Promising Practices for Strengthening Families Affected by Parental Incarceration: A Review of the Literature. OPRE Report 2021-25

Over 5 million American children under the age of 18 years, a disproportionate number of whom are Black or Latino, have had a residential parent jailed or incarcerated. While a number of existing studies identify parental incarceration as a key risk factor for poor child and family outcomes, there is more limited information describing programs that aim to promote positive outcomes for children with parents involved in the criminal justice system. This literature review analyzes published studies about family strengthening programs that seek to maintain and build healthy relationships between parents who are incarcerated and their children. The review is organized by six key areas of programmatic focus that the research team identified based on an initial scan of the literature, consultations with experts and programs in the field, and guidance from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The following three overarching research questions are addressed: (1) What areas should family strengthening programs explicitly address in their models?; (2) What programs and practices are currently being used to strengthen families involved with the justice system?; and (3) What does the research and evidence indicate about programs that aim to strengthen families involved with the justice system? The purpose of this review is to summarize the research and evaluation literature on programs that aim to strengthen families involved in the justice system. The findings identify key gaps in the knowledge base on family strengthening programs, which can help programs improve their models and help researchers more rigorously study these programs' impacts on children and families in the future.