TEXAS REENTRY HELPS CHILDREN OF INMATES

Juvenile Justice Digest, Jan 28, 2005

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has launched a reentry initiative that helps the children of inmates adjust to life without a parent and prepare for the parent's return.

TDCJ Executive Director Brad Livingston said the program is designed to identify and coordinate delivery of resources to benefit adolescents and to provide one-on-one support until the parent returns home.

TDCJ based its program on a prototype that the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of North Texas operate. The nonprofit group designed its program from a model called "Amachi" that originated in Philadelphia.

The Big Brothers and Big Sisters group builds partnerships with Dallas area faith-based congregations to find men and women who are specifically interested in working with children of incarcerated parents.

After undergoing the nonprofit's screening and enrollment process, volunteers are paired with a child they will visit at least twice a month for one year.

TDCJ calls its program GO KIDS, which stands for Giving Offenders' Kids Incentive and Direction to Succeed.

GO KIDS is one piece of an overall strategy that TDCJ is developing in an effort to help offenders reintegrate into society upon their release.

"The ultimate goal is to provide a resource of promising, evidencedbased approaches, that would support children of offenders build upon their strengths and create a positive impact on their lives," said Madeline .Ortiz, Director of TDCJ's Rehabilitation and Reentry Programs Division.

"Family ties are also a very big part of the reentry process, and GO KIDS fits nicely into that equation. If we're able to help keep an offender's family unit intact, that only increases our chances for achieving our mission," Ortiz said.