Mother and Wife Locked Up - A Day With the Family

• NCJ Number: 93322
• Journal: Prison Journal Volume: 63 Issue: 2 Dated: (Autumn/Winter 1983) Pages: 125-141
• Author(s): V V Neto; L M Bainer
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 18 pages
• Grant Number(s): CF-2
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Corrections
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This 1980 survey examined visiting practices in women's institutions, extended daytime and overnight visits with families, as well as overall family visiting programs.

Abstract

The data were collected as part of a larger study entitled 'Program Analysis and Development for the Female Offender' sponsored by the National Institute of Corrections. Information requests were mailed in late 1980 to 3 Federal and 51 State prisons housing women, as well as to 46 jails in large counties and 118 community-based programs. The final sample, excluding inappropriate referrals, defunct programs, and nonrespondents, included 3 Federal prisons, 37 State prisons, 22 jails, and 64 community-based programs. Additional information was collected by telephone interview from 5 prisons and 1 county jail providing specialized visiting programs. The study found that intensified interest in women's issues over the past 10 years has focused attention on the needs of incarcerated women as mothers and contributed to humane modifications in visiting practices in women's prisons. Contact visits have become the rule. Visiting environments, both indoors and outside in picnic or play areas, have been developed or modified to provide a normalized atmosphere for mother-child interaction. Visiting hours have been extended, and in some institutions, children can stay overnight with their mothers. Along with these expansions of time shared between mothers and children have come parent education courses, counseling components, and, to a lesser extent, social and legal services. Overnight family visits for husbands, parents, or other members of the immediate family have been established at a number of State prisons for women. Programs already implemented at some prisons can serve as models for others interested in developing quality parent-child visiting in men's as well as women's institutions. Tabular data and seven references are provided.