Family-Based Offender Substance Abuse Treatment Program

Section 113 of the Second Chance Act provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of parents who are incarcerated as well as their families. Research has shown that children may benefit from maintaining healthy relationships with their incarcerated parents. Strong parent-child relationships may aid in children's adjustment to their parents' incarceration and help to mitigate many of the negative outcomes for children that are associated with parental incarceration. Maintaining contact also helps the incarcerated parent by improving the reentry process and reducing recidivism, which would likely benefit the child.

The Second Chance Act Family-Based Offender Substance Abuse Treatment Program is designed to provide prison-based substance abuse treatment and parenting programs for incarcerated parents (including non-custodial parents) of minor children, as well as treatment and other services to the participating offenders' minor children and family members. The goals are to increase public safety and reduce recidivism by providing more effective and successful reentry for offenders. The objective of this program is to provide comprehensive responses through planned, expanded, or implemented family-based substance abuse treatment programs.

Programming will target inmates with minor children and include services for these inmates, their minor children, and other family members. Grant funds are available for the development, implementation and expansion of family-based substance-abuse treatment programs for offenders who have minor children, and also includes outreach to families and provision of treatment and other services to children and other family members of participant offenders. However, as required by the Second Chance Act, these programs are unavailable for any such parent for whom there is reasonable evidence to believe engaged in domestic violence or child abuse.

The grant recipient will use the FY 2011 SCA grant funds to implement the Family-Based Offender Substance Abuse Treatment Program for 100 medium to high risk offenders who are the custodial parents of minor children and have been diagnosed with a drug dependency as well as services for these children and other family members.

CA/NCF