Innocent . . . For Now
By Pat Nolan|Published Date: November 03, 2009
An estimated 1.5 to 1.7 million children in the United States currently have a father or mother behind prison bars. Even though these children are not to blame for their parents’ actions, they are frequently stigmatized by shame, poverty, and family instability. As a result, they often suffer poor school performance and behavioral and emotional problems.
When I left to serve my prison sentence in 1994, my five-year-old daughter didn’t understand the legal aspects of what had happened. All she knew was one day I was there and the next day I had disappeared from her life. She felt abandoned.
Recently the Council of State Governments (CSG) released Children of Incarcerated Parents: An Action Plan for Federal Policymakers. This report includes several modest and common-sense policy changes to increase family contacts during incarceration and reverse unreasonable corrections practices that do great harm to families and, in particular, to the most vulnerable among us—children.
Prison’s Strain on Family Connections
Evidence shows that maintaining the parent-child relationship during a parent’s incarceration improves children’s emotional development and behavior and helps prevent them from following their parent to prison. Yet many prison policies make it difficult for family members to maintain contact with an incarcerated relative.
One way these policies hinder family connections is by sending offenders to prisons miles from their families. Approximately 60 percent of inmates are housed more than 100 miles away from their previous residence, making visits difficult, if not impossible for many families. These families must then rely on the telephone as a lifeline to their loved one, but prisons often charge exorbitant rates on calls. Whereas you and I can make a collect call for 10 cents a minute, most prisons charge inmate families 10 times that—a huge financial burden on those who can least afford it. Prisons are, in fact, gouging the poorest of the poor.
Years ago when I was in prison, my wife, Gail, sent me our children’s homework, and I would review it with them on the telephone. Gail also sent me the Boxcar Children books that they were reading in school so that I could discuss the stories with them. This kept me included in their everyday lives even though we were 1,700 miles apart. At the rates prisons are currently charging for telephone calls, my family wouldn’t have been to afford them. We would have been cut off from a meaningful and special way of communicating.
Recommendations for the Children’s Sake
The CSG report is a practical guide that will be useful to corrections officials, legislators, and advocates for children and families. It recommends several reasonable changes in policies that will limit the harm done to children whose parents are in prison and help them become vibrant, contributing members of society when they grow up.
The following are some important recommendations:
- Place parents in prisons as close as possible to their family and no more than 100 miles from their children;
- Limit telephone charges to the actual cost of the calls;
- Increase visiting hours and make visitation policies more “user friendly” with reasonable hours, protection from the elements, and sanitary facilities available;
- Ensure that needed health care is available to children.
In addition to legislative action, community groups should reach out to make sure that children of the incarcerated are included in beneficial programs. Several churches in the Southern California area, for example, have established the Get on the Bus program that takes children to see their incarcerated parents on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. And what a blessing it is for the children to see their parents—and a blessing for the parents to hold and hug their sweet children, whom otherwise they would not see. Tears of joy flow from the moment the buses arrive until they depart. A similar program exists in New York State.
Strengthening Ties through Angel Tree
As most of you know, Prison Fellowship has a long-standing commitment to children with incarcerated parents. For 27 years, we have supported these families through Angel Tree®, which provides Christmas gifts on behalf of the parents in prison as well as year-round ministry opportunities for the children, such as camping and mentoring. The program (which is mentioned in the CSG report as one of the “promising practices” that strengthen parent-child relationships) connects children to local church congregations to help break the intergenerational cycle of crime and bring reconciliation and hope.
Since 1982 Angel Tree has delivered Christmas gifts to more than eight million prisoners’ children nationwide, provided camping experiences to approximately 40,000 children, and mentored another 5,000 prisoners’ children. Each of the children touched by the Angel Tree program can know that he or she is special and is loved unconditionally by many people. That kind of care goes a long way toward overcoming the stigma of having a parent in prison.
All children deserve our love and protection, but children of incarcerated parents need an extra helping hand. Justice Fellowship is working closely with the CSG to encourage state and federal policymakers to implement these recommendations and make meeting the needs of these often neglected children a priority.
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