LITTLE ROCK — Few state resources are aimed directly at serving the specific needs of Arkansas children whose parents are incarcerated, advocates say.
On Friday, 14,707 people were in Arkansas prisons. State agency officials and advocates told legislators last week that they aren’t sure exactly how many children have a parent serving prison time, providing estimates from 14,416 to 21,439 children.
Advocates such as Dee Ann Newell, executive director of Arkansas Voices for the Children Left Behind, told lawmakers studying the situation that having a parent in prison can cause long-term economic, social and educational disadvantages for a child.
Officials from six state agencies were quizzed Wednesday by members of the House and Senate Committees on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. Most said they have no services specifically for this group of children.
Several Arkansas advocacy groups offer services such as parenting classes for prisoners, support groups for children and support for people caring for children whose parents are incarcerated.
Newell said she isn’t aware of any such advocacy group that receives money from the state, though that wasn’t always the case.
ONE PERCENT
In 2003, legislators created the One Percent to Prevent Fund, which by law is supposed to be used by the state Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board to “prevent the children of prisoners from becoming future prisoners.”
The board under Arkansas Code Annotated 9-30-105 is supposed to use special revenue put in the fund to implement parenting-from-prison programs, a post-release parenting program and a program for the children of prisoners in communities that can establish a need for the services. The board can also choose other groups or organizations to do the work for the board.
But no money has ever been put in the fund, state Budget Administrator Brandon Sharp said.
“There was really no funding source for us to go to for those dollars,” board Director Sherri Jo McLemore said.
Newell said the idea behind the fund was to take 1 percent from the Department of Correction budget and use it for programs aimed at keeping children of incarcerated parents from going to prison in the future.
Lawmakers set aside $200,000 for mentoring and other services for the children in 2003, which was matched 18-to-1 by the federal government, but since then the state and federal money has dried up, Newell said.
McLemore said when the board asked legislators for more money the next year, they were turned down.
“We asked for it, it wasn’t funded and we just haven’t pursued it because we didn’t know where the money would come from,” McLemore said. “We haven’t asked in the last couple of years, to be honest.”
UNKNOWN NUMBER
State agencies and advocates couldn’t agree on how many Arkansas children have parents in prison.
Department of Correction spokesman Dina Tyler said the department asks inmates about their children when inmates enter lockup, but she doubts the accuracy of the numbers. She said some inmates deny having children because they don’t want to pay child support or list adult children.
Tyler said department figures show that the state’s inmates collectively have 14,416 kids.
“We have absolutely no way to verify what they tell us is true,” Tyler said.
Department of Community Correction Director David Eberhard said about 16,000 people in Community Corrections programs reported having a total of 1,801 children during a survey that was taken from November 2011 to December 2011.
Department of Human Services Children and Family Services Division Director Cecile Blucker said in fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2011, 6,969 children were placed in foster care because of parent incarceration. In 2010, 1,489 children entered foster care because they had a parent in prison, that’s about 11 percentof foster-care placements each year, she said.
Blucker said parent incarceration is the third-mostcommon reason children are placed in foster care.
She said the Children and Family Services Division does not provide any services specifically for children of incarcerated parents or their caregivers.
Newell said a survey that she conducted inside the prison system in 2011 showed an estimated 21,439 children with parents who are incarcerated.
WHAT CAN BE DONE
“Part of this process is bearing witness to the child’s experience,” Newell said.
She said there is a stigma and shame felt by children who have a parent in prison that the adults around them should understand.
“These are kids who are under the radar,” she said.
Newell said the state needs to remember that as the prison population has grown, “mass incarceration means mass separation of parents and children. This is a population that deserves our attention ... these are our children and their parents are in our custody.”
Newell recommended policy changes that legislators could pass, such as sensitivity training for police officers and teachers.
“We’re the ones who are separating parents from their children,” Newell said. “These are children, they have done no wrong.”
Newell recommended training police about how it affects children when theysee their parent arrested.
She said seeing the arrest can be traumatizing, and police need to help children understand what is happening.
She suggested not handcuffing parents in front of their children, allowing parents to make child-care arrangements for their children and training police on what to do if there is no one available to take care of the children.
Senate Committee Chairman Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, asked committee staff members to send a letter to the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy about including the information in police training. Newell said at one time the Little Rock police training facility used a training video that she created, but she didn’t know whether it is still in use.
Newell also said there needs to be more mental and physical health services available to affected children, who may be dealing with anger, depression or blaming themselves, as well as dealing with stress-related health issues.
Department of Health Center for Health Advancement Director Stephanie Williams said the department has programs that target at-risk children, but not specifically children of incarcerated parents.
“We touch these children, but we don’t specifically identify them,” she said.
Newell suggested there be more child-friendly visiting areas at prisons, more contact with the parents by phone or Internet, and letting children physically touch their parent.
PUBLIC MONEY
The only public money Newell’s organization receives, $250,000 from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families federal assistance program that was funneled through the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, will run out Sept. 30, she said.
Workforce Services has been the conduit for the money since 2005, she said.
Newell initially said the grant would not be renewed. But, Department of Workforce Services Director Artee Williams told Newell after the meeting that the department had budgeted for a $125,000 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families fund grant that would be available Oct. 1.
“My board is going to be knocked over,” Newell said after hugging Williams.
Newell said the grant means the support groups, mentoring programs and parental training the organization offers for about 200families a year can continue for another year.
“We’ll primarily cut staff, but we’ll keep on doing the same services,” she said.
Arkansas Voices for the Children Left Behind has served 8,000 children, parents and caregivers in the past five years. Newell said the group receives several private grants and donations.
Resources are available on the group’s website arkansasvoices.org or by phone at (501) 366-3647 or (866) 986-4237.
REUNIFICATION
State Rep. Linda Collins-Smith, R-Pocahantas, said at the meeting that she is worried about children returning to abusive or unfit homes after their parents are released.
“We have to remove children from bad parents,” she said.
Newell said people go to prison for a variety of reasons, and being incarcerated doesn’t necessarily mean a person was a bad parent.
Blucker said the division doesn’t ask that parental rights be terminated just because a parent is incarcerated.
She said parents, are given chances to change their behavior and regain custody of their children.
“To just say because you are incarcerated you don’t get your child back, that’s not what we do,” she said. “Every case has got to be decided separately.”
Blucker said judges sometimes use their personal preferences when it comes to determining how and when a child can interact with a parent in prison, and there is a lot of variance.
She said some judges will resist terminating parental custody, while others don’t want to allow children to visit their parents in prison.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 09/24/2012