" Behind Bars: Working with Children and Families Impacted by Incarceration"

1. "Behind Bars:Working with Children and Families Impacted by Incarceration" Presented by: Holli M. Kelly-Trombley, LMFT

2. Introductions • Who am I? • Who are you? • Why is this conversation important? What would make this a meaningful experience to you?

3. Prisons in Minnesota • Red Wing • Oak Park Heights • Stillwater • St. Cloud • Faribault • Moose Lake • Rush City • Lino Lakes • Shakopee (women) • Togo

4. Ecological Framework • Urie Bronfenbrenner • Four interacting components: • Individual: Family background, personality, ,world view • Family: Dynamics, roles and interaction patterns, quality of spousal relationship, connectedness to kin • Social Structural: Economic realities and trends, neighborhood characteristics and norms, world of work, law enforcement practices • Sociocultural: Cultural norms and beliefs, e.g. sexism, acceptance of violence, rigid sex-role stereotyping and norms about family life

5. How we can Help • Reduce impact of incarceration on families • Create additional ways to connect • Provide support, advocacy and education • Reduce recidivism and enhance public safety • Interrupt legacy of incarceration (cradle to grave) • Be Voice of Children who are often Invisible

6. Goals for Families • Intervene early with a family experiencing incarceration, increasing the likelihood that they will stay connected • Strengthen commitment to relationships by building effective communication, parenting skills and conflict resolution skills • Improving both parents’ ability to support and foster healthy connections with their children and upon release • Increasing the family’s economic self-sufficiency to provide a stable base for continued growth

7. Why is this work important? • Incarceration passed on from generation to generation • Safety concern in society • Financial implications • Loss of family; children suffer • DOC focused on punishment and not as much on rehabilitation; need services to compensate for this • To save lives

8. What are your thoughts? • Who commits crimes? Why do you think crime exists?

9. Incarceration in the United States • IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1999, • 1.4 million adults currently incarcerated • More than half have minor children • 93% of incarcerated parents are male and 89% are female • About 2 percent of all minors—more than 1.5 million children—had a parent in state or federal prison. • 10 percent of all minor children—7.3 million children— have a parent in prison, jail, on probation, or on parole. • 58% of minor children of incarcerated parents are less than 10 years old • Source: Estimates based on the 1996 Survey of Inmates in Local • Jails, 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional • Facilities, 2001 Annual Survey of Jails, and the 2001 National • Prisoners Statistics program. (Presented by Christopher Mumola • at the National Center for Children & Families, Washington, D.C., • on October 31, 2002.)

10. Ages of Children of Incarcerated Parents • Less than 1 year= 2% • 1-4 years= 20% • 5-9 years= 36% • 10-14 years= 28% • 15-17 years=14% • Source: Adapted from Christopher J.Mumola, Incarcerated Parents and • Their Children (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau • of Justice Statistics, NCJ 182335, 2000).

11. Child’s Current Caregiver • Other parent of child: 85% • Grandparent of Child: 6.3% • Other Relatives: 6.4% • Foster Home or agency: 2.4% • Friends/Others: 5.3% • Source: Adapted from Christopher J.Mumola, Incarcerated Parents and • Their Children (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau • of Justice Statistics, NCJ 182335, 2000).

12. Child Support Arrears Owed • Inmates who are non-custodial • parents have child support obligations that average over $200 per month, but can only earn about $50 per month while in prison. • Inmates with child support orders can expect to accumulate between $10,000 and $20,000 of child support arrears by the time they are released. • Research indicates that Fathers with excessive child support debt are less likely to make regular child support payments, and less likely to spend time with their children.

13. Theoretical Frameworks • Attachment • Ambiguous Loss • Human Ecology • Systems Theory • Cultural Trauma/Historical Trauma

14. Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System • Higher level of police stops • Minorities make up 35 percent of the population in Minneapolis but comprised over ½ of the drivers stopped by police; African Americans account for a significant percentage of minority stops, almost 40%, even though less than 20 percent of population in Minneapolis; neighborhoods also different with 40% of all stops in black neighborhoods

15. Racial Disparity Cont. • Black motorists more likely to be frisked • Minorities more likely to be arrested during traffic stops with African Americans 2 ½ times more likely and American Indians 3 times more likely than whites • Minorities 7 times more likely to be arrested for felony crimes than whites • In sentencing, whites less likely to serve time in prison for felony crimes • All Racial Disparity information came from “An embarrassment to all Minnesotans: Racial disparity in the criminal justice system” Johnson, T., & Heilman, C.W. (2001). Bench and Bar Minnesota May/June 2001.

16. Mental Health Issues • Approximately 1.25 million prison and jail inmates suffer from some type of mental health issue • Major depressive disorder, mania and psychotic disorders most common • Mental health disorders in adult prison is 5 times higher than general adult population • Women almost 3 times higher • Across the country, prisoners with mental health problems face a shortage of qualified staff, lack of facilities and prison rules that interfere with treatment • http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/09/05/us-number-mentally-ill-prisons-quadrupled

17. How does incarceration affect children? • Children are diverted from development tasks when they experience trauma. • Children’s responses to trauma will vary according to age • Children’s reactions will vary over time • Children are traumatized by separation

18. Continued • Children’s abilities to cope are hampered by uncertainty • Children’s trauma due to parental incarceration has some unique features • Children suffer stigma when a parent is incarcerated • Children express their distress through their bodies • Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children and Families by Lois E. Wright, Ph.D. and Cynthia B. Seymour, JD (2000)

19. Continued Identification with the incarcerated parent, awareness of social stigma • Change in future orientation and intrusive thoughts about their parents • Concern about outcomes of case, unsure and worried about how to live without mother, concern about an uncertain future • Flashbacks to traumatic events related to arrests • Embarrassment and anger • Fear, sadness, loneliness, guilt, low self-esteem, depression, emotional withdrawal from friends and family • Separation anxiety and fears of abandonment Eating and sleeping disorders • Aggression, anxiety and hyperarousal, attention disorders and developmental regression • Physical aggression, withdrawal, acting out, academic and classroom behavior difficulties, truancy. • Source: Table 7. Child Reactions to Parental Incarceration, Wright, L.E. & Seymour, C. B. (2000). • Working with Children and Families Separated by Incarceration: A Handbook for Child Welfare Agencies. • Washington, D.C.: CWLA Press.

20. Individual/Family Issues • Shame/blame (emotional turmoil) • Economic hardship • Lack of understanding; frustration • grief/loss (ambiguous Loss); what if life sentence? Death sentence? • trauma • Insecurities/breakdown in communication/power and control issues

21. Individual/Family Issues • loss of identity (roles) • hopelessness/loss of control • re-evaluation of self/priorities (not always the same with the couple) • Stigma/stereotypes • unnatural transitions (instant single parenthood, loss of full time father role, missing out on children’s events); structural changes in family • Gender differences

22. Obstacles to Parent-Child Visits in Prison • Inadequate information about visiting procedures. • Difficulty scheduling visits. • Geographic location of prison facilities. • Family’s inability to afford transportation. • Visiting procedures that are uncomfortable • or humiliating. • Visiting rooms that are inhospitable to children. • Foster parents or caregivers who are unwilling • to facilitate visits. • Source: Women’s Prison Association, When a Mother Is Arrested: • How the Criminal Justice and Child Welfare Systems Can Work • Together More Effectively (Baltimore: Maryland Department of • Human Resources, 1996).

23. What are the Advantages to Connecting Children with Incarcerated Parents? • Visitation and other contact: • • allows children to express their emotional reactions to the separation from their parent. • • helps parents deal with separation and loss issues. • • helps the child develop a more realistic understanding of their parents circumstances and allows parents to model appropriate interaction. • • allows children to maintain existing relationships with their parents - contributing to a successful family reunification. • • improves recidivism rates—parents who maintain contact with their children are shown to be less likely to recidivate than inmates who do not maintain contact with families. • • helps children preserve important connections. • • allows children to know that their parent is safe. • • helps to develop and maintain the role of the parent. • CHILD PROTECTION BEST PRACTICES BULLETIN: Innovative Strategies to Achieve Safety, Permanence, and Well-Being http://www.f2f.ca.gov/res/pdf/ChildProtectionBPBulletins.pdf

24. Role of Guardian Ad Litem • In accordance with the wishes of your client or the best interests of the child, you would advocate for parent-child contact visitation. You would talk with the child about visitation issues, and whether or not he/she would like to have contact visitation with her parent. If contact visitation is not available, you would advocate for visitation by telephone or video conferencing. • CHILD PROTECTION BEST PRACTICES BULLETIN: Innovative Strategies to Achieve Safety, Permanence, and Well-Being http://www.f2f.ca.gov/res/pdf/ChildProtectionBPBulletins.pdf

25. CHILDREN OF INCARCERATED PARENTSA BILL OF RIGHTS • The following Bill of Rights was developed by the San Francisco Partnership for Incarcerated Parents (SFPIP). SFPIP is a coalition of social service providers, representatives of government bodies, advocates and others who work with or are concerned about children of incarcerated parents and their families. The document was developed with young people who have experienced parental incarceration. This Bill of Rights was also published in the Report of the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Welfare of Children of Jailed and Incarcerated Parents, authorized under New Mexico Executive Order 2006-022; November 1, 2006. • 1. I have the right to be kept safe and informed at the time of my parent’s arrest. • 2. I have the right to be heard when decisions are being made about me. • 3. I have the right to be considered when decisions are being made about my parent. • 4. I have the right to be well-cared for in my parent’s absence. • 5. I have the right to speak with, see, and touch my parent. • 6. I have the right to support as I face my parent’s incarceration. • 7. I have the right not to be judged, blamed or labeled because my parent is incarcerated. • 8. I have the right to a life-long relationship with my parent.

26. Unique challenges for GAL’s • How to observe child with incarcerated parent? • How to determine how healthy/unhealthy their relationship is? • Should child have contact with incarcerated parent? • What if parent who is not incarcerated is struggling? • How to incorporate context of incarceration into decision-making (trauma/PTSD, loss, stigma, special populations such as veterans)

27. Interventions/Recommendations • Need to address whole family; maybe even community (restorative justice) • What not said as important as what is said • Ways to involve children; family focus • Couples work • More support in re-entry process for individual and family • Community involved/support • Prevention better than intervention • Examining through more holistic, biopsychsocialhistorical lens

28. Interventions Cont. • Focus on empowerment, creating connections, enhancing self-awareness, creating sense of hope, allowing space to process and vent, assistance in normalizing an abnormal situation • More resources and opportunities needed for re-entry process; housing, employment, education, mentoring (40% recidivate in first 18 months) • Employment and family connections most critical • Own self reflection/self-care in this process (supervision, consultation)

29. Thank you for your service • We are the ones we have been waiting for… • Adisa Ajimu

30. Questions and Discussion Thoughts? Reactions? Feedback?