Children's Justice Alliance
Prioritizing, Parenting and Protecting Our Children
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Recommended Books
The following is a partial list of books available for children, caregivers and families of parents involved in the criminal justice system
Books for Children
My Daddy Is in Jail: Story, Discussion Guide, and Small Group Activities for Grades K-5
My Daddy is in Jail is a resource for helping children cope with the incarceration of a loved one. It includes a read-aloud story, discussion guide, caregiver suggestions and optional small group counseling activities. With this book, helping professionals, and other caring adults, will find themselves better equipped to provide information and support to these vulnerable children and their families.
What is Jail, Mommy?
This book was inspired by a five year old whose father had been incarcerated most of her life. One day after visiting with friends who have both devoted parents in the home, this little girl blurted out to her mother in frustration, "What is jail anyway, and why can't Daddy be home with us?" She needed answers! When the truth is withheld from children they tend to blame themselves for other's mistakes and short-comings.
Visiting Day
In a heartwarming story about unconditional love, a little girl and her grandmother get ready for visiting day. As they make their preparations, the girl's father--who adores her--is getting ready too. Full color.
(Ages 4-8)All families change over time. Sometimes a baby is born, or a grown-up gets married. And sometimes a child gets a new foster parent or a new adopted mom or dad. Children need to know that when this happens, it’s not their fault. They need to understand that they can remember and value their birth family and love their new family, too. Straightforward words and full-color illustrations offer hope and support for children facing or experiencing change. Includes resources and information for birth parents, foster parents, social workers, counselors, and teachers.
A Terrible Thing Happened - A story for children who have witnessed violence or trauma
Sherman Smith saw the most terrible thing happen. At first he tried to forget about it, but something inside him started to bother him. He felt nervous and had bad dreams. Then he met someone who helped him talk about the terrible thing, and made him feel better. This is a wonderful book for teachers or parents to use with younger children.
When Andy's Father Went to Prison
A factual yet sensitive picture book about a boy's father being sent to prison. The black-and-white illustrations of predominately white characters match the detailed story of the sobering event. One feels the quiet sadness Andy experiences in first discovering his father is guilty of a crime, and then the harder task of facing the day-to-day changes this fact has made in his life.
Help for Kids: Understanding Your Feelings About Having a Parent in Prison or Jail
A resource for children and parents. This workbook encourages kids to answer questions by drawing pictures, writing words or talking to someone. It is designed to help children recognize that their feelings are important, to think about their feelings and decide what to do about their feelings.
Harry Sue 
Eleven-year-old Harry Sue Clotkin is the only child of convicted felons. She has been sentenced to live with her abusive Granny who runs a squalid in-home daycare center. When she’s not protecting the “crumb-snatchers” from her cruel Granny, visiting her best friend who is a quadriplegic or maintaining her tough-girl image at school, Harry Sue dreams of becoming a “conette” and joining her mother in prison. But as hard as she tries to be tough, Harry Sue cannot ignore the suffering of those around her, nor can she deny that throbbing in her chest—her heart.
The Same Stuff as Stars
With her signature insight and grace, two-time Newbery Medalist Katherine Paterson tells the compassionate, moving story of one girl's struggle to hold her family together. Eleven-year-old Angel Morgan, despite her youth, is the head of her family. With a father in jail for robbery and murder, and Verna, her mother, too preoccupied with herself to care for anyone else, Angel looks out for her seven-year-old brother. She keeps a house key around her neck and taxi money in her sock, "just in case."
An Inmate's Daughter
After her father is incarcerated for murder, 13-year-old Jenna, her younger brother, and her mother move in with relatives. All of these people, including Dad, are trying to do the best they can, but society and the stigma attached to the situation cause problems. As Jenna gets used to her new schoolmates and tries to make friends, she is constantly fearful of anyone learning the truth about her father.
Letters from Prison
Living in such a reality based world, it is difficult as educators and adult leaders to get through to some teens today. Letters From Prison is a riveting way to reach young people who are at high risk of getting into trouble or have already experienced some difficulty. These letters provide a real look at what happens when you make poor choices or act on impulses. The discussion questions that follow each letter help teens to look at the risk factors that lead to the person getting into trouble. Afterwards the teen can reflect on their own life by journaling what they learned from reading that particular letter.
Books for Adults
All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated
Children of prisoners: who even thinks about them? Journalist Bernstein puts a face on this population with staggering statistics and personal stories of children like Susana, who has embraced her father only once in her life, and Carl, who told the jailhouse Santa that all he wanted for Christmas was for his mother to come home.
Loving Through Bars: Children with Parents in Prison
Written by an educational administrator, this book explores the difficulties children face in maintaining relationships with incarceratead parents. Not only are these children "innocent victims," they can also be lost in a vicious cycle that can lead to future criminality and deviant social behavior. The author provides dramatic and haunting testimony of the devastating impact parental incarceration has on children.
For every person who goes to prison, there is a family and community left behind. Despite the huge number of affected families and children, there is little research on the impact of incarceration on American family life. In Prisoners Once Removed, the authors explore this important issue—from the psychological impact of imprisonment on prisoners and the difficulty of reentering free society to the challenges faced by communities who must integrate the prisoners once they return. They look at family functioning during a period of imprisonment, and how families are affected by the return of an incarcerated parent.
Doing Time Together: Love and Family in the Shadow of the Prison
Megan Comfort documents how the wives and girlfriends of inmates experience, directly and vicariously, the pains of confinement and the humiliations of imprisonment. She also shows how these women rework their ideals of romance and relationships to adapt to the realities of prison, and, most remarkably, how they sometimes use their partner’s incarceration to their advantage in shaping the terms of their relationships.
Children of Incarcerated Parents
Children of criminal, jailed, or imprisoned parents have long been identified as being at high risk for juvenile delinquency, and statistics reveal an alarming trend toward second-generation incarceration. This one-of-a-kind book outlines for professionals working with these children the optimum time to provide intervention following significant trauma, and shows that direct preventative and early intervention services to children of offenders can help them cope and can steer them away from a life in which crime plays an all too familiar role. The authors and their contributors, including Meda Chesney-Lind, offer guidance to aid social workers, psychologists, and others who work with children whose parents are in prison to help meet the children's needs and prevent future delinquency, adult offenses, and ultimately, cross-generational incarceration.
Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Handbook for Researchers and Practitioners
Children are too often invisible victims of a correctional and social welfare system that has not prioritized their needs. J. Mark Eddy and Julie Poehlmann pulled together an authoritative collection from leading experts who examine the social, economic, and psychological risks associated with a parent's imprisonment. Amid the rather bleak picture portrayed in the empirical research, Children of Incarcerated Parents also offers hope. The volume's focus on developmentally sound interventions and resilience processes provides much-needed insight regarding what helps children beat the odds and transcend negative events.
Parenting From A Distance: Your Rights and Responsibilities
Parenting from a Distance is a resource for incarcerated parents who are committed to remaining involved in with thier children and willing to accept the responsibilities associated with parenting from a distance.
Family Arrested: How to Survive the Incarceration of a Loved One
A useful summary written for families by a woman whose husband was incarcerated for many years. It contains tips for families on how to survive economically and emotionally.
Empowering Children of Incarcerated Parents
This book is for counselors, social workers, psychologists and teachers who work with children ages 7-12 who have a parent who is in jail or prison. It is designed so that work can be done individually or in small groups.
When A Parent Goes To Jail : A Comprehensive Guide for Counseling Children of Incarcerated Parents
The authors go through the entire incarceration process from arrest through fingerprinting to appearing before a judge and sentencing. They describe the feelings that children might be having (sad, angry, confused, etc.) and encourage them to talk about these emotions. Changes that might take place at home are mentioned, and visits to the incarcerated person are covered. The book can be used with individuals or small groups of children in therapeutic settings. This is a book to read with children to help them understand their parent’s situation and explore their feelings.
Children of Incarcerated Parents: Theoretical Developmental and Clinical Issues
Children of Incarcerated Parents addresses developmental and clinical issues experienced throughout the trajectory of childhood and adolescence with a focus on interventions and social policies to improve outcomes for this under-studied group. The chapters explore individual, community, and national levels of policy, programming, and legislation.