Substance Abuse

JS Blog Post January 3, 2019

Stories Beyond Bars: A Daughter's Experience with a Father in Prison

Riley Hewko, Esq.

Two years ago, Patricia Allard and I wrote a Huffington Post blog highlighting a video of 8-year-old D.G's wish for her father’s transfer from a federal prison in Texas to one in Oregon. It seemed like it would take a miracle, but with the help of her community he was transferred last year. D.G. still can’t even think of the ultimate miracle— having her dad come home. 

This year I had the opportunity to chat with D.G. now 10-years-old about her thoughts on her dad’s incarceration, her most recent visit, and some advice for young people in her situation. You can listen to the interview here.

JS Blog Post October 27, 2018

The Family First Prevention Services Act Offers Support for Children of Incarcerated Parents

Riley Hewko, Esq.

Last spring, groundbreaking legislation, The Family First Prevention Services Act (“FFPSA”), was signed into law as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act allowing states to use federal funding to help keep families together and avoid out of home foster care placement entirely. Specifically, the legislation changes the way that Title IV-E funds can be spent by states by allowing funds to be used for prevention services that help keep kids at home or with their relatives. Prevention services include for example, mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment services, in-home skill-based parenting programs, foster care maintenance payments for children with parents in residential family-based substance abuse treatment facilities, and payments for kinship navigator programs.

JS Blog Post October 5, 2018

Study Update: Recent Study Shows Negative Public Health Impacts for Children with Histories of Parental Incarceration and Need for Decarceration Strategies

Riley Hewko, Esq.

A recent study confirms that incarceration is one of the major public health challenges of our time, not only for the people experiencing incarceration, but for children left behind. The study by Nia Heard-Garris MD et al, “Health Care Use and Health Behaviors Among Young Adults with History of Parental Incarceration,” found that young adults with histories of parental incarceration are less likely to use health care and more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors compared with peers without parental incarceration. Such findings urge policy makers to reduce incarceration rates and help children maintain contact with their incarcerated parents. Read more »

JS Blog Post August 25, 2015

A letter to the judge who sentenced her father

Maria Lloyd

Maria Lloyd , 23-year old adult child of an incarcerated father, sends a poignant letter to the judge who sentenced her father to five life sentences for drug trafficking. The letter says it all.

JS Blog Post July 16, 2015

Let Our Families Have a Future: A mother's story #2

Theresa Martinez

In this video, Theresa discusses the impact that familial seperartion has had on her daughter's well-being. Theresa's incarceration resulted in years of seperation from her daughter who was forced to live a challenging existence in the foster care system. Theresa also discusses how children of color in foster care - who miss their parents so much - are over-medicated in an effort to make them more manageable. Please view Theresa's second blog post

 

 

 

JS Blog Post June 30, 2015

Let Our Families Have a Future: A mother's story #1

Theresa Martinez
In this, the first of a four part video series, Theresa Martinez of Justice Now relates the story of her twenty-three years of incarceration in both youth and adult facilities, and her separation from her daughter. Listen in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPehSdIt9Tw
JS Blog Post May 11, 2015

They took her child away

Sharda Sekaran

Dear Patricia,


You won’t believe the story of Shona Banda. Let me tell you, I didn’t at first.
Shona lives in Kansas and uses medical marijuana to treat her Crohn’s disease, a chronic condition that causes her debilitating pain. Medical marijuana is the only treatment that relieves her symptoms.


Last month, her 11-year-old was forced to sit through a long D.A.R.E. propaganda seminar, where he was told marijuana has no medical benefit — completely contrary to established science. So he spoke up. He made it known to his classmates that medical marijuana was helping his mother battle a debilitating disease. What happened next is terrifying.

The school called the police, who then held and questioned him at school. Then Shona’s house was searched, her medicine seized, and her son was taken away.

This all happened in Kansas, just one state over from Colorado, where marijuana is legally bought and sold every day. We cannot let this stand.

Please TAKE ACTION! Follow the link below:

http://stand-with-shona.action.drugpolicy.org/?source=1F5ZZZZZZZ4/#primary_form

Sign the petition to the county attorney keeping Shona from her son – tell her to drop the case immediately! Read more »

JS Blog Post February 10, 2015

Washington’s Parenting Sentencing Alternative: A strengths-based approach to supervision

Susie Leavell, Program Administrator, Washington State Department of Corrections

A sentencing alternative for parents in Washington State is showing great potential for reducing the rate at which parents return to prison after successfully completing the program. In 2010, the state Legislature passed the Parenting Sentencing Alternative, which has two components that allow parents of minor children to either avoid prison or to transfer early from prison onto electronic monitoring at home to parent. The Family and Offender Sentencing Alternative (FOSA) is a judicial sentencing option where judges can waive a sentence within the standard range and impose 12 months of community custody along with conditions for treatment and programming for eligible offenders who otherwise face a prison sentence. The other, called the Community Parenting Alternative (CPA), is a prison-based option that allows the Department of Corrections to transfer an offender home on electronic monitoring for up to the last 12 months of his or her prison sentence in order to parent.  Read more »

JS Blog Post January 28, 2015

Fourth post - Hill Briefing on Prioritizing the Needs of Children of Incarcerated Parents in the USA - Wednesday, September 4, 2014, Washington, D.C.

Patricia Allard

Glenn Martin is a criminal justice reform advocate and founder of JustLeadership USA. Glenn addresses the reasons why we need to focus our efforts on decarceration. "I've seen it [decarceration] work, and because I've seen the damage prison causes individuals, families and entire communities."

JS Blog Post January 12, 2015

Second post - Hill Briefing on Prioritizing the Needs of Children of Incarcerated Parents in the USA - Wednesday, September 4, 2014, Washington, D.C.

Patricia Allard

Charles Dalton Telschow performed a moving spoken word piece on September 4, 2014 during the Hill Briefing about prioritizing the needs of children of incarcerated parents. This original piece speaks volumes about the devastating impact of mass incarceration. Stay tuned for more presentations.
 

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