Every year, about 1.9 million children in the United States have a parent in a state or federal prison (Davis & Shlafer, 2017). Alarmingly, children of incarcerated parents struggle with a variety of problems that could have implications on their adulthood lives. For example, 70% of children with incarcerated parents have emotional or psychological disorders, 50-83% have problems at school, 24-52% have delinquency difficulties, and 10-30% have been incarcerated or arrested themselves (Kjellstrand, Cearley, Eddy, Foney, & Martinez, 2012).
In addition, these children are twice as likely as their peers to exhibit antisocial behavior, one of the strongest indictors of adult adjustment problems, and are also twice as likely to be at risk for mental health problems (Davis & Shlafer, 2017; Kjellstrand et al., 2012). Furthermore, the duration and quality of the relationship a child has with their incarcerated parent prior to imprisonment has implications on a child’s ability to cope with the situation (Song, Woo, Lee, & Cochran, 2018). For example, research has shown that mothers are far more likely to live with their children in the month prior to their incarceration in comparison to fathers, and that adult children of incarcerated mothers are 2.5 times more likely to be incarcerated compared to adult children of incarcerated fathers (Kjellstrand et al., 2012). Given that the relationship incarcerated parents have with their children has a strong impact on their future, it is important to analyze how parenting programs offered to incarcerated parents can be tailored to the unique challenges faced by mothers and fathers.
If a facility is far from an offender’s family, and the transportation is unavailable or too costly, this can increase the difficulties of facilitating visitations to help incarcerated parents maintain relationships with their children (Miller et al., 2014). Furthermore, with changing release dates, transfers to different facilities, and different jail policies, such as lock-downs or commissary hours, the offenders’ attendance to inflexible, premade lessons can be unpredictable and reduce the effectiveness of parenting programs offered to inmates (Miller et al., 2014). The lack of predictability makes it hard for parents to maintain active parent roles in their children’s lives, and it increases the stress parents experience from the lack of knowing when and how a visitation will go emotionally when they do get a chance to see their children (Miller et al., 2014). Although each parent reacts differently to these stressors, there is a lack of specialized parenting programs tailored towards the different demographics found in incarcerated settings.
Marriage and family therapists could help decrease some of the barriers of incarcerated parenting while also teaching coping skills and providing validation and support. MFTs encourage clients and their families to be actively involved in their health and care arrangements and also promote communication between patients and their families (Doherty, McDaniel, & Hepworth, 1994; Doherty, McDaniel, & Hepworth, 2014), which are essential to removing barriers to incarcerated parenting.
Typically, there has been a lack of MFTs working within incarcerated facilities. It has been supported that in order to successfully reintegrate parents into the family’s hierarchy and structure, family mental health services in incarcerated facilities are key (Datchi, Barretti, & Thompson, 2016). Therapy, from a systemic lens, offers offenders the possibility to heal from and/or unlearn the knowledge from their incarcerated experiences, creating space for the potential in learning new concepts and patterns (Datchi et al., 2016). Fathers with a history of incarceration who report strong relationships with their children have been documented to fare better on employment and abstinence from crime and substance use (Maley, 2014; Petersilia, 2003; Visher, Yahner, & La Vigne, 2010). With this insight into strong familial relationships leading to benefits in reference of employment and reduced rates of substance use and crime, it seems that any facility that does not have family therapy services could be doing a disservice to the offenders, their families, and the overarching community. In advocating that family therapy should be the treatment of choice in an incarcerated setting, it is important to highlight that family therapy gives a voice to family members who are often silenced throughout the treatment process by lack of inclusion (Tadros, Fye, McCrone, & Finney, 2019).
Fathers with a history of incarceration who report strong relationships with their children have been documented to fare better on employment and abstinence from crime and substance use.
Below is a list of ways in which MFTs can help:
- Promote close and supportive family relationships by implementing structural family therapy (SFT), which contextualizes a problem through family structures, boundaries, hierarchies, roles, rules, and patterns of interaction between involved parties (Tadros & Finney, 2018)
- This could help create cooperation amongst the caregiver and incarcerated parent or child and incarcerated parent by facilitating dialogue between both parties (Tremblay & Sutherland, 2017)
- Promote a family resilience framework where families and incarcerated members are given the opportunity describe their own narratives based on experiences, values, and beliefs (Cooper-Sadlo, Mancini, Meyer, & Chou, 2019)
- This allows incarcerated members to shift their prospective from, for example, “addict” and/or “felon” to “offender” and/or “mother in recovery.” This shift in language facilitates the need to find additional support through hope and encouragement rather than alienation and punishment (Cooper-Sadlo et al., 2019)
- Increases the involvement and support of an incarcerated individual’s family and provides ways in which the family can be resilient in the face of adversity (Datchi & Sexton, 2013; Taylor, 2016)
- This helps a family navigate stressful situations and allows an incarcerated member to perceive family as a source of support and an entity of interdependence (Datchi & Sexton, 2013)
- Improve the attitudes and knowledge in parenting in an understandable format.
- This provides resources to incarcerated members and their families on appropriate parenting expectations, forms of empathy, and child development in a way that takes into account the situation a family may be in and the customs it values the most (Miller et al., 2014; Palusci, Crum, Bliss, & Bavolek, 2007)
- Provide parent support groups where discussion can be facilitated about worries, stress, and situations faced in incarcerated communities in a safe space with guided dialogue and expectations (Datchi & Sexton, 2013)
- Facilitate child visits to decrease the amount of anxiety and emotional distress that can occur by facilitating a more family-oriented atmosphere (Tremblay & Sutherland, 2017)
These points are simply the start of a lifelong journey to advocate for underserved populations, incorporate MFTs into incarcerated facilities, and explore the unique experiences of incarcerated individuals and their families to better support their needs.

Eman Tadros, PhD, is an assistant professor at Governors State University in the Division of Psychology and Counseling. She received her PhD from the University of Akron’s Counselor Education and Supervision: Marriage and Family Therapy program. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist, AAMFT Clinical Fellow, and Approved Supervisor. Her research follows the trajectory of incarcerated coparenting, incorporating family therapy into incarcerated settings, and the utilization of family systems theories within these settings.

Melanie Barbini, is finishing her last semester at Northeastern University studying behavioral neuroscience. She is mentored by Eman Tadros in Northeastern’s Women Who Empower mentoring program. Barbini is planning to apply to medical schools and has an interest in working with underserved populations.
REFERENCES
Cooper-Sadlo, S., Mancini, M. A., Meyer, D. D., & Chou, J. L. (2019). Mothers talk back: Exploring the experiences of formerly incarcerated mothers. Contemporary Family Therapy, 41, 92-101. doi:10.1007/s10591-018-9473-y
Datchi, C. C., Barretti, L. M., & Thompson, C. M. (2016). Family services in adult detention centers: Systemic principles for prisoner reentry. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 5(2), 89–104.
Datchi, C. C., & Sexton, T. L. (2013). Can family therapy have an effect on adult criminal conduct? Initial Evaluation of Functional Family Therapy. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 2(4), 278-293. doi:10.1037/a0034166
Davis, L., & Shlafer, R. J. (2017). Mental health of adolescents with currently and formerly incarcerated parents. Journal of Adolescence, 54, 120-134. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.10.006
Doherty, W. J., McDaniel, S. H., & Hepworth, J. (1994). Medical family therapy: An emerging arena for family therapy. Journal of Family Therapy, 16(1), 31-46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6427.1994.00775.x
Doherty, W. J., McDaniel, S. H., & Hepworth, J. (2014). Contributions of medical family therapy to the changing health care system. Family Process, 53(3), 529-543. doi:10.1111/famp.12092
Kjellstrand, J., Cearley, J., Eddy, J. M., Foney, D., & Martinez, C. R. (2012). Characteristics of incarcerated fathers and mothers: Implications for preventive interventions targeting children and families. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(12), 2409-2415. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2012.08.008
Maley, L. A. (2014). The fatherhood factor: The impact of the father-child relationship on the social, interpersonal, and recidivism risk factors of previously incarcerated men. South Orange, NJ: Seton Hall University.
Miller, A. L., Weston, L. E., Perryman, J., Horwitz, T., Franzen, S., & Cochran, S. (2014). Parenting while incarcerated: Tailoring the strengthening families program for use with jailed mothers. Children and Youth Services Review, 44, 163-170.
Palusci, V. J., Crum, P., Bliss, R., & Bavolek, S. J. (2007). Changes in parenting attitudes and knowledge among inmates and other at-risk populations after a family nurturing program. Children and Youth Services Review, 30. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2007.06.006
Petersilia, J. (2003). When prisoners come home: Parole and prisoner reentry. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Song, H., Woo, Y., Lee, H. D., & Cochran, J. K. (2018). The dynamics of intra-family relationships during incarceration and the implications for children of incarcerated parents. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 62(12), 3775-3796. doi:10.1177/0306624X18755481
Tadros, E., & Finney, N. (2018). Structural family therapy with incarcerated families: A clinical case study. The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families, 26(2), 253-261. doi:10.1177/1066480718777409
Tadros, E., Fye, J. M., McCrone, C. L., & Finney, N. (2019). Incorporating multicultural couple and family therapy into incarcerated settings. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 63(4), doi:10.1177/0306624X18823442
Taylor, C. J. (2016). The family’s role in the reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals: The direct effects of emotional support. The Prison Journal, 96(3), 331-354.
Tremblay, M. D., & Sutherland, J. E. (2017). The effectiveness of parenting programs for incarcerated mothers: A systematic review. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26, 3247-3265. doi:10.1007/s10826-017-0900-8
Visher, C., Yahner, J., La Vigne, N. G. (2010). Life after prison: Tracking the experiences of male prisoners returning to Chicago, Cleveland, and Houston. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.
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