WestCare Florida Receives Department of Juvenile Justice Award.
June 21, 2004

Thanks to WestCare and a recent Florida Department of Juvenile Justice award, children residing in specific areas of Pinellas County who have been affected by their parents’ incarceration will soon have an opportunity to reverse an alarming trend toward second-generation confinement. WestCare will soon implement “Resilient Kids: Living Drug- and Violence-Free” in three of five targeted zip codes in the county.

“This program uses a universal evidence-based approach that includes a series of prevention tutoring programs covering violence, drug and alcohol education, refusal skills role play, and nontraditional expressive therapy approaches,” says Doug Leonardo, WestCare regional vice president. “We will also provide individual services that will prepare children for jail visitation and their parents’ return home.”

Today, the majority of adults incarcerated in the United States are parents. An estimated 1.5 million children nationwide are traumatized by their parents’ incarceration. Children often react by demonstrating a pattern of aggression, anxiety, hyper arousal, depression, attention disorders, developmental regression, and survival guilt. Children of criminal, jailed, or imprisoned parents have long been identified as being at high risk for juvenile delinquency, and statistics reveal an alarming trend toward second-generation incarceration. The arrest and imprisonment of a parent is a significant trauma for children, who often react by demonstrating a pattern of aggression, anxiety, hyperarousal, depression, attention disorders, developmental regression, and “survival guilt.” Children of offenders can display behaviors similar to those of children with a parent who has committed suicide or is murdered, as well as behaviors stemming from other forms of parental loss.

Children will by identified by two methods: through referrals from “Project Success” – a women’s program and “Project New Attitudes” – a program for jailed men, both of which are operated by the sheriff’s department through Pinellas County jail, and from local judges and probation officers.

Leonardo and his staff hope to minimize the effects of parental incarceration on Pinellas County children, including second-generation incarceration.