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February/March 2005
Impact of the Rockefeller Drug Laws
The Forgotten Children
Laura Fernandez, MSW, Director, Incarcerated Mothers’ Program, Edwin Gould Services For Children and Families
Inmate, Prisoner, Criminal - hearing these words conjure up many images for most people but rarely does loving mother come to mind.
As the Director of the Incarcerated Mothers Program, I have seen a very
different side of the criminal justice system and have come to understand
the devastating unintended impact on families of drug policies that focus
on incarceration instead of treatment.
Many of the mothers in our program remind me so much of the women I worked
with in so many other social work settings. They are struggling with the
negative effects of poverty, childhood abuse, violent domestic relationships
and a lack of education. Yet their decision to sell, hold or carry drugs
has put them into another category that, in the end, deprives them of
what they need most, connections to their families and comprehensive services.
The inspiration for the program came from City Council Hearings held at
Bedford Hills State Prison in 1983. Most women testifying spoke eloquently
about their worries for the children that they had left behind and their
passionate wish to maintain a positive connection with their families
on the outside. The program began as a demonstration project and was funded
a year later by the Administration for Children’s Services. Its
mission is to prevent children from entering the foster care system by
providing support to family members, usually maternal grandmothers, who
step in to care for children while their mothers are away.
Four caseworkers provide an array of services which include case management,
counseling, day care vouchers, housing subsidies, legal advocacy, support
groups and a myriad of other services tailored to the needs of each family.
Over the years, the program has expanded to include a recreational Saturday
program for pre-teens, an after-school and Saturday leadership program
for teens, and a mentoring program.
Children of Incarcerated Parents are Invisible
What I have learned from this experience is that the children of incarcerated
parents are a forgotten, underserved and invisible population in the social
service system and in our greater society. I hear from fellow social workers
that they have never worked with the child of an incarcerated parent;
yet, I know that can’t be true. These children go unidentified because
the stigma connected with incarceration is so great, their families hide
the truth. Our systems also decline to track their numbers or to meet
their unique needs. Prisons count prisoners but fail to document information
about their inmates’ children. Child welfare systems fail to track
the number of incarcerated parents. Only recently has the New York City
system even enforced the basic rights of incarcerated mothers to have
regular visitation.
Our program provides a safe space for children and families to openly
discuss their feelings and experiences in having their family life disrupted
by incarceration. Grandmothers meet in a support group to discuss the
challenges of parenting a new generation with limited means, serious health
problems and the pain of having a child imprisoned because of a drug addiction.
Some days, young people share their sadness at their mothers missing an
important milestone in their life, and, other days, they just forget for
a moment their situation and enjoy a day of having fun with other kids.
Imprisoned mothers participate in support groups sharing the pain of their
mistakes, especially the long separation from their families. When possible,
caseworkers assist families with transporting children to visit their
mothers in prisons as far away as Albion, New York.
Children Have a Voice
The program encourages the children to have a voice and hopefully to effect
positive changes on the systems that have so negatively affected their
families. Our young people collaborated with ACS to produce a training
video for caseworkers about the importance of children being allowed to
have prison visits. At a Child Welfare League of America Conference in
Washington, D.C., they trained professional staff about their special
needs. And, they also participated in a video to educate people working
within correctional systems nationwide, about the negative effects of
current correction policies on families.
Their courage in speaking publicly and in sharing their personal pain
has reinforced for me how, as social work professionals, all of us must
do our part in educating ourselves about the effects of current criminal
justice policy on families; in strongly advocating for alternatives that
are both cost effective and supportive to families; and in committing
to ending the stigma that allows our society to marginalize a whole group
of individuals and families.