Children and Families with Incarcerated Parents

More Mothers Behind Bars

Since 1990, the number of female prisoners has grown by nearly 50%. Three-quarters of these women are mothers and two-thirds have children under the age of 18.

Looking Ahead

This report identifies six opportunities to enhance services and support families shaken by parental incarceration. Item no. 3 on the list? Get the message out. Funders must support a major public education campaign that makes the issue of aiding children of incarcerated parents everyone’s issue.

A Need for Numbers

Field leaders and Foundation staff pinpointed a clear lack of data as a major challenge in serving children with incarcerated parents. A step in the right direction, they say, is to encourage state departments of corrections to collect information about these children. Currently, Rhode Island is the only state to do so.

Walking the Walk

Casey’s commitment to aiding children of incarcerated families runs deep. Beyond working to narrow knowledge gaps on this issue, the Foundation has supported a variety of on-the-ground initiatives—everything from a photo documentary project that spotlights the struggles of children who have lost a parent to prison to the development of a video-based training tool aimed at helping ministers improve their outreach to families and parents impacted by incarceration.

A Framework for Aiding Families

The Foundation folded in feedback from outside experts to create a 10-part guide—called Family Connections—aimed at informing work with children of incarcerated parents. Three items that made the final cut are: 1) Keep the family as the central focus; 2) Help incarcerated parents develop positive, healthy ways of relating to those around them; 3) Support interactions between the incarcerated parent and their child.

Casey Commitments

The Foundation has vowed to invest in supporting children of incarcerated parents in the following four ways: 1) Build knowledge using reliable data and research that will better inform policy and practice. 2) Get other foundations together and talking about this issue (and investing in it, too). 3) Identify internal policies and practices that have already worked. 4) Select opportunities to influence policy and practice by partnering with other foundations.