Parenting from Prison Pilot Project

Historically, corrections has focused primarily on meeting the needs of the offender during incarceration. While the Missouri Reentry Process has reduced recidivism, despite the success of individual organizations (4H LIFE, Story Link, Community Action Teams, and BBBS-Amachi), this is the first statewide organizational collaborative effort created to address the intergenerational cycle of incarceration occurring with children of incarcerated parents. From the point of their parent's arrest, children of incarcerated parents tend to come from resource poor families and are seven times more likely to be incarcerated themselves. To address this cycle, a model has been developed to address policies, practices, and conditions that impact children of offenders.

Vision:

• To end the cycle of intergenerational incarceration.

Mission Statement:

• Through community collaboration and coordination of resources we will help offenders and their families build strong, healthy relationships.

Objectives:

• Improve the quality of offender and child relationships
• Reduce the intergenerational cycle of incarceration
• Develop an integrated system of service coordination that includes the correctional institution and community

The Project:

• Enhance the relationship between thirty offenders, their children and the caregiver(s) with wrap around services. This pilot will be a two-year project that is planned to begin in January 2010 at Women's Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center.

Components:

• Public Relations/Orientation
• Participation Criteria
• Assessment
• Service Coordination
• Parenting Programming
• Evaluation

Organizational Involvement:

• Department of Corrections
• Department of Social Services/Family And Community Trust
• University of Missouri Extension, 4-H LIFE, Building Strong Families
• Big Brothers Big Sisters - AMACHI
• ParentLink
• Missouri Partnerships for Reentry/Volunteers In Service To America
• Story Link Program (including Movie Link)

The unique features of this parenting project are enhanced familial connections of offenders with their children in addition to a societal focus on the child(ren) and caregiver(s) residing in the community. Through a network of community partnerships, the project will facilitate wrap-around services directed at the families. The result should be an immediate enhancement of the parent/child relationship leading to a projected decrease in incarceration.