Effects of Parent–Child Relationships on Inmate Behavior

Abstract

There is very little current information on the nature and extent of contacts between inmate parents and their children. To fill in this gap, it was the purpose of this study to determine how parental contacts with children, in the form of visits, mail, and telephone calls, affected inmate behavior behind bars. A subsample of more than 6,000 inmate parents from a larger sample of state prison inmates in the United States was analyzed. Results showed that inmates who got visits, both males and females, and mail (female inmates only) were more likely to be written up and/or found guilty of rule violations. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.