Connecting incarcerated parents and their children through inmates' recorded readings of books
Abstract
In collaboration with local judicial and law enforcement authorities and a nonprofit child-advocacy organization, RSVP of Allen County, Indiana supplies books and tape-recorders to inmates of a county correctional facility, who then create recordings of themselves reading that are distributed along with the books to their children. The program helps inmates who are parents maintain a meaningful presence in the lives of their children and can serve as an effective model and practical approach for national service programs seeking to promote youth development and family literacy within a difficult-to-reach subset of families in disadvantaged circumstances. Erich Stiefvater of LEARNS, submitted this effective practice in April 2006.
Issue
National service programs seeking to provide mentoring, literacy, and youth-development services to the children of incarcerated parents may encounter difficulties in identifying and reaching such children. This can result from the logistical challenges of tracking down children that may be placed in a variety of temporary custodial arrangements, as well as from a sense of shame that may cause the families of inmates to keep a low profile in the community.
If national service programs are successful in reaching children of incarcerated adults, they must then take care to preserve the parental bonds and prerogatives inmates have with their children. These bonds may be tentative as incarcerated adults who are parents lose the ability to interact in a regular and meaningful way with their children while they are in prison.
Action
In 2005, RSVP of Allen County, Indiana developed and launched a family-literacy initiative that presents a promising approach to both reaching children of incarcerated adults and maintaining meaningful connections between them and their parents. The "Incarcerated Parents Reading Program" (IPRP) distributes children's books and tape recorders to selected inmates with children at the county's correctional facility. The inmates record themselves reading the books, and the recordings and books are then forwarded to the children. Details of the program include:
- The prison's four chaplains identify the inmate candidates for participation in the IPRP.
- Twelve volunteers from RSVP of Allen County coordinate the distribution of age- and topic-appropriate children's books and tape recorders through the chaplains to inmates that opt to participate.
- After the inmates have finished recording themselves, the RSVP volunteers pick up the books and tapes and deliver them to the local chapter of Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN), whose caseworkers deliver them to the inmates' children.
- The inmates currently participating in the IPRP are both male and female, and are serving sentences that are typically about a year's length.
- The children of these inmates are relatively young, so the program has been purchasing and distributing primarily pre-school and early-elementary-level books.
- Local individuals and groups provide support for the IPRP with donations of money, books, and gift certificates.
Several elements of the design and execution of the IPRP contribute — or should contribute in the future — to the program's success, and represent best practices for other national service programs seeking to serve incarcerated parents and their children. These include:
- Securing support from the local law enforcement community
RSVP of Allen County held extensive discussions with the county sheriff and local judges prior to launching the IPRP. Securing the consent of the sheriff opened doors within the county corrections organization that enabled RSVP to approach and work with the chaplains and other prison staff. Informing judges kept them apprised of resources available to the individuals they were sentencing to prison who are parents. - Using prison chaplains to identify candidates for participation
Chaplains providing spiritual counsel and support to inmates serving long sentences can come to know the personal circumstances and temperaments of their clients intimately. Inmates are also often more likely to trust a clergyperson of their faith than other prison staff. As a result, chaplains are in an excellent position to identify and recruit inmates who would benefit the most from participating in the IPRP. Using the chaplains reduces the recruitment and selection costs for the program, as well as the risks to the program and the privacy of inmates. - Using educators to select age- and topic-appropriate books for use in the program
After initial attempts by RSVP of Allen County to select age- and topic-appropriate books for the IPRP, the program began consulting with local educators to make recommendations. Pre-K-12 teachers, reading specialists, and librarians are familiar with books that correspond to the reading abilities of children at various ages and ability levels, and can also provide guidance in finding books of interest to children of varying cultural and ethnic backgrounds. - Partnering with a community organization with expertise in serving children of incarcerated adults
Working with the local SCAN chapter enabled RSVP of Allen County to tap into the expertise and connections of an established child-advocacy organization serving children of incarcerated adults. It also minimized the program's risk and protected the children's privacy.
Context
Allen County is Indiana's largest county by area, and has about 340,000 residents. The county is roughly half-rural and half-urban, incorporating both farmland and the mid-sized city of Fort Wayne. The county is primarily white, and about nine percent of its households are below the federal poverty line.
The county correctional facility served by RSVP of Allen County's program is in Fort Wayne, and serves inmates from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Due to the popularity of the program and the large proportion of Hispanic and Burmese inmates (the latter the result of refugee-resettlement programs), the program is looking into acquiring Spanish- and Burmese-language books and materials.
Outcome
Policies and programs that help incarcerated adults and their children maintain their relationships can help ease the burden of prolonged separation and provide comfort and guidance for the children.
RSVP of Allen County's IPRP allows for parents incarcerated in Allen County's correctional facility to maintain a connection and positive influence on their children by allowing the children to hear their voices while offering encouragement about reading.
The innovative partnerships RSVP formed with representatives of law-enforcement and child-advocacy organizations in order to implement the program also created resource associations that the RSVP program can use to advance other initiatives serving incarcerated parents and their families.
Evidence
The IPRP is less than one year old, and RSVP of Allen County will be able to offer a more complete picture of the program's performance once a full year's worth of data has been collected. However, preliminary, informal indicators suggest the program is well on its way to achieving success. These include:
- Positive reviews by the prison chaplains and SCAN caseworkers
- Positive, anecdotal feedback from the families served
- All inmates selected by chaplains to participate chose to do so
- The number of inmates participating in the IPRP grew from the planned 25 to 34 participants
- Full participation by and retention of the 12 RSVP volunteers that started with the IPRP
- Additional interest from potential volunteers
Posted On
May 8, 2006For More Information
Resources
Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Toolkit for Senior Corps Directors
The Resource Center: Mentoring Children of Prisoners
Source Documents
Related Practices
Related sites
American Correctional Chaplains Association
National Sheriffs' Association
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