Enhanced visitation programmes for children and their incarcerated parents at Corradino correctional facility : research and recommendations

Abstract

Parental incarceration tends to cause mayhem of negative emotional and psychological effects on incarcerated parents and their children. Enhanced visitation programmes have been found to offer incarcerated parents and their children with opportunities that are able to strengthen their relationships and yield benefits to both the parents and children. This study explored prisonbased enhanced visitation programmes that are recognized as promising or exemplary best practices, through available documentation. The study is qualitative in nature and adopts an interpretive phenomenological approach with the aim of contributing towards providing children and their incarcerated parents at the Corradino Correctional Facility with opportunities to enjoy visits that are child-oriented. Themes from the interviews with a number of stakeholders and the focus groups with incarcerated parents were compared to findings from the literature review. Thematic analysis was used to anlayse the findings that portrayed the perspectives of all participants with regards to the current visitation programmes and practices at Corradino Correctional Facility. Views on participation in enhanced visitation, should such programmes be introduced at the Corradino Correctional Facility, were also discussed at length. The study findings show that enhanced visitation programmes are found to strengthen the relationship between incarcerated parents and their children and minimize the negative consequences of parental incarceration for both parties. Moreover, it was found that there is a need for enhanced visitation programmes to be adopted at the Corradino Correctional Facility. In view of this, suggestions for the design and implementation of enhanced visitation programs at the Corradino Correctional Facility are provided in this study.