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PARENTING BEHIND BARS BOOK DRIVE

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Help us support incarcerated parents! Our book drive, in partnership with 3 prison libraries, focuses on providing parenting and pregnancy books. This effort helps parents (and pregnant women) in prison to connect with their children and prepare for family reunification. Join us in making a difference!

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HOW TO HELP

  • Donate gently used paperbacks on pregnancy or parenting.

  • Purchase books on our wishlists

  • Support our postage drive to cover shipping costs.
     

FACT SHEET: PARENTING WHILE INCARCERATED


• Approximately half of people in prison are parents to minors, impacting 1.25 million kids, with about 1in5 (19%) of those children age 4 or younger.


• An estimated 58,000 pregnant women are admitted into jails and prisons every year, and thousands give birth or have other outcomes while still incarcerated. Pregnancy rates among confined youth were similar to those among adults.


• Children of the incarcerated face unique difficulties: the trauma of sudden separation from their caregiver; feelings of fear, anxiety,anger, depression; guilt; and movement between caretakers/foster care.


• Absent positive intervention, the behavioral consequences on the children of the incarcerated can be severe-emotional withdrawal, failure in school, delinquency and risk of intergenerational incarceration.


• Besides lowering recidivism among incarcerated parents, there is evidence that maintaining the child-parent relationship while a parent is incarcerated improves a child's emotional response to the incarceration and encourages parent-child attachment. Parent education also helps incarcerated parents prepare to successfully transition to full time parenting after release.

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