NCJ Number
169845
Date Published
1997
Length
42 pages
Annotation
After analyzing the plight of children whose parents are in prison, this report suggests ways in which child welfare agencies can improve their services for these children.
Abstract
Children with parents in prison are a vulnerable population, and there are several important reasons for intervening to address their special needs. First, the number of children impacted increases daily, and current criminal justice policy suggests that numbers will continue to increase. Second, the costs of keeping children in care are significant. If the service needs of these families are not met, more and more children will enter the child welfare system, thus increasing costs. Also, research shows that there is an intergenerational aspect to crime and incarceration. The most important task for child welfare professionals is to identify the children within the child welfare system who have parents in prison. Once these children and families have been identified, services and resources can be developed to better serve their special needs. At the same time, child welfare professionals can collaborate with other systems to help meet the needs of the much larger population of children and families impacted by incarceration. Other important tasks of child welfare workers are to identify gaps in services and advocate for resource and service development, consider ways of providing preventive services, strengthen permanency planning services, strengthen reunification services, and provide more training to caseworkers and foster parents. Training topics that should be addressed are the special needs of children whose parents are in prison, how to access available resources, the encouragement of parent-child contact by facilitating visits and other forms of communication, and interagency collaboration with criminal justice. 56 notes