Maintaining family contact during incarceration can be beneficial to both children and their parents. It is generally thought that maintaining parent-child contact through personal visits during incarceration is important for the well-being of many children, although little empirical evidence exists on that point. Some research indicates that visiting is important in maintaining parent-child relationships and increases the likelihood of successful reunification after release.With regard to prisoners themselves, several studies found that maintenance of family ties during incarceration is linked to post-release success, defined as lower rates of recidivism and fewer parole violations.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics study examined the types and frequency of contacts between prison inmates of minor children and the children of these inmates, including their adult children. The study found that almost 79 percent of state inmate parents had some kind of contact with at least one of their children since admission. Thirty-nine percent of fathers and 56 percent of mothers in state prison reported at least weekly contact with a child, in the form of letters, telephone calls or visits. Relatively few inmates reported regular personal visits from at least one of their children, however. In state prison, only 12.3 percent of fathers and 14.6 percent of mothers reported personal visits from a child at least once a month. Fifty-nine percent of fathers and 58 percent of mothers had no personal visits from any of their children.
Barriers to more frequent contact, particularly personal visits, include the following.
- Corrections policy In theory, corrections officials encourage visiting and maintenance of family ties. Inpractice, however, prison rules to ensure safety and security often impede such visits. As Creasey Finney Hairston notes, “correctional institutions commonly require children’s custodial parents to escort them on visits, require child visitors to produce birth certificates listing the prisoner as the biological parent, and house prisoners in locations hundreds or thousands of miles from their homes—all policies that create obstacles for healthy parent-child relationships.” Prisons also commonly charge excessive fees for telephone calls to subsidize their operations, so incarcerated parents cannot afford to maintain regular contact with their children.
- Child-unfriendly facilities The prison environment can be frightening and traumatic for children, both in the attitudes and behavior of prison staff and the physical setting. Visits can include long waits; body frisks; rude treatment; and hot, dirty and crowded visiting rooms with no activities for children.These conditions do not encourage frequent visits between incarcerated parents and their children.
- Parent-caregiver relationships One of the most important factors that affect whether and how often a child has contact with an incarcerated parent is the relationship between the parent and the children’s current caregiver. For various reasons, a caregiver-be it the other parent or a relative-may have a strained relationship with the incarcerated parent or may have severed all ties with him or her. The caregiver may feel that further contact with the imprisoned parent could harm the child and therefore might prevent or discourage such contact.
- Child welfare policy and practice For reasons that will be discussed more fully in the next section, placement of a child in foster care poses unique barriers to visitation with incarcerated parents. In the context of federal and state policies that discourage reunification when a child has been in foster care for an extended period, caseworkers have little incentive to arrange visits and work to preserve parent-child relationships.
