files and the corresponding Unified Family Court files from 1997 (61 cases) and 2007 (103 cases). • Did not review cases in which parental rights were terminated but children not adopted • Children impacted by parental incarceration in San Francisco comprise an estimated 15 to 20 percent of the child welfare caseload at the Family and Children Services Division (Jeter 2009)

6. Mothers of Over Half Children Adopted Involved in Criminal Justice System

7. Overwhelming Parental Substance Abuse Issues

8. San Francisco Mothers’ Difficult Life Experiences • Over half (56 percent) struggled with mental health issues. • Over half experienced abuse as children and/or adults and nearly a quarter were in foster care themselves as children. • Over half had been homeless at some point. • Few—17%--received government assistance

9. Parental Issues Associated with Incarceration

10. Parents Have Limited time to Reunify with Children in Foster Care • States must file petitions to terminate parental rights when children have been in foster care for 15 of the previous 22 months (federal ASFA), or 6 months for children under 3 years old (CA law) • Incarcerated and institutionalized parents may receive reunification services for up to 18 months, or for 24 months if there is a substantial probability that a child will be reunified with his or her parents in that time period • Average prison sentence in CA is over two years

11. Court Conditions for Termination of Parental Rights • Child welfare workers create a case plan for each child and assist parents to secure court-ordered reunification services (substance abuse treatment, parenting classes or monitored visitation) • Reunification services can be denied if the parent has a history of extensive, abusive and chronic use of drugs or alcohol and has resisted prior court-ordered treatment for this problem. • If a parent fails to meet the court’s conditions after being offered appropriate services, or if the parent has already had another child removed from his or her care due to abuse or neglect, the court may terminate parental rights.

12. Reunification Services in San Francisco

13. Decreasing Availability of Reunification Services

14. Incarcerated Parents Disproportionately Missed Court Hearings • Mothers in the 1997 case files were recorded as present in nine percent of the hearings and represented by an attorney in 22 percent of the hearings. Attendance increased to 27 percent in 2007, with an attorney present at 28 percent of the hearings. • Incarcerated parents were recorded as present in only seven percent of the dependency court hearings, all in 1997, even though the majority were serving time in county jails in San Francisco or Alameda

15. Accumulation of Disadvantage • The majority of the children in the SF case study were detained at birth due to illegal drug exposure. • On average, mothers with more than one child in foster care had had 3.3. children removed from their care. • African American mothers with substance abuse issues who has been involved in the criminal justice system were the most likely to have had parental rights terminated and children adopted. • But African Americans comprise 6% of San Francisco’s population

16. African American Mothers Over-represented in SF Adoption Cases

17. Increased Relative Adoptions • The number of relative adoptive parents increased from 14 percent in 1997, to 48 percent in 2007, an increase of 362 percent • San Francisco contracts with Friends Outside for 2 case managers who work with incarcerated parents and identify relatives –appears to be a cost effective program

18. Policy Implications • A public health approach to intervention: early assessment and graduate, intensive, and comprehensive case-managed services • Ensure timely access to substance abuse treatment, mental health and community-based services and require outcome data from providers • Focus specialized social workers on the parents’ needs • Improve communication and coordination between criminal and dependency courts

19. Cost-Effective Intervention • Impact of research: legislation enacted: SB 118 (Liu) and SB 962 (Liu), San Francisco Family Impact Statement pilot • Intervening in the lives of incarcerated parents and their children to preserve and strengthen positive family connections can yield positive societal benefits in the form of reduced recidivism, less intergenerational criminal justice system involvement, and promotion of healthy child development (Christian 2009).

20. Research Sources • Justice Policy Journal, Fall 2010, “Parental Incarceration, Termination of Parental Rights and Adoption: A Case Study of the Intersection Between the Child Welfare and Criminal Justice Systems.” Charlene Wear Simmons and Emily Danker-Feldman http://www.cjcj.org/justice_policy_journal • California Research Bureau, State Library • Keeping Children Safe When Their Parents are Arrested: Local Approaches That Work (2007) • California State Prisoners With Children: Findings From the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities (2003) • Children of Arrested Parents: Strategies to Improve Their Safety and Well-Being (2003) • California Law and the Children of Prisoners (2003) • In Danger of Falling Through the Cracks: Children of Arrested Parents (2002) • Children of Incarcerated Parents (2000) • San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership website (“studies”)