Breadcrumb
- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
Children in Foster Care with Parents in Federal Prison: A Toolkit for Child Welfare Agencies, Federal Prisons, and Residential Reentry Centers
Roughly 10% of incarcerated mothers in state prison have a child in a foster home or other state care. Some estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 8 children who are subjects of reports of maltreatment and investigated by child welfare agencies have parents who were recently arrested. Though there is clearly overlap between the prison system and the child welfare system, it is often difficult for prison officials to know how to help incarcerated parents stay in touch with their children in foster care and work towards reunification. Similarly, it is difficult for child welfare agencies to know how to engage parents in prison. The purpose of this toolkit is to help facilitate communication and cooperation between child welfare agencies and federal prisons so that parents can stay engaged in their children's lives.
Children of Incarcerated Parents – Fact Sheet
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2007, an estimated 1.7 million children under the age of 18 had a parent in prison, an increase of almost 80 percent since 1991. The negative consequences for children with an incarcerated parent can be substantial, including financial instability, changes in family structure, shame, and social stigma. However, research also shows that supporting healthy and positive relationships between these vulnerable children, who are the innocent bystanders of adult decisions, and their families has the potential to mitigate negative outcomes.
An interagency group, that includes the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Education, and Agriculture as well as the Social Security Administration, has partnered with stakeholders both inside and outside of government to identify opportunities to support these children and their caregivers. This fact sheet describes the efforts of the interagency group.
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons protects society by confining offenders in the controlled environments of prisons and community-based facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure, and that provide work and other self-improvement opportunities to assist offenders in becoming law-abiding citizens.
Video Visiting in Corrections: Benefits, Limitations, and Implementing Considerations
This guide from the National Institute of Corrections can help inform administrators working in correctional settings about the benefits and challenges of using “video visiting,” in which incarcerated individuals communicate with family members via video conferencing technology or virtual software programs. The guide includes three chapters that address: (1) reasons to consider video visiting; (2) implementation considerations; and (3) evaluation of a video visiting program.
National Institute of Corrections (NIC) - Children of Incarcerated Parents (CoIP) Project
Studies show that the arrest of a parent can be traumatic for children and their families and it is correlated with behavioral problems, poor outcomes in school, and the severance of relationships with the incarcerated parents, that often lasts a long time after the parent is released. The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) created the Children of Incarcerated Parents Project (CoIP) to assist stakeholders who are involved with affected families by providing a review of existing literature and promising practices and working with stakeholders to build frameworks to apply lessons learned in the field.
National Reentry Resource Center
Funded by the Second Chance Act of 2008, and launched by the Council of State Governments Justice Center in 2009, the National Reentry Resource Center provides education, training, and technical assistance to states, tribes, territories, local governments, service providers, non-profit organizations, and corrections institutions working on prisoner reentry.
Parental Incarceration and Child Wellbeing: An Annotated Bibliography
This annotated bibliography focuses on quantitative research on the consequences of paternal and maternal incarceration for children that (1) attempts to control for selection using standard statistical techniques, (2) uses broadly representative data, and (3) differentiates consequences of paternal incarceration from consequences of maternal incarceration. Although this bibliography focuses primarily on research in the United States, a small number of studies using data from European countries are also included (and many additional studies in that vein are also included in the further readings section so that interested readers will be able to read more in this area).
Parental Incarceration and Child Wellbeing: An Annotated Bibliography (PDF, 17 pages)
Promising Practices Toolkit: Working with Drug Endangered Children and Their Families
This toolkit, developed by the Department of Justice's Federal Interagency Task Force on Drug Endangered Children, aims to help professionals serving drug-endangered children by identifying promising practices in the field, as well as why these practice works and resources to assist in their implementation.
Safeguarding Children of Arrested Parents: Trauma Prevention Policy
The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP), in partnership with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) created a policy, Safeguarding Children of Arrested Parents. The policy, which reflects input from subject-matter experts and stakeholders, provides strategies for law enforcement to improve their procedures for interactions with children when a parent is arrested.
Video: Safeguarding Children of Arrested Parents Training
This training video shows children telling their own stories about how they were affected by the arrest of a parent, and demonstrates the core principles from the Model Policy for Safeguarding Children of Arrested Parents (PDF, 38 pages), illustrating actions law enforcement officers can take to reduce trauma.
Resource: Hidden Consequences: The Impact of Incarceration on Dependent Children
This article summarizes the range of risk factors facing children of incarcerated parents. It also cautions against universal policy solutions that seek to address these risk factors but do not take into account the child's unique needs, the child's relationship with the incarcerated parent, and alternative support systems. Correctional practitioners and other service providers can use this resource to better understand how their communication and collaboration can foster a safety net for children and facilitate successful re-entry for the incarcerated parent.
Native American Traditional Justice Practices
“Expert Working Group Report: Native American Traditional Justice Practices” (PDF, 35 pages) summarizes discussions and recommendations from a meeting about federal efforts to support the use of traditional Native American justice interventions to respond to criminal and delinquent behavior. The meeting was held in April 2013 and included 14 experts from multidisciplinary communities.
4-H Military Partnerships
The National 4-H Headquarters, at USDA has established formal partnerships with Army Child and Youth Services, Air Force Airmen and Family Services, Army Child and Youth Services and Navy Child and Youth Programs to support positive youth development education for youth whose parents are serving in the military.
4-H Afterschool
4-H Afterschool is a special focused effort within the 4-H Youth Development Program that helps 4-H and other youth-serving organizations create and improve after-school programs in urban, suburban, and rural communities across the United States.
4-H Youth Development Program
The 4-H Youth Development Program is the only national organization that is federally mandated to conduct positive youth development programs. The program works to improve knowledge and skills of young people (their Heads, Hearts, Hands, and Health) and the quality of life in the communities in which they live.
Children, Youth, and Families at Risk
This site provides information on the state and community Children, Youth, and Families at Risk programs funded by the National Insitute of Food and Agriculture.
Children, Youth, and Families Education and Research Network
CYFERnet is a national network of Land Grant university faculty and county Extension educators working to support community-based educational programs for children, youth, parents and families. It provides program, evaluation and technology assistance for children, youth and family community-based programs and is funded as a joint project of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's NIFA and the Cooperative Extension System
Cooperative Extension System
The CES, administered by over 130 land grant universities and anchored in all 3,150 counties across the country, is a network of academically trained university faculty and staff who provide a broad array of staff training, curriculum, community collaboration building, evaluation, resource development, and other expertise and resources to out-of-school time programs.
Families, Youth, and Communities
This site provides resources on families, youth, and communities from Cooperative Extension experts around the country.
International Day of the Girl
This video, released in commemoration of the International Day of the Girl on October 11, 2013, features Secretary of State John Kerry discussing the barriers to success that girls face across the globe and the importance of empowering girls to become leaders and innovators who can move their communities forward.
Make a Friend-Be a Peer Mentor
This Bulletin explains to youth how peer mentoring works, how to become a peer mentor, and how to create and maintain a strong peer mentor network.
National 4-H Headquarters
National 4-H Headquarters, United States Department of Agriculture. 4-H is the largest youth organization in the United States for children and youth ages 5 to 19. Visit the Cooperative Extension Office near you to find a 4-H program in your community
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) advances knowledge for agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being, and communities by supporting research, education, and extension programs in the Land-Grant University System and other partner organizations. NIFA replaced the former Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), which had been in existence since 1994.
National Mentoring Resource Center
The goal of the National Mentoring Resource Center is to improve the quality and effectiveness of mentoring across the country by supporting youth mentoring practitioners.
PEPNet: Connecting Juvenile Offenders to Education and Employment
This factsheet discusses the process and criteria behind PEPnet, a practice-based system that identifies and promotes effective youth development and employment programs and maintains an extensive database resource.