Assessing risk factors for children and families of prisoners

Abstract

Most members of the families of prisoners experience multiple risks, beyond the initial incarceration of a parent or loved one. The children often endure poverty, substandard educational environments, violent neighborhoods, inadequate parenting or care, and various forms of institutional and interpersonal racism. Studies show that the accumulation of these risks creates cycles of failure, which can lead to poor work and school performance and cause a loss of self-respect. This effective practice, from the online library of the Family and Corrections Network, identifies risk factors that increase stress and negative impact for children of prisoners.

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Issue

Each inmate, parolee, child, and family member copes with incarceration in his or her own way. Prisoners and their families are unique and many factors influence a family's ability to cope with the incarceration and release of a family member. Identifying risk factors when dealing with children and families of prisoners is important in providing appropriate intervention.

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Action

According to the Family and Corrections Network, the following risk factors, when added to parental incarceration, increase stress and negative impact for children of prisoners:

• Abuse: physical, sexual, emotional
• Poverty and or parental unemployment or under-employment
• Racism
• Substandard schooling/education for parent and/or child
• Alcoholism (child's or parent's)
• Deteriorating or uninhabitable housing
• Gang involvement
• Crime-victimization
• Criminal activity (child's or parent's)
• Incarceration of parent or caregiver
• Trauma such as violence, abuse, terrorism or other life threatening circumstance
• Parental neglect
• Parental harshness
• Low birth weight
• Poor nutrition
• Inferior medical care
• Mental illness of child or parent
• Physically or emotionally unavailable parents
• Marital distress (parents)
• Family divorce
• Single parenthood (parent's or teen's)
• Lack of social support (child's or parent's)
• Lack of role models (child's or parent's)
• Deprivation of social relationships and/or activities
• Profound or repeated loss
• Powerlessness: personal, family and community

Factors Affecting Family Coping

• Community support vs. isolation: urban, suburban or rural
• Economic stability
• Health and emotional capacity of caregivers
• Quality of the child's school
• Job satisfaction (teen's and adult's)
• Community resources
• Child and family spirituality
• Racial and ethnic prejudices

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Context

President Bush, in his 2003 and 2004 State of the Union address, asked the nation to reach out and help the more than 1.5 million American children with a parent or parents in prison. According to national statistics, 59 percent of these children are under the age of ten. Most of these children grow up without the benefits of the guidance from a reliable adult in their lives. In fact, a U.S. Senate report indicates that without appropriate modeling from a responsible adult, these children are six times more likely than other children to become incarcerated at some point in their lives.

Concerned people in all settings are dealing with children of prisoners and their caregivers daily. To help meet this need, Family and Corrections Network (FCN) created he Children of Prisoners Library (CPL), an Internet based resource at http://www.fcnetwork.org. CPL provides free information sheets designed for people serving children of prisoners and their caregivers.

Since 1983 Family and Corrections Network has provided ways for those concerned with families of prisoners to share information and experiences in an atmosphere of mutual respect through publishing, sponsoring conferences, liaison with other agencies, presentations, and consultation.

The Children of Prisoners Library (CPL) was written by Ann Adalist-Estrin, and edited by Jim Mustin, executive director and founder of Family and Corrections Network (FCN). Some CPL material was adapted material from the three part series, How Can I Help? published by the Osborne Association, Long Island, New York.

Ann Adalist-Estrin is a Child and Family Therapist at BRIDGES: Parent-Child Counseling and Consultation Services in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. She operates Incarcerated Parents and Their Children Consulting Services and is a trainer for the Healthy Steps for Young Children Project at Boston University School of Medicine.

The Children of Prisoners Library is supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with additional support from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the Jack DeLoss Taylor Charitable Trust and the Heidtke Foundation.

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Citation

Adalist-Estrin, Ann and Mustin, Jim. Responding to Children and Families of Prisoners: A Community Guide. Family and Corrections Network.

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Outcome

Protective factors buffer children and families from danger, increasing the capacity for survival and fostering healthy development in spite of the risks. Research on resiliency identifies that for children exposed to multiple risks, three factors stand out in those who develop successfully:

• Predictable and attached relationships with one or more caring adults
• Skills and activities that build competence and confidence
• Belief in a higher power, spirituality and/or affiliation with a community of faith

People and programs can make a difference in the lives and children of families of prisoners, functioning as protective factors. People who make a difference are:

• Resourceful in the face of difficulty
• Able to emotionally recover from setback
• See themselves as capable of making a difference in others' lives

Programs that help:

• Are relevant to the needs and lives of the families they serve
• Partner with family members to find solutions to problems
• Support children and families without judging or criticizing the family member in prison

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Posted On

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For More Information

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Resources

Read Responding to Children and Families of Prisoners: A Community Guide.

• Supporting children of prisoners and their caregivers

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Related sites

U.S. Dream Academy, Inc.

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