U.S. Department of Justice: Second Chance Act Addressing the Needs of Incarcerated Parents With Minor Children

The Second Chance Act Addressing the Needs of Incarcerated Parents With Minor Children program will promote and expand services in detention and correctional facilities to incarcerated individuals who have children younger than age 18, and provide services to children of incarcerated parents by facilitating access to services that support their needs. The goal is to assist states and localities in developing or expanding services that meet the needs of incarcerated parents and their children. Programs proposed should aim to prevent violent crime, reduce recidivism, and protect the safety of law enforcement (correctional officers) within state and locally managed facilities or private facilities under contract with a state or locality. In addition to engaging incarcerated parents and their children, this program supports the delivery of transitional reentry services, including services to minor children, upon release to reduce recidivism and prevent violent crime. The program will:

• Develop a coordinated system for the provision of programs and services that support the needs of children of incarcerated parents, such as mental health issues, substance use issues, and trauma-related issues, to ensure minor children remain connected with their parents in a structured and supportive environment
• Develop and implement programs and resources that equip parents with tools to identify and address problematic behaviors in their children, thus improving the parent’s ability to be involved
• Develop strategies and approaches to strengthen the relationships between incarcerated parents and their children
• Seek to reduce the incarcerated parent’s behavioral infractions during incarceration and recidivism post-release
• Provide services that foster positive youth development for children of incarcerated parents; these services may include, but are not limited to, mentoring for these children
• Develop innovative approaches that will enhance child/parent communication, such as the use of tele-visiting, emailing, letter writing, audio recordings, and transportation assistance for in-person visits

Successful applicants will address the needs of incarcerated parents and their children, to include reentry and transitional services for incarcerated parents that focus on incorporating parental responsibility. Examples of activities that may be funded through this solicitation include, but are not limited to:

• Providing facilities with staffing, equipment, tools, and resources to create child-friendly spaces that promote continuous quality environments for parent-child visits
• Providing facilities with staffing, equipment, tools, resources, and advanced and innovative assistance to engage in multidisciplinary partnerships that promote the implementation of data-driven and balanced prevention, intervention, enforcement, and reentry strategies to address challenges encountered by incarcerated parents and their children
• Enhancing and expanding services to children of incarcerated parents by facilitating access to effective services that strengthen the relationship between incarcerated parents and their children and address issues affecting parents and their children, such as suicide, alcohol and substance abuse, mental health disorders, domestic and sexual abuse, financial instability, and the impact of these factors on both the child and the locality in which they live
• Developing safety protocols and procedures for children who are visiting their incarcerated parents
• Developing and implementing strategies that reduce recidivism and reoffending of inmates who have children younger than age 18
• Developing and expanding services and education programs that strengthen an incarcerated parent’s engagement with his or her children and family and encourage prosocial behavior among youth
• Facilitating peer-to-peer consultation and networking between parents and detention/correctional facilities to promote problem-solving and innovation through the exchange of information and ideas around parental involvement when incarcerated
• Identifying experts to build local capacity for the development and implementation of local strategic plans that use multidisciplinary partnerships, balanced approaches, and data-driven strategies, and help the facilities address issues associated with incarcerated parents and their children and families
• Providing parenting classes or other services to incarcerated parents to promote responsible civic (e.g., becoming a taxpayer) and family (e.g., paying child support) engagement
• Supporting family counseling services and educational support to help break the cycle of violence among children who have incarcerated parents
• Developing services that support incarcerated parents’ continued involvement in the lives of their minor children when supported by the children’s caregiver or guardian (i.e., father-daughter dances, increased communication between incarcerated parents and their minor children, increased visitation opportunities for incarcerated parents who have minor children, reading on tape programs, phone calls, emails, letters, and tele-visiting)
• Implementing policies and practices within facilities that foster family engagement
• Facilitating peer-to-peer consultation and networking at facilities among inmates and their families to address problem-solving and innovation through the exchange of information that addresses parenting and other issues
• Helping incarcerated parents develop reentry plans that incorporate family unification and engagement with their minor children

Amount: A total of $4,500,000 is available to make up to 10 awards that range from $500,000-$750,000. The project period is 36 months.

Eligibility: States (including territories) and units of local government. A unit of local government is defined as:

• Any city, county, township, town, borough, parish, village, or other general purpose political subdivision of a state
• Any law enforcement district or judicial enforcement district that: (i) is established under applicable state law, and (ii) has the authority to, in a manner independent of other state entities, establish a budget and impose taxes
• An Indian tribe that performs law enforcement functions, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior
• For the purposes of assistance eligibility, any agency of the government of the District of Columbia or the federal government that performs law enforcement functions in and for: (i) the District of Columbia, or (ii) any Trust Territory of the United States

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=312881

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