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Do women who participate in prison nursery programs feel prepared for motherhood post-release?

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Decatur Correctional Center’s E-wing

“I’m very grateful to be here,” said Cayesha Shivers, 25, who held her three-month-old baby boy, Kori, as she sat in her cell. “Every mum here can agree with me. There’s nothing like being able to be there, hands on, and not just watching your child grow up through pictures, letters and phone calls.”

Many women who become incarcerated are often those who have already come from complexly adverse lives, having survived poverty, trauma, substance abuse, violence, and neglect, among other factors. The separation from an infant after birth has been cited by mothers as more traumatic than any other aspect of imprisonment (Greene, Haney, & Hurtado, 2000). From prison nursery programs, there is potential to break the cycle of trauma, poverty, and other circumstances which provide pathways to imprisonment. The women in the program participate in parenting and sometimes general education classes which build and strengthen the skills necessary to raise and support their children after release.

Currently, just 9 states offer pregnant women who are entering the prison system the opportunity to raise their child in a supported and dedicated nursery, which is separate from the general prison population. Pregnancy is not the only requirement for admittance into these programs, but is one among a varied list each facility abides by. Perhaps one of the most restrictive requirements is that the sentence of the offender be less than 36 months, but that is still not a guarantee that the child will be with the mother until her release. The states which have recognized the salience of prison nursery programs are those which address the evidence that supports the impacts of attachment theory, adverse childhood experiences, and the necessity of the mother-child bond to promote positive outcomes.

Although these programs are in place to support the development of parental skills, there are still many challenges to face once the mother and child are released. I considered this and found my research question:

Do women who participate in prison nursery programs feel prepared for motherhood post-release?

For those who do, perhaps there are learned or inherent coping strategies that can be integrated into the content of these programs to benefit others. By drawing information from women who are directly participating, more areas of need can be identified and provide insight for future curriculum and case management.

 
References:
Greene, S., Haney, C., Hurtado, A. (2000). Cycles of pain: Risk factors in the lives of  incarcerated      mothers and their children. Prison Journal, 80, 3. doi: 10.1177/0032885500080001001

Semester in Review

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My first semester in the Honors Program, and also the Social Work program, is coming to a close. I explored several areas of interest over the past four months, but each remained true to the theme of barriers. I looked at how trauma and other advEdward Goreyerse childhood experiences hold students back; zero-tolerance policies which aim to punish rather than understand and prevent inequities; and refugee experiences with barriers to empowerment. Although I haven’t yet decided on a population that interests me more than another, it is now clear that I have a passion for justice.

The Discovering Evidence course I took this semester empowered me to explore inequities of power and social justice in my future career as a student and as a social worker. We learned the language of research, and it has even been shown that learning the methodologies and practices of research, like taking an ethics course, increases one’s abilities to reason.

 

 

So why is research important to social work?

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luba-lukovaSocial work has a completely different meaning to me than it did when I started the pre-major coursework a little over a year ago. I’ve since learned that social workers really, really have to know what they’re doing – not just for the benefit of their clients, but also to stay licensed. We believe we can change the world because the world is made of people, and since we work with people, the impetus for evidence-based practice is ever-growing. The world is changing and nations are industrializing, expanding, warring and oppressing, and the people within those societies are adapting to changing ways of life.

As social workers, we train to be able to see the multitude of invisible lines within the systems that hold our lives together, or divide us. We learn to recognize the disconnects, and to help our clients figure out how to reconnect the dots. We view the world through a lens of person-in-environment, that is to say, we seek to understand the context in which our clients live.

The social sciences have an inherent obligation not only to keep abreast of current relevant research, but also to be competent enough to apply new treatments and insights within their practice. Social workers are truly dedicated professionals who have to complete a minimum number of continuing education credits to continue practicing. We don’t get to pick and choose the individuals we help, which is why we have to constantly develop our cultural competencies to identify the strengths of those we are helping. So, research is important to social work because it helps us be effective!

According to the NASW, research in social work helps us:

  • Assess the needs and resources of people in their environments
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of social work services in meeting peoples needs
  • Demonstrate relative costs and benefits of social work services
  • Advance professional education in light of changing contexts for practice
  • Understand the impact of legislation and social policy on the clients and communities we serve
    (Retrieved from http://www.socialworkpolicy.org/research)

research To find appropriate intervention strategies for our clients, we use a strategy called COPES, which is an acronym for Client Oriented Practical Evidence Search. All of our clients are different and will be facing diverse challenges, so the first step in our search is to determine the specific problem we need to address. Next, we consider what we might be inclined to do and then devise alternate courses of action. There must be a clear objective, as this will guide us in choosing the most relevant research, however, we never want to assume to know the “correct” course of treatment right away. Once we have located perhaps a dozen promising articles, we carefully assess each one for relevancy, clarity, reliability, validity, and applicability.

I still do not know what my research question will be for my senior thesis, but I am beginning to pare down some topics that interest me such as:

  • Effects of childhood trauma
  • The school-to-prison pipeline
  • Trauma-informed therapies within prisons
  • Effectiveness of prison diversion programs

 

About Your Host

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morgan

This photograph of me was taken by a friend during one of his final visits to Columbus. An addiction to his own prescribed medication and a fatal mixture with alcohol took his life a few months later. In the years since, substance abuse has been on the rise in the United States, with ever-increasing incidences of hospitalizations and deaths caused by overdose. I’m most interested in the field of forensic social work on a micro level, but am fascinated by correlations between policy, mental illness, substance abuse, and crime, especially in the context of at-risk populations.

My post-secondary academic career began with a jaunt into film studies and art history, but I realized after several years that I didn’t feel fulfilled by merely studying the arts. I craved to engage my studies in a meaningful way, but didn’t come to the doorstep of social work until late into my 20’s. What I immediately noticed about the program was how comprehensive and immersive the curriculum was. My genuine interest in the material paid off when I was surprised by being accepted into the honors program. Now, at the beginning of my junior year, I’m tasked with conceptualizing an idea for a research thesis.

This semester in Discovering Evidence, my intentions are to:

  • Increase my interpretive and discovery skills in reference to research
  • Learn the methods of how to ask the right questions in the search for quality evidence
  • Discern relevant information from irrelevant information
  • Build a strong infrastructure for future practice