CRIMINOLOGIST - CHILDREN OF INMATES MOST AT-RISK

Prison: Don't go there.

Nationwide, 2 million children have at least one parent behind bars,
and many of the young people are destined to follow.

Criminologist John J. DiIulio said no single group of Americans is
more at risk of abuse and neglect, educational failure, illiteracy,
chronic joblessness, welfare dependency, drug or alcohol addiction,
out-of-wedlock births, crime and delinquency, incarceration and
premature death than the children of incarcerated adults.

Yet, DiIulio said, "no single group of America's youth goes more
unseen, unheard and unhelped."

The Michigan shooting death of 6-year-old Kayla Rolland by her
first-grade classmate was shocking to most people. Four years earlier,
the boy's father, Dedric Owens, was sentenced to prison for
first-degree home invasion.

DiIulio has argued for a nationwide, faith-based initiative addressing
the needs of what Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush has
called America's "forgotten children."

DiIulio's initiative, which would harness the outreach capabilities of
urban black churches and other congregations, would link
religiously-committed adults with the children of inmates to provide
mentoring, literacy training and other services.

"The reason why children are affected so much is because of women
(inmates) who have children," said David Keys, assistant professor of
criminal justice and sociology at West Texas A&M University, and
co-author of "Confronting the Drug Control Establishment."

Keys said women are the fastest-growing group of prison inmates. He
said the increase in the female prison population can be attributed to
drug-related crimes.

The care of the children of inmates "always falls to the grandparents.
Grandparents of these children are being affected, and that's pretty
sad," Keys said.

Keys said he thinks the "war on drugs," is responsible for some of the
problems in the criminal justice system.

"I think we took a simple-minded approach to the problem," he said.
"Now, we're living with the ramifications of it.

"We've already done some things that need to be undone, such as
mandatory sentencing on some drug offenses," Keys said. "I'm not
surprised that DiIulio and some of his friends are making these moves,
because they are really holding the responsibility for creating these
conditions. It's good for them to try to do something."

Chaplain David Goad of the William P. Clements Jr. Prison Unit in
Amarillo said adult children and youth visit weekly at the unit.

"I know it makes a great deal of difference in these men's lives,"
Goad said. He said he doesn't know of any church "that specifically
singles out inmates' children to minister to, but there is a great
need for the ministry of the churches to the inmates' families."

"One of my concerns is that if we do not do something, as a society,
to begin to take care of the needs of the kids, we're going to have a
group of kids who are going to follow in the footsteps of their
mothers and fathers and end up in prison also," said Greg Canada, who
for 10 years has volunteered with Prison Fellowship and other prison
ministries.

Canada said he is also involved with Angel Tree, a ministry that
provides toys to inmates' children at Christmastime and tries to
become involved in their lives on a year-round basis.

"I don't what the answer is, but we need to do something to reach our
children before they reach the point of going into the system," Canada
said, "because, once you get into the system, it is very difficult to
get out."

Children of inmates suffer from low self-esteem, said Gwen Wolfe,
president of Rebirth America, a Christian-based organization in
Houston that provides transportation for Texas families to visit their
incarcerated loved ones.

In a telephone interview, Wolfe said "It's different than a parent
just walking away - that's already hard in itself, but when they are
in prison, that's a whole other issue."

Wolfe said some children have to go to school and deal with issues
regarding their parents' incarceration, "so, there's low self-esteem
and behavioral problems and all kinds of problems associated with
having someone in prison, because, typically, that's not something
that you talk about.

"It is like you are also locked away in your own prison," said Wolfe,
who has a brother who was incarcerated for five

years.

"The church really needs to understand how big the problem is," Wolfe
said. "God's church is designed to love, and that means being there to
love and support (inmates and their families)."

Wolfe said there are problems with the criminal justice system, "but
I'm not fighting the system - someone else can do that. I'm fighting
for the families."