NCJ Number
186717
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 62 Issue: 7 Dated: December 2000 Pages: 102-104
Date Published
December 2000
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article examines a program to maintain contact between incarcerated women and their children.
Abstract
A Florida program, Reading Family Ties: Face to Face, allows incarcerated mothers in two rural central-State institutions to have weekly family visits using high-speed videoconferencing technology. Any inmate not in discipline confinement is eligible to participate. A weekly journaling class helps mothers overcome their shyness and intimidation at using the conferencing equipment. The class improves literacy levels, encourages letter-writing, and promotes the quality of long-distance visits. The Florida Department of Corrections has also created family development classes for both male and female inmates. The classes include lessons in disciplining, goal-setting, listening, decision making, negotiating, esteem-building, and communicating, with a strong emphasis on anger management. A major principle of the classes is that by learning to be more effective parents, offenders also learn to be more effective citizens -- they are using their new skills in their daily lives.