Hi Cay!
In addition to the notable work being done in Maryland, four other 
examples follow. It would be wonderful to hear from others about their 
family literacy work programs. -Bill

(a)     The Hudson River Center program mentioned yesterday. 
(b)     The Hope House DC program, which uses videoconferencing to support 
regular (biweekly) father-child contact. In addition to videoconferencing, 
letter writing, taped storybook readings, and poetry workshops are used to 
support and build relationships.
(c)     Reading-Is-Fundamental programs, like those Cay Buser mentioned, 
are now in at least a dozen federal facilities (and I am aware of similar 
programs sponsored by the Virginia Department of Correctional Education.) 
Typically, in these programs, incarcerated mothers and fathers tape record 
their reading of a storybook and the tape and book are sent home to the 
child. R-I-F (wisely) requires that these mailings happen regularly, so an 
individual child can expect a series of books over the course of a year.   
 
(d)     An e-mail pilot program that the Federal BOP is planning at its 
female facility in Danbury CT. It will involve the use of carefully 
monitored e-mail correspondence between incarcerated mothers (who are also 
enrolled in the literacy program) and their children (who are part of a 
mentoring program). 

Here is some background info on this topic:
1.      55 % of male prisoners are fathers with children under age 18; 44 
percent of these fathers lived in the home of at least one of their 
children at the time of arrest.
2.      75% of all female prisoners are mothers, and 72% were primary 
caretakers of their children prior to arrest. The number of incarcerated 
women is expanding more rapidly than that of male incarcerates. 
3.      Children of prisoners are six times more likely to enter the 
criminal justice system; the Human Rights Watch (2002) found that African 
American children were over eight times more likely to do time than 
Caucasian children, and Latino/a children were three times more likely. 
Children separated from parents as a result of incarceration experience 
higher rates of anxiety disorders, withdrawal, depression, guilt, shame, 
anger, aggression, school phobias, and poor academic performance. (These 
problems often started before the mother or father was arrested, parental 
removal tended to exacerbate them.)
4.      About 55% of adjudicated youth have a parent in prison
5.      Some proponents of tough sentencing for criminals challenge the 
?right? of prisoners to have contact with their children. But 
practitioners that work with either the parents or the children or both, 
report on the need for this contact: (a) for the emotional health of the 
children (often described as the ?other victims,?) (b) to promote 
successful reintegration after prison, and (c) to stop the corrosive 
effects of high rates of incarceration on the community. 
The Reentry initiative has nurtured numerous community-prison 
partnerships, and increased political support for life skills and 
parenting programs, but I am not aware of nearly as many programs 
attempting to integrate parenting and literacy. For example, I recently 
found 1,187 research articles on family literacy, but only 8 of these had 
anything to do with incarcerated parents. It is not realistic to leave 
this problem at teacher?s doorsteps. It is foremost a policy issue that 
touches on a number of concerns that have already been discussed in this 
forum - pressure to show results (GED), a reporting system that is not 
sensitive to the kinds of learning that are engendered in 
intergenerational literacy programs, etc?.
Bill




"Buser, Carolyn" <Carolyn.Buser at ed.gov> 
Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov
09/20/2006 02:19 PM
Please respond to
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Subject
[SpecialTopics 216] Re: Family Literacy and Corrections






David --  Maryland has long had family literacy programs within selected
institutions.  Prisoners who are in the school program are able to bring
children in one morning every other month along with the children's' care
giver.  The incarcerated parent participates in reading activities with 
the
child or children, and the caregivers have a session led by social workers
or other professionals on how to help children and themselves adjust to 
the
incarceration of the parent.  The program began at the Maryland 
Correctional
Institution for Women in the 1990's through Reading is Fundamental.  It 
has
expanded to two men's institutions and has had continued support from
Maryland's Correctional Education Program under the Maryland Department of
Education.  Each parent studies children's literature appropriate for
her/his children in advance of the visit, and then each child may select 
two
books to take home.  Some of these books are purchased, and others are
donated.  Last year Maryland's public school teacher of the year made the
donation of these books her project for the year.  There is nothing quite
like watching the commissioner of correction do the hokey-pokey with 25 or
so prisoners and their children.  Recently the program was awarded a 
Barbara
Bush Family Literacy Grant.  A contact for more information on this 
program
is the Correctional Education Librarian, Glennor Shirley, at
gshirley at msde.state.md.us.  Thank you for an informative discussion. 

Carolyn Buser, Education Specialist
United States Department of Education
Division of Adult Education and Literacy



-----Original Message-----
From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 1:56 PM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 215] Family Literacy and Corrections


Bill, John and Steve,

I have a question about family literacy.  "Locked Up and Locked Out" 
points out that punishment ?is not appropriate for the more than 1.5 
million children of prisoners? and that  ?Neglecting these unintended 
victims will likely lead to these children replacing their parents in 
the prisons of the future.?

What is being done about this? Can you give us some examples of 
programs in prison settings that help inmates help their children to 
read or with their homework, or with other education-related or 
parenting issues?

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net






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