When Mom and Dad are in Jail, the Kids Won't Be Far Behind!

By: Ron Mallett (5/14/2008)

Literally hundreds of studies have been done over the past two decades on the subject of generational criminality. Beyond question, the studies reveal, when dad and/or mom exhibit criminal patterns, including substance abuse and neglect of children, roughly half the children of that family will themselves turn to lives of crime. (Simply go on the internet and bring up the topic of youth crime. The statistics are overwhelming.)

Now that moms are increasingly finding themselves in jail or prison, alongside dad, we can surmise that most, if not all, of their offspring will also run afoul of the law during their rebellious teen years. Early statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice show just such a trend. Juvenile incarceration rates are climbing.

In Colorado, we have 10 facilities that can be classified as maximum security jails and prisons for children. The Colorado budget for dealing with youth criminality is growing at an annual rate of 8-10 percent. Exact figures are difficult to obtain, as related expenditures easily get scattered around and buried within the massive $1.67 billion budget of the State Department of Human Services.

(We’re not implying that these hidden expenditures are deliberate – it is indeed a complex accounting nightmare. Certain expenditures in the divisions of child welfare and care, mental health/alcohol and drug abuse services, as well as expenditures on capital construction must be added to the Division of Youth Corrections expenditures to assess the true cost of youth crime to the State budget. In complete fairness, we must also add the costs of police, district attorneys and judges to the mix.)

As rates of female incarceration rise, juvenile incarceration rates climb. Eventually, those juveniles will themselves become parents, and so the cycle of criminal behavior is not only established but is put on course for a snowballing growth rate. As all of us who ever made a snowman already know, snowballs grow at an exponential rate as you roll them across a yard covered with fresh-fallen snow. This illustrates what it means to say the cost of crime, driven by exponential incarceration rates, is on course to reaching epidemic proportions in Colorado.

There is one solution to this problem that can have a major dampening effect on growing incarceration rates. This solution directly addresses the unacceptable recidivism rates (repeat criminality) in the United States. If we can disrupt the cycle by reaching these people with well-designed aftercare, restoration and community re-integration programs at the critical moment of release from jail or prison, we can cut recidivism rates in more than half – thus ending the cycle of criminality at the family level, and significantly reducing incarceration rates at the state level.

Prison Fellowship has had such programs for many years. Recent studies by the University of Pennsylvania have substantiated Prison Fellowship’s claims that recidivism rates can be reduced to an insignificant level (10 percent or less) by such aftercare programs. This compares to a national recidivism rate of more than 60 percent.

Our greater societal problem lies in not knowing how to get such programs started on a broad basis. Prison Fellowship has a proven strategy, but their programs are implemented at just one facility within each state in which they offer the program. We need to simultaneously reach a couple dozen facilities in Colorado if we are to have a significant impact on overall crime rates and crime costs. A single effort at a single prison will not get it done.

Shekinah is proposing a grassroots movement that will bring aftercare programs to every major community in the State. Prisoner aftercare programs are intensely personal efforts, involving one human being helping another within a local setting. Such programs can work only at the local level. One would never ask the State to build restoration programs for alcoholics! No, alcoholism is best handled at the local level through AA and Alanon programs. So it is with prisoner restoration efforts, which are local one-on-one partnering programs that establish ex-prisoners as peaceful and productive members of society.

Our strategy is called “Power to Change.” It focuses on helping prisoners who have faith in God to carry through with that faith in choosing a better life for themselves and for their families. You will be hearing more on this topic in the near future, as funding becomes available for several pilot projects we are working on. Watch this website for more developments.