Parenting While Incarcerated: Tailoring the Strengthening Families Program for use with jailed mothers

Abstract

Most incarcerated women are mothers. Parenting programs may benefit women, children and families, yet effectively intervening in correctional settings is a challenge. An evidence-based parenting intervention (the Strengthening Families Program) was tailored and implemented with women in a jail setting. Goals were to assess mothers' needs and interests regarding parenting while they were incarcerated, adapt the program to address those needs, and establish intervention delivery and evaluation methods in collaboration with a community-based agency. Women reported wanting to know more about effective communication; how children manage stress; finances; drug and alcohol use; self-care; and stress reduction. They reported high program satisfaction and reported reduced endorsement of corporal punishment after the intervention. Barriers to implementation included unpredictable attendance from session to session due to changing release dates, transfer to other facilities, and jail policies (e.g., lock-down; commissary hours). Implications for sustainable implementation of parenting programs in jail settings are discussed.

The Feasibility, Appropriateness, Meaningfulness, and Effectiveness of Parenting and Family Support Programs Delivered in the Criminal Justice System: A Systematic Review

“…Overall, the evidence suggests that parenting programs can be effective in promoting positive outcomes especially in relation to parenting attitudes, parenting knowledge, and indicators of parental health and wellbeing. Specifically, findings indicate that parenting programs can be effective for improving attitudes regarding discipline (Cornille et al 2005 ; Landreth and Lobaugh 1998 ; LaRosa and Rank 2001 ; Miller et al 2014 ; Palusci et al 2008 ; Sandifer 2008 ; Scudder et al 2014 ). In the context of parental health and wellbeing, programs were found to be particularly beneficial for depression (Eddy et al 2013 ; Shortt et al 2014 ), self-esteem (Kennon et al 2009 ; Thompson and Harm 2000 ; Wilson et al 2010 ), and stress (Eddy et al 2013 , Frye and Dawe 2008 ; Landreth and Lobaugh 1998 ; Loper and Tuerk 2011 ; Scudder et al 2014 ).…”

Recruiting, Retaining and Engaging Men in Social Interventions: Lessons for Implementation Focusing on a Prison-based Parenting Intervention for Young Incarcerated Fathers

“…The work supports assertions that particular parents are not, by dint of who they are, necessarily “hard-to-reach” but instead it may be that particular interventions and services are hard [for them] to access (Davies, 2016 ). The prison is an opportunity for delivering parenting programmes to incarcerated fathers, an opportunity that should be grasped as it can be a highly conducive setting for such work, albeit with institutional challenges, some of which threatened to compromise aspects of engagement for this programme (Miller et al., 2014 ).…”

“…This need has been recognised and parenting intervention work has, indeed, been delivered in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) in the UK for around 25 years (Buston et al., 2012 ), but has been characterised by patchiness and non-sustainability. There are few published process evaluations of parenting programmes in prisons (Miller et al., 2014 ), and none that the author is aware of in relation to interventions for young incarcerated fathers. A review of family interventions more broadly in the prison environment concluded that there were problems delivering such interventions in this setting because of: limited engagement with families, high participant drop-out rates, prisoner concerns about confidentiality, practical barriers such as lack of suitable rooms, and low trust between prisoners and staff (Roberts et al., 2016 ).…”

Growing up (being) without a mother: children’s experiences during maternal imprisonment

“…Therefore, American, British and Australian institutions have sought, through programs, to strengthen family ties, recognizing the special needs of mothers and children. Objectives include improving parenting skills and reducing conflicts between caregivers and mothers (10)(11) .…”