Successful reentry is one of the greatest challenges facing America today and, especially the future of our children. The greatest predictor of whether a child will wind up in prison is whether his parent(s)— namely, the father—was in prison. Despite the many daunting challenges that fathers face upon their release, connecting them with their children and family is perhaps the most strategic one to address because it breaks the generational nature of crime and incarceration.
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Journal Article The article discusses the effectiveness of the Safe Return Initiative in preventing domestic violence involving prisoners who have returned to their intimate partners and family members. The initiative was run by the Vera Institute of Justice and the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American community. The project was financed by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women.(Author abstract)
This documents looks at strategies for fatherhood development within probation intervention, as an effort to provide young men with opportunities to build competencies through the probation experience to become better men and fathers. (Author abstract)
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Housing security is an important component of economicand emotional wellbeing, particularly among disadvantagedpopulations. Among those returning from incarceration,stable housing is especially critical. This brief contributes to our knowledge of the challenges faced by ex-prisoners (particularly urban fathers) upon re-entry in two ways. First, it examines the relationship between recent incarceration and housing insecurity net of other factors known to characterize social and economic disadvantage. Second, it investigates the extent to which the association between incarceration and housing…
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This resource was developed under an Innovation and Improvement Project grant from the Office of Head Start with the goal to encourage and support positive relationships of families with infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children of incarcerated fathers or fathers on probation or parole. Head Start programs may find this resource useful. (Author abstract)
Federal law sets timelines for states' decisions about placing foster care children in permanent homes, and, in some cases, for filing to terminate parental rights. Some policymakers have questioned the reasonableness of these timelines for children of incarcerated parents and expressed interest in how states work with these families. GAO was asked to examine: (1) the number of foster care children with incarcerated parents, (2) strategies used by child welfare and corrections agencies in selected states that may support contact or reunification, and (3) how the Department of Health and Human…
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Taking risks is fairly common in adolescence. Risky behaviors can be associated with serious, long-term, and -- in some cases -- life-threatening consequences. This is especially the case when adolescents engage in more than one harmful behavior. The tendency for risky behaviors to co-occur has been well-studied. Yet prevention efforts traditionally have taken a targeted approach, seeking to prevent a single risky behavior. A more powerful and cost-effective approach may be to employ strategies designed to address factors associated with multiple risky behaviors. This Research Brief brings…
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Training Materials Get Right With Your Taxes is a new FREE tax educational package created and distributed by IRS Wage & Investment, Stakeholder Partnerships, Education and Communication (SPEC). It contains information individuals need to know about their tax responsibilities. The products were developed to be used by/in prisoner re-entry programs within various organizations, agencies and correctional institutions nationwide including prison officials, halfway houses, and community organizations.As taxpayers, everyone can benefit from this information. While it is geared to a specific "prisoner"…
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Journal Article The aim of the Baby Elmo Program is to establish a low-cost, sustainable parenting and structured visitation program for non-custodial incarcerated teen parents. The program is taught and supervised by probation staff in juvenile detention facilities and unlike traditional programs, this intervention is not based on increasing the teen's abstract parenting knowledge, but rather in building a relationship between the teen and his child. The sessions target the interactional quality of the relationship by introducing relationship, communication, and socio-emotional enhancing techniques.…
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This tool is an adaptation of the FFCU created by the National Fatherhood Initiative. This will help you assess the degree to which your court's operations encourage father involvement in the courtroom and through the court's administrative functions.
