Working with Incarcerated and Released Parents: Resource Guide

Lessons from OCSE Grants and State Programs

Useful and Helpful 104-page Resource Guide
 

Executive Summary

Local, state and federal agencies are developing programs to assist with successful reentry for the thousands of people being released from state and federal prisons each year (more than 650,000 in 2003). The majority of inmates in state and federal prisons are parents with children under the age of 18, and many of them have formal child support obligations. Although the proportion of incarcerated noncustodial parents (NCPs) in state prisons is roughly five percent of the child support caseload at any one point in time, the cumulative impact is much higher, as demonstrated by Washington State’s findings that 31 percent of its “hard to collect from” caseload has a criminal records.

There are several reasons why Child Support Enforcement Agencies (CSE) and the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) are seeking effective methods of working with incarcerated and recently released parents and with reentry programs. One is the large number of parents in the child support caseload with a criminal background. Another reason is the likelihood that their children are recipients of public assistance and are vulnerable to a variety of negative outcomes. A third reason is the fact that these parents are accessible in prison settings and respond positively to outreach efforts by child support personnel. Finally, the growth in child support arrears, which exceeded $107 billion in Fiscal Year 2005, 16 to 18 percent of which is held by incarcerated and recently released obligors, is yet another persuasive reason for agencies to direct attention to programs for incarcerated and released noncustodial parents (NCPs) and to attempt to help them better meet their family responsibilities.

This report examines the findings of ten demonstration projects funded by OCSE in nine states and jurisdictions (California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, Washington and Washington, DC) that addressed issues related to incarceration and child support. The projects, conducted over a six-year period, were funded by OCSE through a number of grant cycles. They were selected to examine various issues and objectives of interest to OCSE, and do not represent a single “incarceration initiative.” Some projects focused on the process of working with incarcerated parents and the barriers and opportunities for CSE outreach. Other projects were more outcome orientated. This report presents the common threads and lessons learned from a series of discrete projects, rather than an evaluation of projects as a unified whole.

In addition to examining the ten demonstration projects funded by OCSE, this report describes some promising state and local child support agency efforts. All demonstration grant findings and state and local practices are organized in six major topic areas: 1) partnerships and collaboration; (2) identifying inmates and parolees with child support issues; (3) procedures to inform inmates about child support; (4) exploring modifications for offenders; (5) programs and procedures for working with paroled/released parents; and (6) addressing child support arrears.

To facilitate replications in other settings, we include promising project examples and contact information for project staff. We provide practical advice and suggestions on how child support agencies can amend their programs to be more effective with this population. Attached are brochures and various forms that projects have used successfully.