Did you know that over 7 million children have parents who are currently or recently incarcerated?

Background:

It has been well documented in the last few decades how American sentencing laws and legal culture have resulted in one in one hundred adults behind bars.  It is also now starting to be understood how these cycles of incarceration are drastically changing the landscape of many communities, and destroying the fabric of millions of families.  What’s rarely heard are the real experiences of the young people who are affected the most.  The goal of this project is to give voice to the realities of children of the incarcerated, and challenge society to take responsibility for the far-reaching impact of our criminal justice system. 

Outcomes:

Specifically, there are three potential products we plan to create:

Training Video for Department of Corrections:

The first is a short documentary that the Department of Corrections is interested in using to train their staff on better serving the needs of families, and a number of criminal justice academic programs are interested in using in their curriculum.

Peer Education DVD and Website

The second is a peer-education piece aimed at other young people with incarcerated parents that will address the stigma, show positive role models, and to offer resources to advocate for themselves.  (The plan is that this will begin as a DVD and will later become evolve into resource- and story-sharing website). 

Short Documentary:

The third product is a 10- to 30-minute general audience piece.   The idea is to develop the most promising material from the first two pieces into this final product.

Project History:

This project sprung from a remarkable collection of individuals and opportunities that came together in the summer of 2008.  This included researchers from the CUNY Graduate Center working with the reentry program The College Initiative, joining with educator/filmmaker Jeremy Robins, and garnering cooperation from the NY State Department of  Correctional Services.   Within a few weeks the project found seed money, space, group of young people with incarcerated parents who were eager to join, as well as interest from the president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice and from the Commissioner of Department of Corrections, both of whom are interested in using the finished video in their curriculum and trainings. A core group of the young people wanted to start right away, and began producing a short trailer while recruiting the rest of the crew.

Synopsis