THE SENATE                           S.C.R. NO.            3
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                    SENATE  CONCURRENT
                        RESOLUTION

  REQUESTING THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A SYSTEM TO
    IDENTIFY AND PROVIDE SERVICES AND SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN OF
    INCARCERATED PARENTS. 


 1        WHEREAS, estimates suggest that more than 1.6 million
 2   children in the United States have a father in prison, and
 3   approximately 200,000 have a mother serving time in a state or
 4   federal prison or local jail; and
 5   
 6        WHEREAS, the number of incarcerated women is growing at a
 7   faster rate than the number of men, with a four hundred thirty-
 8   two per cent increase in the female prison population between
 9   1986 and 1991; and 
10   
11        WHEREAS, the increasing rate of incarceration of women is
12   particularly disturbing because it places more children at
13   risk; approximately seventy-five per cent of female inmates are
14   mothers, and many are often the sole caregiver of their
15   children; and
16   
17        WHEREAS, the likelihood that children of incarcerated
18   mothers will ultimately land in jail or prison is estimated to
19   be as high as eight times greater than the risk of children of
20   non-offenders; almost half of women in state prisons report
21   that someone in their family was at one time in prison or jail;
22   and 
23   
24        WHEREAS, the low priority often given to maintaining
25   mother and child relationships by prison administrators
26   contributes to family disruption and the children's social
27   alienation, many of whom may show hyperactivity, attention
28   deficits, delinquency, teenage pregnancy, withdrawal from
29   social relationships or retreat into denial; and  
30   
31        WHEREAS, although children of incarcerated mothers are
32   clearly at risk, much of the existing research on the impact of
33   incarceration has relied on self reporting by parents in prison

 
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 1   or the temporary caregivers and there are few reliable
 2   statistics to establish how many children are affected, who
 3   they are, or where they live; and 
 4   
 5        WHEREAS, because the child welfare and criminal justice
 6   systems encounter many of the same families, it is imperative
 7   that they collaborate to maximize opportunities for the
 8   families and work together to develop a system to identify
 9   these children and provide gender specific services to support
10   women offenders and their families; now, therefore,
11   
12        BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twentieth Legislature
13   of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2000, the House of
14   Representatives concurring, that the Director of Human Services
15   and the Director of Public Safety are requested to collaborate
16   in the development of a system to identify and track children
17   with incarcerated parents, to identify what services and
18   programs are currently available to these children, as well as
19   identify programs or support services that must be provided to
20   meet the needs of these children and families; and
21   
22        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Director of Human Services
23   and the Director of Public Safety are requested to report
24   findings and recommendations to the Legislature twenty days
25   before the convening of the Regular Session of 2001; and
26   
27        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
28   Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Human
29   Services and the Director of Public Safety.
30   
31 
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34                         OFFERED BY:  ____________________________