{"id":247714,"date":"2010-01-28T09:17:57","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T14:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhrealitycheck.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/28\/reproductive-justice-californias-incarcerated-young-parents"},"modified":"2010-01-29T13:09:12","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T18:09:12","slug":"california-considers-law-to-aid-young-parents-living-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/247714","title":{"rendered":"California Considers Law to Aid Young Parents Living in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nCalifornia\u2019s legislature recently considered a bill that was
\nat once both straightforward and groundbreaking. A simple adjustment to the state Welfare and Institutions Code
\nwould assist incarcerated youth with children of their own in being more
\neffective parents, which would be a huge victory for reproductive justice
\nadvocates.\u00a0 <\/a>SB 134<\/a> would achieve this by expanding the list of approved persons incarcerated young
\nparents may contact regarding their children\u2019s care while they are detained in
\nstate and county juvenile facilities.\n<\/p>\n

\nCurrent California law allows incarcerated youth to make a
\nminimum of four telephone calls per month to their family members.\u00a0 <\/span>While this policy does promote
\ncommunication between incarcerated youth and their relatives, it fails to
\nrecognize that non-relative caregivers may play important roles in the
\nupbringing of their children.\u00a0 <\/span>In
\naddition, because the children of incarcerated youth tend to be quite young,
\ntelephone calls are not necessarily an effective mode of communication.\u00a0 <\/span>SB 134 added social workers,
\nphysicians, teachers, the child\u2019s other parent, and other non-relative
\ncaregivers to the list of approved persons an incarcerated young parent may
\ncall in order to participate more fully in their children\u2019s lives.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nState Senator Carol Liu<\/a>, a Democrat representing the 21st
\nDistrict of California, was the bill\u2019s principal author.\u00a0 <\/span>Liu currently chairs the Select
\nCommittee for Women and Children in the Criminal Justice System, which seeks
\nsolutions that will rehabilitate women prisoners and reunite them with their
\nfamilies.\u00a0 <\/span>When asked why she
\ndecided to author SB 134, Liu answered, \u201cAdvocates informed me that
\nincarcerated young parents were having difficulty contacting their children\u2019s
\ncaregivers, which severely impedes their ability to parent while incarcerated
\nand increases the likelihood that children will end up in the child welfare
\nsystem.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nThese advocates included fellows from the Women\u2019s Policy Institute, a
\nprogram of the Women\u2019s Foundation of California, <\/a>California Latinas for Reproductive Justice<\/a>, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children<\/a>, and the Center for Young Women\u2019s
\nDevelopment<\/a> (CYWD), the latter three of which
\nwere co-sponsors of SB 134.<\/span>
\nCYWD is a San Francisco-based organization
\nthat serves young women in local juvenile detention facilities.\u00a0 <\/span>In 2005, a CYWD project called Young
\nMothers United, along with other organizational partners and the San Francisco
\nChief Probation Officer for the Juvenile Probation Department successfully
\nimplemented the Incarcerated Young Mother\u2019s Bill of Rights.\u00a0 <\/span>The Bill of Rights states that
\nincarcerated young women in San Francisco juvenile detention facilities have
\nthe right to be informed about their children\u2019s well-being and safety, and the
\nright to see, touch, and speak with their children.\u00a0 <\/span>Advocates took these principles one step further when they
\nproposed adding non-relative caregivers to the list of approved persons
\nincarcerated young parents may contact in SB134.\n<\/p>\n

\nSenator Liu wants to shine a bright light on the unique
\nneeds of incarcerated young parents.\u00a0
\n<\/span>She hoped that SB 134 would \u201censure that these individuals are able to
\nbe active participants in their children\u2019s lives, and protect children from
\nentering the child welfare system.\u201d\u00a0
\n<\/span>The Senator also wanted to prevent recidivism; she stated that
\n\u201cCalifornia\u2019s only hope for breaking the cycle of crime and avoiding the costs
\nit imposes on society is to equip offenders with the knowledge, skills, and
\ntools they need to lead productive lives, reunify with their families, and stay
\nout of prison.\u201d <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nNational statistics on the number of parenting incarcerated
\nyouth are difficult to find.\u00a0 <\/span>The
\nOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reports that in 2006,
\nclose to 93,000 juvenile offenders were held in residential placement facilities
\nnationally<\/a>, but data
\nindicating how many were parents was not available.\u00a0 <\/span>A report released in July 2009 by the Centers for Disease Control
\nand Prevention<\/a> indicates that in 2004, the pregnancy rate for
\nyoung women between the ages of 15-19 years was 160.1 per 1,000 population,
\nwhich is 16 percent.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>However,
\nthese data do not specify how many adolescent parents are incarcerated on a
\nnational level.\u00a0 <\/span>The dearth of
\nnational data on incarcerated young parents suggests that additional study is
\nneeded in order to direct policy initiatives that address their unique issues. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nA National Council on Crime and Delinquency study<\/a> conducted in 2006 gives us an idea of how many incarcerated youth may be
\nparents at the state level.\u00a0 <\/span>The
\nstudy evaluated Florida\u2019s treatment of girls in its juvenile justice system and
\nfound that 35 percent of girls living in residential programs surveyed had been
\npregnant at one time and 10 percent currently were parents.\u00a0 <\/span>The report notes a lack of comprehensive services offered to
\npregnant and parenting young women in Florida juvenile facilities. Though it
\nfocuses on just one state and only on incarcerated young women, the 2006 study
\nprovides a snapshot of probable demographics in other states. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nUnfortunately, SB 134 was held in the Senate Appropriations
\nCommittee due to concerns about the cost of the bill.\u00a0 <\/span>Senator Liu\u2019s office plans to work with the Department of
\nJuvenile Justice to make the policy change administratively in order to reduce
\nexpense to the state during California\u2019s ongoing budget crisis.\u00a0 <\/span>Hopefully, this effort will be
\nsuccessful; if the change is made, incarcerated young parents will be one step
\ncloser to realizing reproductive justice.\u00a0
\n<\/span>They will be able to call non-relative caregivers like social workers,
\npediatricians, and friends to check on their children\u2019s health and
\nwell-being.\u00a0 <\/span>Knowing where their
\nchildren are and who is caring for them empowers adolescent parents to remain
\ninvolved in their children\u2019s lives during their incarceration. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nAs a marginalized population twice over (incarcerated people
\nand youth are two groups that are disenfranchised and thus denied a voice in
\npolicy decisions directly affecting them), the reproductive justice lens is a
\nparticularly helpful way of examining this issue.\u00a0 <\/span>This lens brings into focus the history of reproductive
\noppression among certain groups of people, including prisoners. <\/span>Incarcerated people have very little
\ncontrol over their bodies and their relationships due to the extreme power
\ninequities found in prisons and juvenile detention facilities. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nAdolescent parents do not automatically give up their
\nparental rights when they are incarcerated.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, incarcerated youth should be provided with tools to
\nhelp them achieve their full potential as parents.\u00a0 <\/span>They need information about their right to contact their
\nchildren and their children\u2019s caregivers (both family members and
\nnon-relatives).\u00a0 <\/span>The information
\nthey are given should be culturally competent and linguistically appropriate.\u00a0 <\/span>Juvenile detention staff should be
\neducated about the rights of incarcerated young parents.\u00a0 <\/span>Any change to California policy dealing
\nwith incarcerated young parents will be merely an empty promise, however, if reproductive
\njustice advocates do not closely monitor implementation of the policy.\u00a0 <\/span>These combined efforts are necessary
\nfor reproductive justice to be achieved for incarcerated young parents.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California\u2019s legislature recently considered a bill that was at once both straightforward and groundbreaking. A simple adjustment to the state Welfare and Institutions Code would assist incarcerated youth with children of their own in being more effective parents, which would be a huge victory for reproductive justice advocates.\u00a0 SB 134 would achieve this by expanding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}