Supporting Incarcerated Parents and Strengthening Family Connections

For more than 35 years, Parents Helping Parents (PHP) has supported incarcerated mothers and fathers in Massachusetts correctional facilities. These programs create spaces where parents can speak honestly about family separation, the challenges of parenting while incarcerated, and the relationships they hope to maintain or rebuild. The work continues to evolve in response to the needs of parents, their families, and each facility.

PHP currently facilitates groups at Suffolk County House of Correction, Massachusetts Correctional Institution (MCI) at Norfolk, Middlesex House of Correction, and MCI-Plymouth, serving nearly 200 incarcerated parents each year.

All parents need places where they can be heard without judgment, learn from one another, and receive support during difficult family circumstances. For incarcerated parents, that support can help them stay connected to their children and strengthen their identity as a parent.

New developments at MCI-Norfolk and Suffolk County House of Correction are expanding this work. Fathers at MCI-Norfolk have additional opportunities to connect with their children, while incarcerated mothers at Suffolk now have greater access to foster care resources and dedicated support.

How PHP Parent Support Groups Work Inside Correctional Facilities

PHP uses a mutual-aid model led by trained volunteer facilitators. The groups provide a consistent space where participants can share experiences, support one another, and build skills that can strengthen their relationships with children and caregivers.

Each group is adapted to the needs and rules of its facility. Facilitators establish a respectful, supportive environment centered on confidentiality within facility guidelines, peer support, and nonjudgmental conversation.

At Suffolk County House of Correction, incarcerated mothers can color, draw, or make cards for their children and loved ones while the group talks. These activities help create a peaceful, open environment where participants can check in, discuss immediate concerns, and consider the support they need.

The focus remains on each participant’s role as a parent. Group members have space to work through guilt, grief, family conflict, and separation while continuing to think about their relationships with their children and their hopes for the future.

Beyond the Support Group: Strengthening Family Connections

PHP’s work inside correctional facilities continues to evolve beyond weekly support groups. Incarcerated parents build a community where they support one another, share ideas, and develop meaningful ways to remain connected with their children during long periods of separation. At MCI-Norfolk, participants in our Fathers Support Group have helped shape programs and family activities based on what they believe will matter most to their children.

“Family Day” brings that collaboration to life. Because opportunities for incarcerated fathers to spend extended, activity-based time with their children are limited, this PHP-organized event is especially meaningful. Fathers can spend several hours watching a movie, making crafts, playing games, and enjoying time with their children. They can interact more naturally than they might during a standard visit and create positive memories together as a family.

The “Read to Me Father” program helps fathers maintain a connection with their children between visits and throughout their separation. Fathers are recorded reading children’s books, and the recordings are shared with their children. Hearing their father’s voice and sharing a story with him can offer children comfort and a reminder that their father is still present in their lives.

Fathers have expressed tremendous gratitude for these opportunities to connect with their children despite the separation caused by incarceration. Because of the programs’ popularity and impact, PHP hopes to continue offering them at MCI-Norfolk and bring similar family experiences to incarcerated parents at other correctional facilities.

Expanding Support for Incarcerated Parents Navigating DCF and Foster Care

PHP is expanding its support for incarcerated parents whose children are involved with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) or living in foster care. These parents often need to maintain relationships with their children and caregivers while also understanding case requirements and following DCF service plans from inside a correctional facility.

This new focus is beginning at Suffolk County House of Correction, where PHP offers daytime and evening support groups for incarcerated mothers. Conversations frequently address foster care, DCF caseworkers, relationships with the loved ones caring for their children, and the challenges of working toward family reunification while incarcerated. PHP is developing the daytime group as a dedicated source of support for mothers facing these issues.

PHP’s You Are Not Alone (YANA) guide for parents with children in foster care is also being made available to women at Suffolk in both digital and print formats. Women can access the guide on their facility tablets, while PHP facilitators provide printed copies for use during the groups.

Bringing the YANA guide into the facility gives mothers practical information they can review on their own and discuss with facilitators and other parents. The Suffolk program will also help PHP learn how dedicated group support and accessible resources can better serve incarcerated parents navigating DCF, with the hope of expanding this work to other correctional facilities.

Dignity, Purpose, and Family Bonds

Incarceration can leave parents feeling defined by their circumstances and disconnected from their role in their children’s lives. PHP’s programs recognize them as mothers and fathers who still have something meaningful to contribute to their families and communities.

The impact is visible in the pride parents take in contributing and the trust they develop within their groups. One recent example came from Suffolk, where mothers helped design a Mother’s Day card that was sent to PHP community members and volunteers. Their facilitator shared how excited they were to have their ideas valued, contribute to something outside the facility, and see the impact of what they created.

That trust also creates space for honesty and healing. At MCI-Norfolk, a PHP facilitator has witnessed fathers “peel back decades of armor” as they express raw emotion and reflect openly on their lives and relationships. One participant told her, “You saw me as a person before you saw me as an inmate.”

These moments show why this work matters. When parents are treated with dignity and given a safe place to speak and be heard, healing becomes possible.

Help PHP Support Incarcerated Parents and Their Families

PHP is working to reach more incarcerated parents by expanding support groups to new correctional facilities. Over the last year, two new groups for incarcerated fathers began at MCI-Plymouth, along with a pilot jail support group program in Las Vegas. Looking ahead, the organization is exploring how family programs offered at MCI-Norfolk could be introduced at other facilities and how resources for parents navigating DCF involvement and foster care can be expanded.

Every part of this work depends on dedicated people and practical resources. PHP must recruit, train, and supervise volunteer facilitators; provide books, guides, journals, and approved group materials; and create family experiences that help parents and children remain connected.

Beyond this immediate goal, donations to Parents Helping Parents help sustain and expand programs for incarcerated parents. Your gift allows PHP to respond as new needs arise and continue creating spaces where parents can find understanding, strengthen family relationships, and know they are not alone.