Council Member Morano asks about incarcerated mothers' children and ACS coordination
Morano asks whether DOC tracks incarcerated women who are primary caregivers of minor children. Colon says information is self-reported and not tracked in a database, but new intake asks about children and coordinates with ACS when needed.
We're discussing women who are pregnant or who've recently given birth, but I think a lot of folks are also concerned about the children who were already at home when their mothers were incarcerated.
Does DOC track how many incarcerated women are the primary caregivers of minor children, including children who may suddenly have no parent available to care for them?
So our communication with the parent is one of self-report.
So while we do maintain knowledge through consent of them sharing with us if they are a parent and the number of children that they have and the ages of their children, it is not something that is tracked via a database.
And do you coordinate with ACS or another agency to determine whether those children are safe or being properly cared for?
Yes.
While it's true that we don't track that information via a database, it is part of the new mission intake process to ask that question in order to assess whether there may be a child at home who has been left without care or otherwise
in such that we would need to coordinate with the Administration for Children's Services.
Could a mother be incarcerated in our city's jail system while nobody in city government has any idea where her young children are or who's looking after them?
Again, that is part of the new admission screening process on our end.
That's a question that's asked.
Of course, if someone doesn't disclose, we wouldn't necessarily know that.
But that is part of the question asked, and I would hope that a parent would provide that information so that their child can be cared for.
I'll let, sorry, go ahead.
I was just going to share and highlight that we have a team of DOC staff and also like a dedicated program specifically to support mothers and kind of encourage the mothers in our care to share that and get services.
So, for example, we have a family visiting assistance program with our children, the Osborne Association, that provides that parenting support to everyone who is a mother.
And so typically they share with us and there's ongoing support around visitation and child-friendly spaces and support for family members as well.