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The Children of Incarcerated Parents Bill of Rights (Part 1)
The Children of Incarcerated Parents Bill of Rights (Part 1)
October 22, 2009
by CJA Admin
In 2003 the San Francisco Partnership for Incarcerated Parents published the following Bill of Right for children of incarcerated parents. The Bill of Rights recognizes that children’s needs extend well beyond physical comfort and security. This bill of rights is based on work originally done by Gretchen Newby of Friends Outside, a California organization that addresses the special needs of families affected by incarceration. The following are the first four articles of the Bill of Rights excerpted from Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Bill of Rights.
I have the right to be kept safe and informed at the time of my parent’s arrest. Many children of offenders are introduced to the criminal justice system when their parent is arrested and they se him/her taken away in handcuffs. The majority of police and sheriff’s departments do not have protocols for dealing with the children of arrested parents; in too many cases, the resulting experience is terrifying and confusing for the children left behind.
I have the right to be heard when decisions are made about me. When a parent is arrested, children whose chaotic lives may already have left them with little sense of control often feel even more alienated from the events that swirl around them. Adults they have never met remove their parents with little explanation, then decide where the children will go without consulting them.
I have the right to be considered when decisions are made about my parent. Ask the child of an incarcerated mother what might have improved his life and his prospects and you’re likely to some version of this answer: “Help for my mom.” Even after years of trauma and abandonment, young people are likely to see their parents as troubled and in need of support rather than as bad and in need of punishment.
I have the right to be well cared for in my parent’s absence. When a child loses a single parent to incarceration, she also loses a home. In the most extreme cases, children may wind up fending for themselves in a parent’s absence.
In our next entry, we will look at the final four rights.