NCJ Number
226306
Journal
Corrections Today Magazine Volume: 70 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2008 Pages: 64-67
Date Published
October 2008
Length
4 pages
Annotation
After presenting statistics on the number and needs of children whose parents are incarcerated, this article describes ways in which the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and nongovernmental organizations have addressed the needs of these children.
Abstract
The estimates on the number of children in the United States who have a parent in prison range from 7.3 million to at least 10 million. Regardless of the quality of the relationship these children had with the parent before he/she was imprisoned, these children suffer significant loss, pain, and grief as a result of this separation from a parent. The age of the child as well as the child’s developmental stage at the time of separation, factor into his/her ability to cope with the loss. One major concern about the children is their commitment to education, since the intergenerational link to educational achievement between parents and their children has been well established. Recognizing the high risk for criminal lifestyles of children of offenders, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice established the GO KIDS (Giving Offenders’ Kids Incentive and Direction to Succeed) program in the fall of 2004. GO KIDS promotes the importance of preserving family ties and providing positive prevention and intervention services to the high-risk children of parents involved in the Texas criminal justice system. GO KIDS serves the caregivers of children of offenders by providing information about these types of children as well as about services in the community. On its user-friendly Web site, GO KIDS lists various service organizations by their locality. The program also promotes a variety of in-prison programs designed to strengthen the parent-child relationship. Several well-known local and national service organizations collaborate with GO KIDS to help children of offenders. 14 notes