intergenerationalliteracyprogramsforincarceratedparents.doc

Intergenerational Literacy Programs for Incarcerated Parents and Their Families: A Review of the Literature By William R. Muth, Ph.D. Virginia Commonwealth University wrmuth@ May, 2006 Abstract Researchers from many fields have reported the benefits of family literacy programs to children, parents, families, and society. Although some studies included incarcerated parents and their children, very little research has specifically targeted this growing population. This is problematic because prisoners -- particularly parents with limited literacy ability – and their children and other family members often experience profound challenges that include learning, coping, and maintaining contact. These challenges may be ameliorated, to some degree, by family literacy programs. This paper reports on what we know about the effects of prison-based family literacy programs and argues for their careful expansion. Much remains to be understood about the complexity of these programs and how they should be designed, implemented, and evaluated, in order to build on the few existing models. When feasible, on-line sources are linked to the text. Introduction: Incarcerated Parents, Children, and Family Ties In a secondary analysis of the 1992 National Adult Literacy Assessment (NALS) involving 1147 U.S. prisoners, Haigler, Harlow, O’Connor and Campbell (1994) found that about half of the adult prisoner sample lacked a high school diploma or GED. Further, about a third of federal, state and local prisoners performed at the lowest of five levels on a series of prose and document exercises included in the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). (An updated assessment, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, was administered to U.S. prisoners in 2004; a report on this population’s literacy trends is scheduled to be released in the summer of 2006. Individuals performing at NALS level one cannot reliably perform tasks such as comparing and contrasting two pieces of in