San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership Blog

Council Of State Governments Justice Center Unveils Federal Action Plan for Improving Responses to Children of Incarcerated Parents

from the press release about Children of Incarcerated Parents: An Action Plan for Federal Policymakers:

“The plan outlines  promising practices and 70-plus recommendations for improving outcomes for the more than 1.7 million children  of incarcerated parents. Supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Open Society Institute, the publication  reflects the work of an advisory board of criminal justice and child welfare experts, representatives of community-based organizations, and a bipartisan group of state and local government officials.  

“When parents are incarcerated, the impact on their children can be devastating,” said advisory board co-chair and Michigan State Senator Alan Cropsey. “There is so much we can do—from arrest to reentry—that can reduce  the trauma for children and help ensure that their needs, and those of their caregivers, are being met. At last, that information is captured in this plan.”  

 Among the federal action plan’s recommendations are those that urge policymakers to 

•create federal interagency task forces and develop cross-system collaborations that address the risk factors of children of incarcerated parents and better link them to services; 

• support new policies and practices in the criminal justice system that address trauma associated with a parent’s arrest and their incarceration, which is often many miles from where a child is living; 

• encourage measures that facilitate visitation when in the best interests of the child and promote permanence that takes into account siblings and other important relationships; 

• address federal and state measures that make it more difficult for caregivers to obtain benefits and support for these children.”

 Copies of the plan can be downloaded for free.

Domestic Violence Shelter Funding Cuts Restored

From the press release: "Nearly three months after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger eliminated all state funding for domestic violence shelters, today he signed emergency legislation introduced by Senator
Leland Yee to restore $16.3 million for 94 shelters and centers throughout California.

“Until we eliminate domestic violence, funding for shelters should never be on the chopping block,” said Yee.  “While I am pleased that the Governor finally helped restore this funding, I am still dismayed that he would put women and children at risk in the first place.  It is unacceptable to force victims into a choice between homelessness and returning to their abuser....

“This one-year funding allocation means that we can prevent further shelter closures and restore services in agencies that have already closed,” said Tara Shabazz, executive director of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.  “But we must ensure that a crisis like this never occurs again.”

Yee’s legislation – supported by statewide and local domestic violence prevention agencies – allocates $16.3 million from the State’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Fund to the Domestic Violence Program.  The fund will be repaid from the General Fund within three years...

The Domestic Violence Program funds allow local agencies to provide emergency shelter, transitional housing, and legal advocacy, as well as assistance with restraining orders, counseling and other vital support services. Domestic violence shelters are often the only thing standing between victims and grave physical danger.  Click here, for a list of shelters and programs.

Who Minds The Kids When Parents Are Behind Bars?

On September 18, for the Chicago Tribune, Lisa Pevtzow penned an advance piece for an hearing convened at the State of Illinois Building by the state legislature's Youth and Family, Juvenile Justice and Judiciary II committees:

"Darlene Horton's arrest for shoplifting 12 years ago was a nightmare for her children.

The police were shouting, remembered Horton, who lives on the South Side. Her children, then 7 and 12, were crying hysterically. And as she was led handcuffed out of the Peoria Kmart, she yelled out instructions to them about who to call to come get them. Her children, she said, were left behind, and a stranger ended up giving them a handful of change to call a teenage sister.

"The police did not protect these little children," said Horton, who has gone through a drug treatment program and is now a coordinator at the Chicago Legal Advocates for Incarcerated Mothers and a student at Harold Washington College…

State Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), chairman of the Youth and Family Committee, said he has heard many stories like Horton's about children left alone after an arrest. He said the hearing will help determine whether the existing laws and state programs that help children of incarcerated are sufficient, and whether there is a failure at some level in police arrest protocols, which do exist.

"We should not put children in these awful predicaments," Harris said "We may need to do a lot better as government at the state, county and local level."

SFCIPP coordinator Nell Bernstein submitted written educational testimony to the Chicago hearing at the request of local participants. Read the rest of the article here.

Parenting The Second Time Around

From Ana Vecinasuarez's  September 13, 2009 article, "Parenting the second time around: Grandparents face steep challenges raising their children’s children," in the Chicago Tribune:

"While friends are planning for retirement, Stella Kessler is managing appointments for her special-needs grandson. She is raising the 16-year-old by herself, balancing doctors’ visits with her own business meetings.

“You do what you have to do,” says Kessler, 64, a senior sales director with Mary Kay. “The energy is not like I had before, but I’m not a slacker either. I can get things done.”

As the years go by, National Grandparents Day – signed into law by Jimmy Carter in 1978 and celebrated the first Sunday after Labor Day – is gaining resonance: More grandparents are raising grandchildren, an encore performance requiring stamina, patience and financial resources that test the promise of the golden years. In 1970, about 3 percent of all children under 18 lived in households headed by a grandparent; by 2007, 6.5 percent – 4.7 million kids – were doing so, according to the Census Bureau.

At last count, 2.4 million grandparents across the country had stepped in when their own children couldn’t do the job.

Death, divorce, illness, even financial difficulties have traditionally sent grandchildren into their grandparents’ homes. Substance abuse problems have fueled the recent upward trend.

“Parents are users or dealers or they’re incarcerated, and the children are left to relatives, usually grandmothers, to raise,” says Deborah Whitley, director of the National Center on Grandparents Raising Grandchildren at Georgia State University.

Grandparents say experience and age have taught them to be more relaxed with their grandchildren. “I used to do a lot more worrying when I was young,” says Eartha James, who is raising six grandchildren, from 4-month-old twins to a 17-year-old. “But now I just take it one day at a time. We’re getting along. The older ones help with the younger ones..."

Complete article, followed by a resource guide can be found here.

Tenth Annual 10th Centerforce In/Out Summit

Discuss current state and national policy recommendations that impact re-entry and mentoring initiatives. Investigate ground-breaking policy to practice initiatives. Connect to mentoring and re-entry funding. Discover avenues to access funding.Examine the latest trends in health care and preventative disease within the prison and visiting populations.

As well as keynotes, plenary sessions, workshops, exhibits and a film festival, all at the Centerforce In/Out Summit at Westin San Francisco Airport in Millbrae, California on October 26-27, 2009.

More information and registration is here.