Fatherhood Initiative
Events
Get On The Bus
Boone Center for the Family is proud to partner with GET ON THE BUS for Father's Day 2009
Get On The Bus brings children and their guardians/caregivers from throughout the state of California to visit their mothers and fathers in prison. This annual event, occurring around Mothers Day and Father's Day, offers free transportation for the children and their caregivers to the prison, provides travel bags for the children, comfort care bags for the caregivers, a photo of each child with his or her parent, and meals for the day (breakfast, snacks on the bus, lunch at the prison, and dinner on the way home)-all at no cost to the children's family. On the bus trip home, following a four-hour visit, each child receives a teddy bear with a letter from their parent and post-event counseling.
An estimated 856,000 children in California have a parent currently involved in California's adult criminal justice system, nearly 9% of the state's children. One in 5 of these children have witnessed their parent's arrest. Police and courts do not regularly inquire at the time of arrest or sentencing whether a prisoner has children. Sixty percent of parents in state prison report being held over 100 miles from their children. In 1999, the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 54% of mothers and 57% of fathers in state prisons reported never having had a single visit form their children. Children's odds of delinquency increase dramatically when visits with their incarcerated parent are denied. Children who are allowed regular visits with their incarcerated parent demonstrate better emotional and social adjustment; they can be assured they are loved and that their parents have not abandoned them by choice. Regular visits between children and their incarcerated parent lower rates of recidivism for the parent and improves family reunification following the parent's release. *
*"Children of Incarcerated Parents" Simmons, Charlene Wear. Califiornia Research Bureau, CRB. Vol. 7, No. 2, March 2000.
For more information, visit www.getonthebus.us.
