Effectiveness of Parenting Programs for Mothers in Prison

Effectiveness of Parenting Treatment Programs for Mothers in Prison
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Effectiveness of Parenting Treatment Programs for Mothers in Prison
The US has witnessed a significant transformation in the engagement of parents in the criminal justice system as incarcerated offenders. Women are particularly vulnerable, because of the more intensive law enforcement measures, arrests and prosecutions, and stringent drug-related punishment legislation that has had exceptionally adverse effects on them (Blumberg & Griffin, 2013). The number of women is currently almost eight times more than it was four decades ago, from 26,378 in 1980 to 215, 332 in 2014, with 102,400 in local jails and 111,300 in state and federal prisons (Glaze & Kaeble, 2014). The number of people incarcerated decreased by 2.5% (5,300 inmates) between 2013 and 2014, and the number of individuals held in both state and federal correctional facilities sentenced to more than a year dropped by 11,800 detainees in the same period. Despite this, the numbers of convicted women to more than one year rose by 2% to 106,200 in 2014 (Carson, 2015). A majority of these incarcerated women have minor children, and because of their vulnerability, the implementation of parenting programs becomes a necessity.
Incarcerated parents often express mixed emotions when they get separated from their children, not spending time with them as they grow up, and these worries include the time lost in not helping the kids through difficult times, teaching them, and missing their precious moments (Sandifer, 2008).

It has been established that the incarcerated mothers’ children possess higher rates of unsociable and psychological ill health than those who stay or frequently interact with their parents (Murray et al., 2009), and this is detrimental to their development. Parenting programs for these mothers thus help to alleviate and relieve the emotional pressure inflicted on both the mother and child and to help reduce the dangerous consequences that may arise from the incarceration of the mother. Effective parenting programs ought to concentrate on how to enhance better the value of connections and communications between the imprisoned mother and child, rather than on time (quantity) spent (Blumberg & Griffin, 2013). However, according to Murray et al., (2009), an effective parenting program is that which aims to have the number of incarcerated mothers reduced, adopting alternatives to criminal sentencing such as house arrest, probation, and rigorous monitoring.
Although the parenting programs vary in design and self-assessment, they are ultimately geared towards an improvement of the children’s welfare. They are aimed at improving parenting skills and the promoting “healthy parent-child relationships” (Perry et al., 2010), with a focus on self-esteem, communication, and child development. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of parenting programs designed for incarcerated mothers, arguing that they are effective measures in alleviating the likely adverse impacts of incarceration on children, enabling parents to play an integral part in their kids’ development, building on their parenting competencies. Interventions that could aid in improving the mental health of mothers could also improve the mother-child relationship, thus helping to alleviate any adverse effects of the incarceration (Makariev & Shaver, 2009).
Intervention programs for parents who have children with conduct issues are essential in shaping them for the better. According to Murray & Murray (2010), children with incarcerated parents have a higher likelihood to show antisocial and delinquent behavior than those whose parents are not. Additionally, they are highly likely to display “serious mental health and substance abuse issues.” Other studies have revealed that incarceration of the fathers has a stronger impact on the aggressive behavior of children than if the father was absent for other reasons (Geller et al., 2012). Reducing these adverse effects on children would be through devising appropriate mechanisms for educating, supporting, and helping them while serving their sentence, as well as measures for strengthening family attachments during or after the incarceration. Parenting performs a pivotal role in a child’s development, and the incarcerated parent’s children have a higher risk of conduct behaviors. If these persist from a young age, there is the likelihood for a developed affinity for drug and substance abuse and committing crimes, and subsequently the increased risk of their incarceration (Miller et al., 2013).
In Australia, the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P program) was designed to incorporate incarcerated parents with children, who display behavioral problems, targeting “child development, parenting behaviors, child behavior, and integrated behavior” (Robertson, 2014). An analysis of the program by the University of Queensland showed that parents reflect definite improvements in parenting, satisfaction and efficacy, and children depicting reduced behavioral issues. About nine in ten of the parents involved in the program displayed more confidence in their parenting roles, and less than six months after starting the program, their children showed significant improvements in behavior. The “Incredible Years BASIC” program in Australia was designed for the prevention of new persistent anti-social behavior and improving family interaction models for children aged between two and ten (Robertson, 2014). It has demonstrated its effectiveness in helping reduce behavioral problems as well as improved effective parenting and has been commonly cited as a very active support parenting program, especially for mothers (Webster-Stratton, Reid & Beauchaine, 2011). The Parent Management Training (PMT) program, which has been operational for more than three decades now, is aimed at teenage children and its implementation has shown reduced arrests and delinquency. Out of it, the Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) grew, and the intervention has been effective in achieving a reduction of child maltreatment and related risk factors; this is because it involves intensive collaboration with the incarcerated mother in a home or clinical setup (Robertson, 2014).
Tailored parenting programs are necessary to reduce or eliminate stressful family environments that can affect the children and their caregivers. Incarceration of parents destabilizes the family system, with depressive symptoms among incarcerated mothers more often related to the “less frequent face-to-face contact during incarceration” (Poehlmann, 2005). Scheduled face-to-face parental visitation is a primary intervention towards “maintaining and enhancing the development of parent-child relationship” for the continued positive relationship upon reunification (Fasbender, 2015). The mothers might evolve suicidal thoughts following the loss of this emotional and physical contact, such as caring for them, hugging, touching, and an observation of their developmental progress. Provision of personalized visits where the incarcerated mothers can physically interact with their children can lead to reduced stress on the parents part and improved psychological well-being, although this could be traumatic for the children.
The “Mother-Child Visitation Program” is a non-profit private program in the US Midwestern women’s prison. The program is based on the foundational principles that, to gain a correct understanding of motherly role of incarcerated women, there should be adequate knowledge of the prison social context, the expectations society has for women as mothers, and the understanding among the imprisoned women regarding their motherly role and a definition of their relationship with their children, according to Snyder, Carlo & Coats (2002). Women in the program reflected more interaction with their kids, through mail and phone, and an assessment of the relationship revealed that nearly nine in ten of the participants and seven in ten of non-participants reported active and healthy relationships with their kids (Snyder, Carlo & Coats, 2002).
Achieving reduced family-level risks has the potential of enhancing child outcomes, according to Kumpfer et l.,(2003). Programs that focus on developing interventions for people with incarcerated parents are the most useful in “non-stigmatizing and non-threatening settings” which connect care providers with their peers (Miller et al., 2013). Therefore, the caregivers for these children with incarcerated parents can clearly articulate the structure, functioning, and defining the role of the existential family unit following the shift of those responsibilities and duties following the incarceration of their parents. Without a clear articulation of these, the children would be uncertain of who their guardians are and whom they can look to for any help.
The “Parenting While Incarcerated” (PWI) program is based on the Strengthening Families Program (SFP), implemented in collaboration with community agencies which serve families with parents in prison (Miller et al., 2013). The SFP is an intervention specifically designed for families, with a focus on the promotion of the child’s “social-emotional growth, family communication, and social support” through an increase in the protective factors such as positive parenting and family organization and reduced risk factors such as family conflicts and parental stress (Miller et al., 2013), drawing from family systems and social learning theories. The PWI curriculum is implemented with multiple groupings of jailed mothers, addressing the individual needs within each group of mothers, and their leaders then provide qualitative feedback which can be used to improve the program further. The majority of the women taking part in the program report higher satisfaction levels, as they learn how to chastise their children without having to beat them and improving their communication skills which lead to the development of strong mother-child bond although they may be far away from each other. In Pennsylvania, the Crawford County jail has implemented a visitation program that provides a warm and safe environment for visiting kids, turning an old library into a child-friendly room, thus helping family visits become welcoming and relaxed (Fekos, 2014).
Intervention programs for the mothers in prison can go a long way in improving the quality of maternal care provided to the children within the correctional facilities. The New Beginnings Program in the UK was specifically designed for babies and mothers within the prison centers, and it has been observed that the behavioral interaction and reflective functioning of the matters concerning their kids showed deteriorated levels, as compared to mothers within the intervention group (Sleed, Baradon &Fonagy, 2013). A majority of mothers identify their children as they primary source of comfort, and the prison environment, social separation, and relationships in a closed setup such as in a correctional facility distress them. This reversal of roles that children become the only emotional support availed to them, and increased hostility and guilt, becomes a risk factor in developing “disorganized attachment relationships” (Sleed, Baradon &Fonagy, 2013). The study indicates that the incarcerated mothers’ children display comparatively worse results than those who remain with their parents within the prison facility, in as much as both categories may show increased aggressive behavioral issues in their experimental stages of development (Goshin, 2010). The New Beginnings Program can, therefore, provide moderation to possible deterioration of the mother-child relationship quality with time. This would give the mothers a chance to concentrate on their behavior and mind state together with that of their children, thus strengthening the capacity of the mother for ‘mentalization’ (Sleed, Baradon & Fonagy, 2013). This is informed by the fact that “infant attachment relationships” dictate the formation of models that would be implemented in helping the child to develop positive attributes and regulate themselves (Fasbender, 2015).
Parenting programs for incarcerated mothers also aim at instilling relevant knowledge and skills for them. Sandifer (2008) analyzed the “Rebonding and Rebuilding” program among incarcerated women at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women. The study reflected an increase in the skills and knowledge among the participants involved, including a decreased preference for using physical force when punishing children, as well as an attitude shift regarding the administration of discipline to children. There was created awareness on child development knowledge and a change in “attitudes towards parent-child reversal” (Sandifer, 2008). Increasing the parenting skills of the incarcerated mother would lead to an enhanced parent-child relationship which has a significant impact on the criminal tendencies of both child and mother.
Mother-child prison programs, such as prison nurseries, have been incorporated in the criminal justice system to “maintain the primary caregiver relationship between mothers and children” during the period of mother incarceration (Shlonsky et al., 2016). Under the administration of Corrections Victoria, the Mothers and Children Program, is adopted in Australia for infants and early-school going children with the intention of diminishing the effect the mother’s imprisonment might have on the child. Children who live in the prison nurseries show less externalizing, internalizing and withdrawn behavior, attention issues, and better adaptation than children whose parents are incarcerated and the facilities are unavailable. The mothers enrolled in the prison nurseries have an increased likelihood of maintaining their caregiving role compared to incarcerated mothers when they are released from jail. Additionally, mothers who are actively involved in the prison nurseries have a less likelihood of returning to prison for additional crimes compared to those within the general prison population. Stringent rules of engagement enhance the effectiveness of these programs, and many of them do exclude violent offenders and those mothers with a child endangerment or abuse history or charges. The propensity to violence, drug use, and mental health issues can lead to their exclusion from the program (Shlonsky et al., 2016).
In conclusion, the impact parental incarceration has on children especially that of mothers, is a complex issue that requires a delicate balance. The separation of children from their parents leads to social, emotional, and physical torment on both the mother and child. Children whose parents are incarcerated display higher rates of unsociable and psychological ill health than those who stay or frequently interact with their parents and this is detrimental to their wholesome development. Parental programs for such mothers aid in alleviating and relieving the emotional pressure inflicted by this separation of mother and child. An effective parenting program must strike a balance between creating adequate time for mother-child interaction, as well as an increased value connections and communications between the parties. Multiple intervention programs have been adopted in the countries considered of the US, UK, and Australia, all aiming at helping mothers devise mechanisms for improving the outcome of parental roles and responsibilities. Additionally, some of these programs have been aimed at providing the caregivers, other than the incarcerated mother, the appropriate skills, support, and attribute to guide the children as they undergo development socially, emotionally, and mentally. Prison nurseries assist in maintaining the “primary caregiver relationship” that exists between mother and child. For these programs to become more efficient in achieving their mission, they have adopted stringent rules of engagement for those involved in them, including the exclusion of violent offenders and those with child abuse history.
References
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