Wow, somebody really cares about children

[madmusic]

Looking Out For Inmates' Children
`Invisible' Group Is Topic Of Summit
November 16, 2006
By RACHEL GOTTLIEB, Courant Staff Writer

Representatives from an array of state agencies met at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford Wednesday for a summit to hash out a plan to create a bill of rights for children of incarcerated parents.

"Children of prisoners are often invisible and overlooked," said Susan Quinlan, executive director of Families in Crisis, a Hartford agency that works with families of incarcerated parents. "We as a community need to respond to that."

In Hartford alone, an estimated 4,500 to 6,000 children - about one in every six children in the city - have at least one parent in a state prison. The very fact that no hard numbers exist and that the state is left to extrapolate estimates from national trends illustrates the need for local attention, Quinlan said.

The group, which includes state agencies as well as representatives from the United Way and the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, agreed to form committees that would work on developing legislative proposals and a bill of rights for children.

The group agreed to base its work on a few guiding principles:

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctprisonkids1116.artnov16,0,6839039.story

[Mythsaje]

1. I read a really good article on this

or heard it on NPR a couple years back. THIS really screws up kids, and the fact that a large portion of the prisoners (in my opinion) don't belong there in the first place doesn't make it any better.

[madmusic]

2. It does, it would have to, screw them up.

What eats me is the hypocrisy about it, as if these kids aren't human and don't matter. Traditional family values my ass. Well, they didn't matter and someone is doing something about that, and big time kudos to them.

typo

[lonestarnot]

3. On the surface it appears to be good work. Don't know the intricacies.

[madmusic]

4. Hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right.

The devil is in the details. But it's good to know someone is at least going to try and at least bring attention to it. It's not a cause that will earn that many votes, or fill the political war chest, or earn "heck of a job, Brownie" points. So I think it is more sincere than most. Hope it works well. It almost has to be better than nothing.

[lonestarnot]

5. The only way to know a thing like this is touch it with your own hands.

To become personally involved and know the individuals and their accomplishments and intentions can make a person weary, but it's getting attention. I hope it works.