Workshop: Parental Incarceration in the United States: Bringing Together Research and Policy to Reduce Collateral Costs to Children

American Bar Foundation, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

A one day workshop will engage researchers and policy makers about collateral consequences of parental incarceration for U.S. children. The U.S. is a leader internationally in incarceration levels and the majority of incarcerated adults are parents. This workshop will: (1) review current knowledge about parental imprisonment and child well-being, including theoretical and empirical puzzles concerning variance in effects of incarceration; (2) document programs designed to reduce negative effects of parental incarceration on children; (3) address problems stemming from parental involvement with the justice system; and (4) identify theoretically informed, empirically groundedbest practices for improving the lives of children of incarcerated parents. The overarching goal is to inform efforts to mitigate costs to a generation of affected children. The workshop will bring together scholars and policy makers across professional disciplines and policy sectors. The participants will range from rising researchers to senior professionals selected from across the nation based on their expertise and ability to engage underrepresented groups including racial and ethnic minorities and women. A similarly diverse array of postdoctoral and graduate student observers will be invited to advance the training of the next generation of contributors to this area of work. These participants will extend networks urgently needed between policy makers, practitioners, and academics and will thereby expand policy and program coverage. A key output of this workshop will be the identification of processes and outcomes of parental incarceration, with particular attention to vulnerable groups of children. The workshop will result in a report detailing findings and recommendations. Power point slides and papers from the workshop will be made broadly available through a page devoted to the conference on the website of the American Bar Foundation.