presented by Avraham Hoffmann at the ICPA annual conference, Beijin, China October 2004

Let me start by telling you a few words about the Israeli Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority, of which I was the Director General for over 19 years, until I retired in 2002.

Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority[1]

The Israeli Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority is a state entity. It was founded in 1984[1], to deal with all inmates: male and female, Jewish and Arab, single and married, as well as with their families. It is mandated to deal with prisoners’ rehabilitation 4 to 6 month preceding their release and in the community during the year following their release from prison. During the pre-release period an individual rehabilitation program is set with each inmate. Participation is voluntary.

Introduction: The PRA’s obligation to treat the inmates’ family.

Among the law’s (Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority Law, 5743-1983) stipulations, the PRA must work for the rehabilitation of former inmates and their families and for the prevention of recidivism: In section 3.5, it is written, “There is hereby established a Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority, whose functions shall be – … to assist prisoners’ families during and after their imprisonment through the social service offices of local authorities and other bodies.”

The Triangular Program

I shall now refer to The Triangular Program designed to treat the inmates’ families.

Before talking about the inmates’ families, we must ask ourselves:

WHO ARE THE INMATES?   and   WHAT IS THEIR PROFILE?

The average inmate is an individual that has grown since childhood in the streets, in juvenile institutions, or in foster families.
Very young this child enters the delinquent world, he faces the police, and he is exposed to detention houses, closed institutions, drugs and violence. In many cases, he himself is a victim to violence in his family: physical, emotional or sexual, in some cases also incest.

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF THESE IMATES’ PROFILE ON THEIR PARENTING?

Considering this profile, the inmate becomes a father, in most cases, without having a positive example he could imitate. The education in institutions distorts the image he has of what a family should be like. Therefore the expectation that the inmate should become a normative average father is groundless.

Approximately a third of the Israeli inmates are family men. They have all together a few thousands of children. The population of drug addicted inmates that are parents is a multi-problem population, often characterised by socio-economic distress and primary lacks. The return to community is traumatic for the inmate and his family, no less than the incarceration itself. A family reunion with no preparation may be devastating and become a violent confrontation.

HOW CAN WE OVERCOME THESE OBSTACLES?

At first sight, the diagnosis looks very negative. However, observing this issue from the right angle, we could say that the incarceration crisis puts the family on a cross-roads, from which it can either chose the way to become ruined and devastated or the way to get rebuilt and healed. The Triangular Project is grounded on the attempt to find the right way to turn this crisis into a lever that rebuilds the family.

The Triangular Program combines 2 perceptions of the inmates’ children:

1. Treating these children as a high-risk group that requires a specific attention to save the children.
2. Considering them as being able to enhance the inmate’s rehabilitation.

The “Triangular program” was developed by the Israeli Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority in 1986. It emphasises the importance of saving the child, preventing him from behavioural digression, and acknowledges the importance of the mother to the child’s development. While strengthening the father-child and inmate-spouse bond that are crucial to the inmate’s return home and successful rehabilitation.[2]

The “Triangular Program” is a holistic treatment for the prisoner and his family which is set up as follows:

1. The child: participates in the “students guide inmates’ children” program;
2. The wife: Attends a self-help group;

Together with her husband-inmate she attends a family counselling;

• The prisoner: undergoes a parenting program (pre and post release);

I will present you now the three angles of the Triangular Program separately, starting with the Children:

The Children

The child is the “hidden” victim of the father’s sins. Therefore, we should ensure that “if the father has eaten sour grapes the children’s teeth won’t set on edge.” The children should not be punished for their father’s sins.

The child loves his father. – How can he not love his way?

The child senses his mother’s weakness. – How can he not take advantage of it?

He feels betrayed and chased by his schoolmates. – How can we expect him not to run away to the streets and crime?

What Is The Impact Of The Father’s Incarceration On His Children?

When a parent is incarcerated, the child faces a period of great trauma. He must deal with the embarrassment and stigma of being told his father is a “crook”. There is even more tension in what most likely was a dysfunctional or abusive household to begin with. If the father was the breadwinner, the family may face impoverishment. The mother as a single parent may not have the time or emotional energy to deal adequately with the child’s needs.

As a result, emotions are bottled up, the child’s self-esteem plummets and school attendance and performance may suffer. The child may become withdrawn, depressed, or violent. All too often, he himself may perpetuate a cycle of drug abuse and crime begun by his father.

What Can We Do To Help This Child?

In 1987, recognising the need to help these children, the PRA started running a program called the “Big Brothers” for Prisoners’ Children in Jerusalem and Be’er Sheva, with 33 children. This year, there are 540 children participating in the project throughout Israel.

The program consists of University students that are paired up as “Big Brothers” or “Sisters” with a prisoner’s child (between 5 and 14 years old). They meet twice a week at the child’s home. Together they learn, play, go to movies, talk, and form a bond. Approximately once a month, the student accompanies the child to visit his incarcerated parent.

Through contact with a student, the child’s self-esteem is gradually returned. He now has a connection with a positive adult figure and role model. In the student, he finds an outlet for his emotions, and a sympathetic ear for his problems. He is not alone. The student presents for the child, both an authority figure and a friend. Together they engage in interesting activities, which the child would otherwise miss because the mother is either busy or unaware of the need and importance of such activities. The visits to prison are made a regular activity. They are now less frightening, and there is often less tension when the student is there.

Early on in the project’s history, it became evident that an unanticipated by-product of the program was the positive effect, which it was having on the incarcerated parent. The father’s behaviour in prison improved. His self-esteem as a parent was strengthened. He became more involved in the child’s welfare. Moreover, the child’s participation in the project established a connection between the inmate and the PRA, and often led the prisoner to join a PRA program.

Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the student plays an important role also for the prisoner’s spouse. She is less tense, knowing that a responsible adult is involved in the child’s life. For those parents who are estranged from the incarcerated parent, knowing someone else is accompanying the child to the prison-visits is a relief. In addition, very often the student, with advice from his supervisors, can recommend to the mother various social services’ programs, and other forms of help, of which she may not be aware.

The student is not a social worker, his attitude is not threatening, and as a friend of the child he can be a “bridge” or connection between the family and society.

The Children’s Program Cannot Stand Alone.

The mothers’ support group and their approval of their children participation in the children’s program are crucial for the success of the program.

The Mothers – The Wives

Most of the mothers are, indeed not criminals, but coming from marginal groups. In many cases, due to family pressures, an immature love or an unplanned pregnancy becomes a marriage.

What Is The Impact Of The Father’s Incarceration On His Wife?

Apart from the problems the inmates suffer from, during incarceration and after, their wives and children have many difficulties dealing with the new situation, emotionally and concretely.

The inmate’s wife undergoes tremendous changes in her life style. She finds herself in a new and stressful situation. She is exposed to many pressures during her husband’s incarceration:

• From a personality in the “shade”, she becomes overnight the central pivot of her family. She must be a mother and a father to her children. She has to take care of the children and the household on her own.
• She has to deal with legal and economic problems:
• She has to struggle for the family income. The financial situation of the family worsens. The family used to live on the fruits of sins and thefts of the husband and the wife did not work. In the absence of the main and most often the only wage earner. She has to manage with only one salary or with financial aid from the National Insurance
• The creditors are coming to her to collect the debts her husband has left and the lawyers demand their wages.
• Very often her own-family and husband’s family are refusing any contact. The society, as well, tends to flee her and her children. She has to confront personal pressures and anxieties, and make tremendous efforts not to cut social relationships.
• She has to keep in contact with the husband-father and maintain his involvement in the family life. She has to function as head of a single-parent family, while the husband or his family’s control over her life is still felt. In this respect, the expression used to describe these women as single-parents is inappropriate, since the inmate tries to continue to rule his family by remote control. And in fact, in every decision she makes her husband participates, either practically or in her thoughts.

WHAT are the main needs of THESE WOMEN?

As a result of their husband’s incarceration they are confronted with a new situation. Precisely, when they face this crisis, they find themselves without a support system. The shame and stigma prevent them from turning to professional help.

Practically, they often need help in finding a job and possibly vocational training, since in most cases they have never worked before.  

These women are in dire need of support and help. They need other women with whom to share their anxieties, or to consult with. These women are isolated from society and need to acquire tools and skills to be able to deal with their situation:

How Can We Help These Women?

Strengthening and empowering these women, through a support group and with a professional staff’s help, enable them to overcome the incarceration crisis and progress.

The Prisoners’ Wives Program is intended to do that. Its main goals are:

1. Strengthen the women during their husbands’ incarceration, by legitimising emotions that come along with the situation, and by giving them the opportunity to express the feeling they have toward their husband due to their incarceration.
2. Treat the prisoners’ contact with their family, and ensure their successful return home. This is done also by clarifying the roles in the family after the husbands release from prison and return home.
3. Help them find a job and receive vocational training when needed.

The temptation not to work is great, since these women receive state financial aid during their husbands’ incarceration. But going out to work and providing for themselves and their children is of crucial importance. It improves their self-esteem, their children’s respect, and allows them to build their lives with their husbands from a stand point that is closer to equality than before, by reducing the gaps.

• Provide these women with tools that will help them deal with their children. Especially, in a situation of a single-parent family and stigma.
• Provide these women with tools to deal with social agencies. Improving the mutual relations between the women and the different institutions and organisations.
• Teach them how to make positive use of their leisure time.

The 5 first points are dealt with through the prisoners’ wives groups. That begins with hesitant steps that strengthen and deepens with time.[3]

These meetings deal with:

1. Problems of raising children.
2. Assertiveness.
3. Law and justice.
4. Violence and family.
5. Women’s rights.

This program puts the woman in the centre, giving her the opportunity to meet with her feelings, wishes and needs and exposes her to different ways of dealing with them.

To strengthen the woman and increase her self-awareness promotes her rehabilitation and consequently her entire family’s rehabilitation.

The Inmates: Fathers – Husbands

Treating only the child and mother would augment the gap between them and the incarcerated parent to a point where it is too big to bridge. To avoid this danger, the PRA has developed several programs adapted to the different needs and problems inmates have as husbands and as fathers.

WHAT IS THE INMATES INTEREST TO PARTICIPATE IN THESE PROGRAMS?

and HOW CAN A CRISIS BECOME THE FOUNDATION OF A BUILDING?

Three facts are important in transforming this crisis into a positive foundation:

I. The incarceration proves to the father-inmate that in fact he is left alone without his “friends” that might help him. His family is the only one that stays loyal to him during his incarceration. As a result, if in the past he used to neglect his family and deal with crime, he starts seeing between the bars the only light that in fact comes from his family, and essentially from his children.

II. One of the motivations to change his ways is the need to win his children’s love, because he is afraid his child will grow apart while incarcerated.

III. The incarceration weakens the feeling of omnipotence the inmates used to have, and teaches them to see their real situation straightforward.

But precisely when the will exists, the knowledge and guidance are missing. Therefore the failure increases and along with it the frustration. Therefore this reality is a big challenge for educators and therapists.

What Guidance Does The Program Offer?

The Fathers-Inmates Parenting Group Program, starting during incarceration and continuing after the release from prison[4], was developed to bridge over this vulnerable suture. The target population being: inmates, drug free, who have children under 18. The purpose of this program is to teach them theoretically and practically how to behave with their children, how to deal with the problems the separation has created, and how to use the existing community services.

Parenting is seen as a learnt function and, in no way just a biological one. The fathers’ group emphasises the inmate as an integral part of the family, and thus strengthens their sense of belonging.

Using the Adlerian theory of “active parenting”, they learn of the ways to become involved in taking decision, of the meeting points between them and their children, of the beneficial aspect of leisure hours and, how to become involved with the child’s schooling, etc.

They learn to improve their communication with their wives and children, and acquire the skills to function as fathers and husbands, including the responsibility to take care of the children and run the household.

 Another new aspect of this fathers’ group program, is the acknowledgement that the wives’ participation from its beginning is of crucial importance.

Each group has 12 weekly meetings of 2 hours each, and is intended for 10-15 participants.

The Residential Hostel

One of the means to help inmates, for whom the return home is hard, is the Residential Hostel. The Hostel offers a transitional stage between prison and the return to their wives and children.

Inmates that are former drug addicts often feel it is too much to deal both with their addiction problem along with their return home altogether:

A. The hostel will allow him to come back home progressively, after feeling stronger about his detoxification, entering a routine, and completing the bureaucratic arrangements following his release from prison and return to society – Identity card, debts, legal matters, etc.

B. This delay will allow the whole family to adjust gradually to the fathers return home.

CONCLUSIONS

The “Triangle Program” I have presented to you is a successful tentative done in the State of Israel in dealing with the inmate’s family as a whole. It is based on the principle that the investment’s real value is only partial, although blessed in itself, if an activity is offered only to one part of the family is, without an overall perception. When we speak of a holistic program, findings show that less children have been placed in homes for children, less have been involved in crime, and more children have completed their education. Therefore from the economical and essential aspects of the problem, as well as the chances of the inmate’s family to be successfully rehabilitated, holistic programs must be developed, whose results are far better and promising.

I know that some people are reluctant of this program for executive or professional reasons. However, the good results this combination shows prove the efforts are worthwhile. One of Israel’s wise men said: The whole world is a narrow bridge and it is essential not to be afraid to ascend this bridge. Both the practitioners and their patients are afraid to ascend this narrow bridge, since courage is needed for rehabilitation. Those who know how to walk on this narrow bridge without getting dizzy and without losing hope are the ones who help the inmates reach the other side. They will become the bridge between the world of crime and the general society.

My hope is that we all will have this courage, and that together we will build a bridge of hope.

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[1] The PRA offers every released inmates an equal chance to a successful rehabilitation, by developing programs to fulfil the special needs of the different populations. Participation is voluntary.

We believe rehabilitation is the start of a perpetual struggle, with no end or limits, in which a man stands alone in a struggle with him. The Authority’s philosophy is that there is no person who cannot be rehabilitated, and that everyone has a right to a new beginning. However, it should be recognised that not everyone has the power and ability to achieve the same heights, and that the jumping-off point differs from person to person. Hence, measuring rehabilitation from a solely statistical standpoint implies reducing the value of a human being to an insignificant number. In spite of this conception, and maybe by virtue of this belief, 81% of the inmates that joint the PRA‘s programs are successfully rehabilitated – they do not use drugs or commit crimes – as opposed to 30% among those that did not participate in rehabilitation programs.

[2] A third of the inmates who return to prison, have pointed out that the reason for their re-incarceration, was their failure to reunite with their close family, provoking their despair and unwillingness to rehabilitate.

[3] During the first meetings, wishing to hide their “monstrous” secret, suspiciousness and examination of each other and the guide is felt among the women. The bond starts around the concrete problems of women sharing a common fate. Eventually the growing intimacy leads to openness and mutual support. They become aware of their suppressed and denied feelings (such as: anger, depression, guilt and shame), of their right to an independent existence, needs and wishes and, how to deal with them and seek help.

The issues raised include marriage, sadness, family, children and sex. They learn to accept the fact they are inmates’ spouses. By learning to support each other, the group becomes very united while  each woman progresses individually.

[4] Rotem Sha’er, Therapy in a punishment environment: The experiences of prisoners from the drug detoxification and therapy process within Prison (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 2003). Sha’er discusses rehabilitation of drug dependent inmates.

The released inmates, interviewed for this research, perceive the therapy in prison as a primary therapy stage and theoretical in essence, that enables the drug addicted inmates to acknowledge their dependence and start a primary therapeutic relationship. However, to strengthen and preserve their new way after their release, a continued therapy is needed, to help them overcome the difficulties they will encounter during the process of integrating the normative society, especially in face of the numerous external stimuli and provocations.

Researchers  have questioned whether inmates can rehabilitate. A survey of researches that examined the situation of inmates who completed therapy in prison, found that the most positive results were achieved by inmates that attended therapy during a long period, as well as inmates that continued their therapy in the community after their release from prison.