With the help of some University graduate students, parents are learning how to become better caretakers – from behind bars.
A program the state Department of Corrections started, called Parenting Inside Out, was recently brought to Lane County with the help of University psychology graduate students and the Eugene-based Oregon Social Learning Center. This month marks the first time the program has been used in the Lane County jail system, where sentences are shorter than in state facilities.
The program aims to help incarcerated parents take better care of their children and become better citizens when they are released. Program organizers say Parenting Inside Out keeps inmates from returning to prison later in life and say they are less likely to commit crimes once they are released. Researchers are currently tracking inmates involved in the study to learn about the effectiveness of the program.
Incarcerated parents may not even know what good parenting skills are, said Sopagna Eap, a psychology graduate student.
“Many of them might not have received good parenting themselves,” Eap said. “They really have no idea or examples of what might be best for their children.”
Psychology graduate student Robyn Gobin says the skills taught aren’t unique to inmates; rather, they are applicable to all parents.
“Parent coaches” such as Eap and Gobin teach incarcerated parents about different topics that include effective communication, problem solving, emotion regulation, child development and child bonding. Parent coaches meet twice per week in two-hour sessions at the Lane County Jail.
The classes may also help a large population of the prison.
About 60 to 70 percent of Oregon prison inmates are parents, said Mark Eddy, a research scientist at the Oregon Social Learning Center.
“People who are coming out of prison are facing numerous challenges,” Eddy said. “They’ve got to find a place to live, a job – rebuild a new life. Traditionally, there’s been an attempt to deal with most of these issues, but parenting is often ignored.”
Eddy said parenting is one piece of a puzzle to help inmates stay away from crime in the future.
“Focusing on children is powerful,” Eddy said. “We ask: ‘What do you want your legacy to be? What do you want your children’s lives to be like?’ There’s nothing stronger than the love you feel for children.”
Parenting Inside Out started at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville when construction on the facility began in 2000. The program has since been used in prisons throughout the state.
Eddy, who earned his Ph.D. in 1992 from the University, helped bring the program to Lane County and asked University students and professors to help implement the program locally. Parent coaches are currently working with 15 male and female inmates. The Lane County program, which started Oct. 2, is slightly different because sentence lengths are shorter compared to state prison sentences.
In state prisons, the minimum sentence is 13 months, and the maximum is a life sentence, said Lane County Sgt. Steve French. At the Lane County Jail, the maximum sentence is 12 months, and some offenders face a 30-day sentence.
“In that amount of time, it’s difficult to get people transitioned back into the community,” French said. “I think we’ve found some middle ground here, and we can give needed information to inmates. We still have an opportunity to impact their life.”
French said he hopes Parenting Inside Out helps parents break the family crime cycle and said he hopes participants stay out of jail once they are released.
“Any kind of program where the offender feels some kind of ownership to the program and gets to think about their actions will have some kind of positive influence on their lives – whether it occurs now or years from now,” French said.
He said he expects the program to help inmates improve their lives. More concrete data, however, should be available sometime this year.
The Oregon Social Learning Center is helping conduct a study to examine the effectiveness of the program, Eddy said. Researchers are tracking about 350 men and women involved in Parenting Inside Out. The study, which is expected to come out later this year, is the largest of its kind in the country.
French said the program also benefits the Lane County Sheriff’s Office financially because the office is in partnership with other state institutions.
“Everybody benefits from this in some way – more so, society is benefiting from this,” French said. He added that taxpayers save money by treating inmates rather than paying for jail and court services over and over for the same person.
“Basically, we’re investing in people,” French said.
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