Child-Friendly Visits in Jail

The University of Wisconsin - Madison proposes to study children’s contact with their incarcerated parents. The purpose of this study is to supply evidence for programs that incarceration facilities can provide to support families experiencing a separation due to incarceration. This project will utilize a mixed-methods design with two datasets including the Multisite Study of Incarceration, Parenting, and Partnering, as well as a dataset that will be collected as a part of this project studying child-friendly visits to answer the following questions: (a) Is incarcerated parent depressive mood and child behavior related to the type and frequency of contact during parental incarceration? If so, how? (b) How do child-friendly visits facilitate relationships between children and their incarcerated parents? And lastly (c) what changes do children and their incarcerated parents report experiencing in terms of their emotions, mental health, and outlook on the future after participating in child-friendly visits? Project activities include analyzing the rich contact data in the Multisite Study of Incarceration, Parenting and Partnering dataset, conducting interviews with incarcerated parents who participate in child-friendly visits at a midwestern jail, their children, and their children’s caregivers, completing qualitative analyses to understand family experiences of the child-friendly visits, and writing a brief outlining the findings and suggested changes for visiting programs in carceral facilities. Expected outcomes include clarification of the mixed findings for children regarding different types of contact with their incarcerated parents, positive feedback and stories regarding maintaining family connections during child-friendly visits, clarification of the specific elements of child-friendly visits that foster connection, and the publication of an accessible research brief detailing these findings. CA/NCF