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Abstract
This study evaluates the efficacy of the Parenting from Prison curriculum which was implemented across Colorado correctional institutions. Parenting from Prison is a skills-based program that aims to strengthen family relationships and promote positive behaviors by increasing parental knowledge about risks, resiliency and developmental assets. A pretest-posttest design was utilized to assess short-term changes in communication with children, parental knowledge and parental attitudes among incarcerated parents (N = 150). Improvements in parenting knowledge and parenting attitudes among female and male incarcerated parents were found. Results warrant further investigation into the benefits of parent education programs for incarcerated parents, including a randomized control study of the effects of Parenting from Prison.
According to the Bureau of Justice (Sabol a Couture, 2008) by midyear 2007 over 1.5 individuals were incarcerated in state and federal prisons, a 1.6% increase over the previous year. In conjunction with the ever increasing prison rate, the total number of parents incarcerated in state and federal prisons is also increasing. For example, in 1999, 721,500 parents of minor children were incarcerated in state and federal prisons (Mumola, 2000). The same report indicated that while 936,500 minor children had an incarcerated parent in 1991, by 1999 this number had risen to 1,498,800. In 2007, over 22,000 individuals were incarcerated in state and federal prisons in Colorado (Sabol 8Couture, 2008) and the majority of these individuals were parents of minor children. Based on these figures, it is apparent that an increasing number of children are impacted by incarceration. Yet the impact of incarceration on families has received relatively minimal research attention and few programs exist to help mitigate the potential ill effects on children. Therefore, an urgent need exists for the development, implementation and evaluation of programs designed to ease the deleterious effects of parental incarceration on the family unit
For children, there are many negative consequences that may result from having an incarcerated parent. For example, children of incarcerated parents are more likely to suffer from behavioral and emotional problems and are at greater risk for poor academic performance, drug and alcohol use and selfesteem issues (Bilchik, Seymour, 8- Kreisher, 2001 ). Furthermore, children of incarcerated parents are six times more likely to enter the criminal justice system during their lifetime...