Rebuilding Lives. Strengthening Communities.

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Recommendations Reforms with Statewide Impact • Designate a family liaison officer to provide pre-release support to prisoners and their families beginning at prisoner intake. • Improve visitation facilities and procedures to encourage increased contact, when appropriate, between prisoners and their families during incarceration and to enhance the quality of prison visits. • Facilitate contact between prisoners and their families during incarceration by decreasing the expense and increasing methods of long-distance communication. • Review policies regarding child support obligations of incarcerated parents. Reforms with Citywide Impact • Support and expand family-focused case management services, and cultivate family support groups. • Improve reunification services at Cook County Jail so that the instances of termination of parental rights are reduced for this incarcerated population. • Support more mentoring and other social service programs for children of incarcerated parents. Chapter 3 Family 66
Chapter 3: Family Having a supportive and committed network of family and friends can be key to an individual’s success or failure in the reentry process. 1 Research confirms this fact. In a recent Urban Institute report, 71 percent of former prisoners noted positive family support as crucial in helping them turn their lives around. 2 Relatives, with whom former prisoners often live during their transition, provide financial aid, job search assistance, moral support, encouragement to abstain from drugs and obtain treatment, and positive reinforcement. 3 Yet despite the central role that families play, the impact of incarceration and reentry on families is frequently overlooked. Policymakers often are not attuned to how the prison experience takes its toll on the loved ones left behind, nor have they paid sufficient attention to how engaging families during and after confinement may boost the chances of better reentry outcomes. To effectively address prisoner reentry issues, and to successfully develop solutions to these issues, we cannot concentrate solely on the individual; it is crucial to tackle the needs and promote the strengths of the whole family. Unfortunately, families all too often become alienated and estranged from their loved ones in prison. Nationally, up to 50 percent of the men and 65 percent of the women in prison are parents, but more than half of these individuals report never receiving a personal visit from their children during their incarceration. 4 For many families, the obstacles to visiting a relative in prison—time and money needed to travel long distances to the institutions as well as the emotional stress of the actual prison visit (e.g., lengthy security checks, uncomfortable visiting facilities, and seemingly unfriendly correctional department staff)— are overwhelming. So contact may be sporadic. The respect, trust, and daily intimacy that hold families together may be strained when a loved one becomes incarcerated. 5 The imprisoned individual may feel angry, isolated, depressed, and guarded while those left behind may feel confused, anxious, abandoned, resentful, guilty and relieved all at once. The social stigma and shame associated with having a family member in prison also can weaken relationships. 6 Furthermore, few families with incarcerated relatives can afford to focus on the reentry process. By and large, most families face challenging circumstances themselves, including poverty, mental illness, substance abuse, limited access to social services, and a family history of involvement with the criminal justice system. 7 Often, with a relative in prison, these families must contend with additional hardships. For instance, the household may have lost one of its major wage earners and be forced to stretch resources to meet housing, food, employment, and transportation needs. A grandmother may find herself the sole caregiver of her grandchildren, and a teenager may lose the daily support and companionship of his or her parent. Left unaddressed, these new challenges can undermine a family’s ability to effectively support the reentry of their loved one. But when it comes time for release, incarcerated individuals will often still turn to their family for help. And the stress that families encounter when a relative is incarcerated simply does not disappear when the person is released. Formerly incarcerated parents may experience difficulties trying to reestablish a relationship with children who had been left in the temporary custody of family members. Further, the assumed support often evaporates over time as extra demands are placed upon an already-strained family system. In spite of these troubling facts, today there is no concerted effort to assist families of incarcerated individuals in Illinois. Most are, quite simply, left to fend for themselves. MAYORAL POLICY CAUCUS ON PRISONER REENTRY 67
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Rebuilding Lives. Restoring Hope. S
Page 3 and 4:
Message from the Mayor The issue of
Page 5 and 6:
Introduction The Reality of Reentry
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Communities Too many communities ar
Page 9 and 10:
A National Movement, A Nonpartisan
Page 11 and 12:
The Mayoral Policy Caucus on Prison
Page 13 and 14:
Theresa W. Theresa W. is a 25-year-
Page 15 and 16:
Ramon C. is a 51-year-old Real Life
Page 17 and 18: Chapter 1: Employment Formerly inca
Page 19 and 20: The current need for IDOC’s educa
Page 21 and 22: Ensure pre-release vocational train
Page 23 and 24: Restructure and expand Illinois Cor
Page 25 and 26: While the passage of this legislati
Page 27 and 28: IDOC is currently re-examining the
Page 29 and 30: Solution To increase employment opp
Page 31 and 32: Solution To be most effective, educ
Page 33 and 34: Issue Encourage more “demand-side
Page 35 and 36: Promote and support transitional jo
Page 37 and 38: Promote and support social enterpri
Page 39 and 40: Foster more opportunities for entre
Page 41 and 42: (e.g., expungement, sealing of reco
Page 43 and 44: Sandra S. is a 38-year-old African-
Page 45 and 46: Marvin A. Marvin A. is a 64-year-ol
Page 47 and 48: Chapter 2: Health By most measures,
Page 49 and 50: “This is the best chance to locat
Page 51 and 52: Similar to substance abuse treatmen
Page 53 and 54: Solution Connections to community-b
Page 55 and 56: Solution Initially, the State shoul
Page 57 and 58: Medicaid does not pay for services
Page 59 and 60: To ensure the greatest return on in
Page 61 and 62: Solution Diversion programs and alt
Page 63 and 64: Create more positive social structu
Page 65 and 66: Margaret M. is a 55-year- old Latin
Page 67: Sam J. is a 41- Real Life year-old
Page 71 and 72: Improve visitation facilities and p
Page 73 and 74: Issue Facilitate contact between pr
Page 75 and 76: Review policies regarding child sup
Page 77 and 78: Reforms with Citywide Impact Suppor
Page 79 and 80: Improve reunification services at C
Page 81 and 82: Support more mentoring and other so
Page 83 and 84: Billie H. is a 41-year-old Real Lif
Page 85 and 86: Shannon G. is a 33-year-old African
Page 87 and 88: Chapter 4: Community Safety Prisone
Page 89 and 90: Ensure that prisoners have appropri
Page 91 and 92: Expand capacity and number of Adult
Page 93 and 94: However, with the dramatic increase
Page 95 and 96: N City of Chicago 2004 Inmate Exits
Page 97 and 98: Solution The goal of “justice rei
Page 99 and 100: Solution The City, in partnership w
Page 101 and 102: Internet. This vehicle allows for i
Page 103 and 104: Solution The City should work with
Page 105 and 106: Solution Local “reentry resource
Page 107 and 108: For example, in Oregon, Deschutes C
Page 109 and 110: A Note of Thanks Many people worked
Page 111 and 112: Ms. Ellen A. Meyers, Office of Illi
Page 114 and 115: Endnotes Introduction MAYORAL POLIC
Page 116 and 117: Introduction (cont.) 46 Bush, Georg
Page 118 and 119:
Chapter 1: Employment (cont.) MAYOR
Page 120 and 121:
Chapter 1: Employment (cont.) MAYOR
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Chapter 2: Health (cont.) MAYORAL P
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Chapter 2: Health (cont.) MAYORAL P
Page 126 and 127:
Chapter 3: Family (cont.) MAYORAL P
Page 128 and 129:
Chapter 4: Community Safety (cont.)
Page 130 and 131:
Chapter 4: Community Safety (cont.)
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