Policy Platform June 2015
We are Project WHAT! Youth Advocates. All of us have had a parent incarcerated either currently or in the past. We have a vision for a better San Francisco, one where our cities’ youth with incarcerated parents are able to live free of judgment and blame. We have a vision where our city prioritizes supporting vulnerable populations, rather than punishing them. As youth who have the most direct experience of what it’s like to grow up with a parent behind bars, we have made it our top priority to make this vision a reality.
We started by reaching out to our communities to find out what challenges families with incarcerated loved ones face. Then we reached out to the direct service providers: teachers, social workers, police officers, guardians, caregivers, and judicial decision makers who are involved in our lives in the absence of our parents. Based on our personal experiences and the data we gathered from our youth-led participatory action research project (including 100 surveys and ten focus groups), we created our policy platform. The following policy recommendations are what we know will improve the lives of San Francisco’s children and youth with incarcerated parents.
Challenge 1: Maintaining Family Unity
From the moment a parent is arrested children are traumatized by the separation from their parent. Many children don’t know where their incarcerated parent is and it affects their ability to initiate contact with them. Once that bond is broken, children and parents face challenges trying to keep a relationship with each other due to communication barriers in phone calls, letters, and visits.
Our Recommendations:
a. All SF Police Department officers should be trained and required to follow protocol regarding children of incarcerated parents on how to reduce trauma to children when arresting a parent.
b. The SF Sheriff’s Department should make their “inmate locator” user friendly and accessible online so that children and youth can find out where their parent is located and how to contact them.
c. Phone calls should be free between incarcerated parents at SF County Jail and their children.
Challenge 2: Access to Visitation
While visiting is one of the most important ways children have contact with their incarcerated parent, consistent access to visitation is rare.
Our Recommendations:
a. When youth are 16 years old they should be able to visit their parents by themselves in SF County Jail without another parent or guardian present for their visit (which is consistent with the Federal Prison System’s visiting age).
b. When a parent is transferred from SF county jail to the CA state prison system, children should be offered a private contact visit to say good-bye to their parent.
c. When a parent is transferred from SF County Jail to state prison, the city of SF should provide funding to the family to cover the child’s transportation costs for a minimum of six visits per year.
Challenge 3: Parents Re-Entry
When a parent is released from prison, their transition back home can be tough on their children. Families often encounter emotional, physical and financial challenges as they work to rebuild their lives.
Our Recommendations:
a. Re-entry support services should be offered to all children and their parents who are being released from SF county jail.
b. When a parent has been incarcerated for more than one year, restorative justice services should be offered to all children whose parents are being released from SF County Jail both pre and post release.
Challenge 4: Lack of Support Services
Children of incarcerated parents have unmet emotional needs and are socially stigmatized. Current service providers are not adequately trained on the unique set of issues children of incarcerated parents are dealing with.
Our Recommendations:
a. Teachers and counselors in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) should all be trained on trauma-informed practices in supporting children and youth with incarcerated parents.
b. Free therapy and/or counseling should be offered to all children and youth with incarcerated parents.
