Hill Briefing on Prioritizing the Needs of Children of Incarcerated Parents in the United States -Wednesday, September 3 from 11-12:30pm in RM 2253 Rayburn Building, Washington, D.C.

Hill Briefing

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson Hosts

Prioritizing the Needs of Children of Incarcerated Parents in the United States

“When my mother was sentenced, I felt that I was sentenced. . . She was sentenced to prison – to be away from her kids and her family.  I was sentenced, as a child, to be without my mother.”

- Antoinette, an adult, who was 8 years old when her mother was incarcerated[1]

When: On Wednesday, September 3, 2014 from 11-12:30pm

Where: Rayburn Building Room 2253

What: Please join Justice Strategies to examine how Congress can foster family integrity by offering alternatives to incarceration for parents convicted of non-violent drug or drug-related offences.

Why: Bureau of Justice Statistics most recent figures show that more than 1.7 million minor children in the USA have an incarcerated parent. The acute racial disparity within the prison system is reflected among the children of incarcerated parents, where Black children are 7.5 times more likely than white children to experience parental incarceration.

Parental incarceration impacts children in profound ways throughout childhood and into adulthood:

• Undermining their sense of stability and safety
• Compromising their sense of connectedness and worthiness
• Destabilizing their ability to trust and develop healthy relationships
• Threatening their school performance and economic security
• Damaging their sense of having a place in the world

Let’s keep families together and build vibrant and healthy communities for the children.

Who: Moderated by Nkechi Taifa, Senior Policy Analyst, Open Society Foundation, D.C.

• Patricia Allard – Senior Policy Research Associate, Justice Strategies, NY
• Glenn Martin – Executive Director, JustLeadership USA, NY
• Pamela Clifton – Communications Coordinator, Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, CO
• Charles Dalton Telschow – Slam Poet, Actor, Musical Performer , CO
• Elizabeth Gaynes – Executive Director, The Osborne Association, NY

For more information, contact Patricia Allard at pat [at] justicestrategies [dot] net (pat [at] justicestrategies [dot] net) or Carrie Palmer at carrie [dot] palmer [at] mail [dot] house [dot] gov. Visit Justice Strategies’ Children of Incarcerated Blog at http://www.justicestrategies.org/coip