Parenting behind bars : an evaluation of the parenting program at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women

Two· thirds of incarcerated women are mothers. Increasing incarcerated mothers\u27 parenting abilities while they are in prison may increase their potential for practicing effective parenting both inside and outside the prison context. This study evaluated the · efficacy of the parenting program at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women (KCIW) in changing inmate mothers\u27 parenting knowledge and skills. A pretest-post tests nonequivalent comparison group quasi-experimental design was used to assess short term change in parenting knowledge after a 12 week parent education course. Results from paired samples t-tests of parenting class participants\u27 time one and time two scores on scales from the Parent Child Relationship Inventory (Gerard 1994) and the Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory (Bavolek and Keene 1999) suggested change likely resulting from the KCIW Parenting Program. Before and after differences in scores of a treatment group ( n=64) of participants who completed the course indicate significant positive change in their child development knowledge; preference for corporal punishment; attitudes about parent child role reversal; and empathetic awareness of their children\u27s needs. No significant change after 12 weeks was indicated in a comparison group ( n=26) of inmate mothers who had never participated in the KCIW parenting program. Contextualization of KCIW inmate life provides a backdrop for quantitative findings. Wanting to belong and be significant to someone appears to have resulted in the emergence of an indigenous culture that focuses on who likes who� as well as various imported culture features. For example, narrative evidence from semi structured interviews with 50 inmates suggests that parent education classes and parent child interactional opportunities (Bonding Program, Kids Day, Teen Day, and Girl Scouts Beyond Bars) impact how inmate mothers do their time. These opportunities provide time for practicing parenting skills; aid inmate mothers\u27 emotional adjustment; and help alleviate some of the problems associated with regular visitation· ( e.g., lack of privacy for parent/child communication, time restraints, and practices that encourage parent-child role reversal). Based on this program evaluation, prison parenting programs can change how inmate mothers\u27 see parenting and thus potentially their parenting practices. From a life course theoretical perspective, increasing incarcerated mothers\u27 social capital (i.e., stores of knowledge, skills, and relationships) may aid their reintegration into society and encourage them to choose pro social pathways. Equipping them to transfer and create stores of social capital in their children (e.g., through effective parenting) may aid in preventing their children from following the criminal pathway set by their parents

Prisoners’ Families’ Research: Developments, Debates and Directions

After many years of relative obscurity, research on prisoners’ families has gained significant momentum. It has expanded from case-oriented descriptive analyses of family experiences to longitudinal studies of child and family development and even macro analyses of the effects on communities in societies of mass incarceration. Now the field engages multi-disciplinary and international interest although it arguably still remains on the periphery of mainstream criminological, psychological and sociological research agendas. This chapter discusses developments in prisoners’ families’ research and its positioning in academia and practice. It does not aim to provide an all-encompassing review of the literature rather it will offer some reflections on how and why the field has developed as it has and on its future directions. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first discusses reasons for the historically small body of research on prisoners’ families and for the growth in research interest over the past two decades. The second analyses patterns and shifts in the focus of research studies and considers how the field has been shaped by intersecting disciplinary interests of psychology, sociology, criminology and socio-legal studies. The final part reflects on substantive and ethical issues that are likely to shape the direction of prisoners’ families’ research in the future