NCJ Number
219023
Date Published
December 2002
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This report to the Oregon Legislature by the Children of Incarcerated Parents Project pertains to the project's work under Senate Bill 133, which is to foster community partnerships and programs that will improve the health and well-being of children of incarcerated parents, so as to assist in breaking the intergenerational cycle of criminality.
Abstract
The project recognizes research findings that show children of incarcerated parents suffer adverse mental and behavioral effects when separated from their incarcerated parents. Normal development is disrupted by the loss of a parent, resulting in the children's poor social and academic skills. This puts them at higher risk than their peers for juvenile delinquency, depression, drug abuse, and eventual incarceration. Under Senate Bill 133, the project was charged with developing recommendations for improving parent-child relationships while parents are involved with the criminal justice system. The goal of the recommendations is to create effective and manageable programs and policies that will reduce the trauma experienced by these children and improve the quality of the parent-child relationship throughout the parent's involvement in the criminal justice system. In working toward this goal, the project identified the five stages that a parent may go through in the course of involvement in the criminal justice system: arrest, judicial proceedings, jail, prison, and reintegration. The recommendations presented in this report pertain to the short-term and long-term needs of the children during each of these five stages. The recommendations are intended to make appropriate mechanisms available for application based on a case-by-case assessment. Implementation of the recommendations requires involvement by all sectors of the law enforcement community at all governmental levels, adult and juvenile corrections at the State and local levels, parole and probation, and educators and human service workers. A 20-item bibliography