Family and Community Supports for Female Offenders Upon Reentry
Possible Problems during Familial Visitation with the Offender before releasing from Incarceration
A prisoner is likely to face financial, social, and emotional issues, and stress during visitation before release. Emotional issues are difficult especially when the prisoner has children visiting. The visit can cause emotional pain and stress due to the fact that the family cannot stay together as they would want. Social problems may arise as a result of the feeling of alienation when one realizes that they are denied the freedom to live their life freely (Arditti & Few, 2006). The prisoner may feel the urge to get reunited with their families, an aspect that could cause them to want to escape from prison, thus getting into discipline issues. Financial problems can result from transportation expenses, among other related costs incurred by the visiting families considering that they do not get any support from the prisoner.
Effect of the Problems
Incarceration often results in permanent effects on the prisoner and their family before and after release. Emotional detachment from children can cause them to get used to living in the absence of their mother. Even after the release from incarceration, the children may fail to connect with their mother since they have become used to living without their mother’s emotional support. Financially, the mother may lack the ability to support her family due to the spoilt reputation thus lacking the means to provide for basic needs. Lacking the necessities, they need with their mother around could cause the children to despise her, an aspect that could cause growth in the criminal cycle. Socially, the prisoner may lack the ability to connect with their family socially since they have been distanced for a long time thus lacking essential social skills. This may cause the children to feel unappreciated or unloved by their parents.
Importance of Family Member Support
Familial member support often serves to provide the prisoners with social support that can benefit the mother after release in relation to adaptive coping mechanisms, psychological adjustments, and parental competence. Supportive relationships with friends and family are relevant particularly to the individuals who have high-stress levels since such interactions often act as a protective buffer of negative experiences. Social support according to Arditti & Few (2006) often acts as an appraisal element and a mechanism for inmates to handle stress. For instance, the provision of emotional support from family members can cause an individual to feel appreciated and create the need to change their behavior and become consistent in their parenting duties. In contrast, lack of social support can cause one to indulge in delinquency following their release from prison.
Effect of Perception
Many women often have the perception that once they are incarcerated, they lose their eligibility for particular community benefits. Although some programs lack services for individuals who have undergone incarceration, others are made for such people.
After their reintegration into the community, the mother may be less motivated to acquire community resources as a result of spoilt reputation (Arditti & Few, 2006). For instance, an individual who was imprisoned for engaging in drug abuse could lose the trust of the community, and cause them to judge her from a similar perspective. Additionally, it would be difficult for the mother to get employment opportunities due to a lack of trust and diminished esteem to offer their services optimally. Mothers should be confident of themselves even after their release from prison and make use of available community resources.
Community Supports
Support groups
Support groups often assist mothers’ reentry and consequent transition into her duties as a parent to support their children. Such community-based support groups often provide support through the involvement of individuals who have encountered similar experiences in the past to guide them through the reintegration.
Counseling community-based groups
Groups that are run by professionals often provide mothers with therapy needs to smoothen their reentry. For instance, some inmates tend to lose their confidence during their stay in the prisons and may feel undeserving to use community-based resources. As such, the provision of counseling services assists them to feel as equal and deserving mothers and members of the community.
Non-governmental organizations
Such organizations often provide counseling services to the inmates and after their release to make their reentry stress free. The provision of counseling services enables individuals to believe in themselves through the provision of financial, emotional, and social support. Others offer employment opportunities that often serve to increase the mother’s confidence in their return and acceptance into the community.
References
Arditti, J. A., & Few, A. L. (2006). Mothers’ reentry into family life following incarceration. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 17(1), 103-123. 10.1177/0887403405282450