Best Practice Guidelines for Maintaining Well-being of Children with Incarcerated Parents

Abstract

Millions of children have been the “hidden victims” in parental incarceration. The arrest, sudden separation from parent, and criminal justice involvement have profound impacts on children’s psychological and developmental well-being. These factors are most likely to contribute to the adverse behavior in adulthood. This review is to examine interventions for children with incarcerated parent aiming at better adjustment to family changes and prevention from deleterious influence throughout the entire criminal justice processing. An in-depth review on interventions for children with incarcerated or reentry parent was conducted throughout the five stages in parental incarceration from 1) pre-arrest planning; 2) arrest and prosecution; 3) court hearing and sentencing; 4) punishment, correction and rehabilitation; to 5) discharged and reintegration into community and family. Government policy on parental arrest in developed countries was reviewed. Search terms included children with incarcerated parent, parental incarceration, intervention and programs. First, it was important to note that a Bill of Rights for children with incarcerated parents was written to protect the human rights of children and parent during the traumatizing experience. Second, it was noticed that improvement in the well-being of caregiver would correspondingly enhance the well-being of children. Third, most studies overlooked the stage of pre-arrest planning, rather, focused mainly on the latter stages in the entire criminal justice processing. This review presents the importance of human rights of children facing parental incarceration. To enhance the well-being of children with incarcerated parent, strengthening family cohesion shall be included into family-based intervention program. Additionally, cross-agency coordination is highly recommended in pre-arrest planning to prevent children from witnessing parental arrest, since it may form an adverse childhood experience. Future work on interventions and parental arrest policy should evolve from the framework regarding the child’s rights.