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Family Ties (Carroll County FY 19 and beyond) Annual

Story Behind the Curve

  • Incarcerated parents exiting the detention center more quickly than their originial sentence release date making visits and data collection difficult.
  • Low participation in parenting classess due to lack of engaging teacher and content.
  • Incarcerated parents who do not want their children to know they are incarcerated.
  • Caregivers who are unable or unwilling to bring children to the visitation center.

Partners

  • Carroll County Detention Center provides referrals for parents eligible to visit with their children.  The Detention center presents each parent at a weekly meeting, with the warden providing final permission for participation.
  • Family Law Administration (Circuit Court for Carroll County) provides staff to teach the parenting classes inside the detention center and also to complete intakes with parents and caregivers.  This position is also responsible for marketing the program to agencies and service providers throughout the county.
  • Catholic Charities is now partnering with Family Ties to provide case management services to families who are participating in Family Ties.

Action Plan

  • Increase communication between the Detention Center and Family Law regarding the release of incarcerated parents from custody.  It is crucial for Family Ties to collect post participation data from incarcerated parents and it was determined that parents were exiting the detention center before Family Ties was able to complete their post participation survey.  There is little to no success in attemtping to mail surveys or follow up by phone.  
  • A monthly work group has been established to routinely review the process of moving incarcerated parents into parenting classes and visits, and to also ensure families caring for chidlren with incarcerated parents are receiving the wrap around services they need. The group will meet monthly, starting in September 2-18.
  • Allow parenting classes to have male and female participants in the same class.  Previously, parenting classes were held at seperate times for males and females.   Due to low particiaption in both classes, and the sense that classes are more productive with more people, the detention center will now allow males and females in the same class.
  • A large percentage of those "in custody" are under pre-trial supervision, meaning they are not sentenced to time inside the jail, but are living in the community.   The pre-trial supervisor will connect these families to the case management agency and these parents will be encouraged to participate in the community parenting classes.
  • Partner Chatholic Chariities is now providing wrap around case management support to aid caregivers who may be unable to transport children to visits at the Visitation Center.

Program Summary

This program provides research-supported contact visits between incarcerated parents at the Carroll County Detention Center and their minor children.  Family Ties also provides incarcerated parents with the Parenting Inside Out program, as well as re-entry services through the health Department.

Target Population

This program targets minor children in the community who have a parent serving a sentence in the Carroll County Detention Center.  Incarcerated parents must be deemed eligible for the program by the warden and classification staff at the Detention Center in order to participate in the program.  The Family Ties staff is responsible for contact the caregiver of the child, and coordinating with the caregiver to bring the child to visits.

Data Discussion

Family Ties faced difficulties engaging with caregivers once the children had compelted their visits, or the parent was released from incarceration.  Attempts were made to contact all families, post participation, via letters, emails, phone calls and face to face visits.  In all circumstances, parents and cargivers either were unwilling to provide follow up information, or visits ended abruptly due to unexpected and early releasese from the Detention Center. 

Measures

Time
Period
Current Actual Value
Current Target Value
Current
Trend
Baseline
% Change

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Scorecard Container Measure Action Actual Value Target Value Tag S A m/d/yy m/d/yyyy