The baby coos and smiles as Charles changes its diaper. His oldest son watches intently nearby. He smiles at him, and the son smiles back. Charles never thought he would have this opportunity due to incarceration. A few months ago, he had only seen the baby and his sobbing oldest son, who just wanted to hug his Dad, previously through a glass visitation window at the jail.
Through a program called Parenting in Jail for Men, offered by Family & Children’s Services (F&CS), Charles continues to connect with his young family and receives parenting education. Parenting in Jail for Men features Parenting Inside Out (PIO) curriculum designed to deliver evidence-based parent management skills created for justice-involved parents. The curriculum provides a non-traditional approach to parent education due to the impact of parent-child separation that results from incarceration. The 12-session curriculum, completed in 4-6 weeks, is delivered via a group setting of 10 men over four weeks. Another group will begin for the next four weeks when the four-week period ends.
A similar program is also available to incarcerated mothers and female caregivers.
Amy Knuckles, Parenting in Jail Family Preservation Specialist, is one of two educators instructing the program.
“After teaching several women’s classes, I was presented with the opportunity to start a men’s class in the jail,” Knuckles said. “I did not know exactly what to expect, but I was immediately met with men who had an enthusiasm for the class topics and love for their children. It is so important to help our participants understand their purpose and role as a father, even while they are incarcerated. We want them to discover their strengths and show them that those strengths can add value to their family, even if they are not immediately living in their home.”
The Parenting in Jail program has undergone a significant expansion during the last fiscal year. In alignment with the goals set forth in the program’s two Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) contracts, the program has now extended to Cherokee, Okmulgee, Osage, Rogers, Wagoner and Washington counties, where each jail has evidence-based parenting classes and family visits for minor children and their incarcerated loved ones. A male educator was also hired.
Other achievements include:
- Expanded target population to include men involved in the criminal legal system
- Implemented weekly family-centered contact visits for participants and their minor children at three additional county jails (four total)
- Increased the number of individuals served program-wide by 487% comparing FY23 to FY22
- Reduced transportation barriers to class engagement by teaching the Parenting Inside Out® curriculum virtually to individuals impacted by the criminal legal system who are currently living in the community. Interested individuals are checked out an iPad and classes are taught twice a week via Zoom using the community-based version of the curriculum.
- Strengthened relationships with community partners, including New Hope and Discovery Lab, to allow more of our participants’ families the opportunity to receive free summer camp programming. Discovery Lab continues to be an incredible partner, and we currently have a plan to get their educators back in jail for family visits after a long hiatus started by the onset of COVID-19. This will be in addition to their ongoing monthly children’s activities at our Caregiver Support Group.
Charles’s story demonstrates what the F&CS Parenting in Jail team sees consistently – children love their parents. The opportunity for children to feel the love from their incarcerated parents, through weekly contact family visits, can immensely benefit children’s overall well-being.
