Parenting from Jail: A Multi-Site Evaluation of the Pio-24 Program for Incarcerated Parents

Background

Over five million children in the U.S. have experienced parental incarceration, a significant social problem linked to adverse social, economic, and health outcomes. Jails, which account for the vast majority of U.S. carceral admissions, face unique challenges in delivering parenting interventions because of resource constraints and high turnover rates of incarcerated people. Consequently, rigorous evaluations of jail-based parenting interventions remain scarce. This study addresses this gap using a multi-site evaluation of Parenting Inside Out (PIO-24), a 24-hour jail-based adaptation of an evidence-based cognitive-behavioral parent management training program for incarcerated parents. The study assessed changes in participants’ communication with their children, parenting skills, and relationships with caregivers, and evaluated acceptability of the intervention.

Method

The study utilized a one-group pretest-posttest design with 195 incarcerated parents (94% male; 44% non-Hispanic Black, 23% non-Hispanic White, 18% Hispanic) across three jails in two states. Jail staff delivered PIO-24 and participants completed baseline and follow-up surveys assessing ten items across three domains: (1) parent-child contact (i.e., letters, calls), (2) parenting skills (e.g., showing affection to child, validating feelings), and (3) parent-caregiver relationship quality and collaboration. Feedback about the program was also obtained. Bayesian cumulative link mixed models were used to model scores on each outcome as a function of time (baseline versus follow-up) and to estimate the treatment effect of PIO-24 with relevant covariates included (e.g., state, age, gender, race/ethnicity, education). We accounted for cohort-level variation through random effects and calculated odds ratios (OR) to aid with interpretability of estimates.

Results

From baseline to follow-up, participants demonstrated change across the three domains. (1) Parents had greater odds of reporting higher levels of communication through letters (OR = 1.68, 95% CI [1.18, 3.08]) and phone calls (OR = 1.89, 95% CI [1.11, 2.53]). (2) Parents also had greater odds of reporting higher levels of love and affection toward their children (OR = 2.50, 95% CI [1.01, 6.38]) and listening to and validating their children’s feelings (OR = 1.95, 95% CI [1.10, 3.46]). (3) Finally, parents had greater odds of reporting higher levels of encouragement for caregivers to provide structure and routines for their children at home (OR = 1.85, 95% CI [1.17, 2.91]) and having a good relationship with the caregiver (OR = 2.19, 95% CI [1.43, 3.38]). Program acceptability and perceived impact were exceptionally high; 93% of participants reported being satisfied with the parenting information received, and 97% perceived PIO-24 as having a positive impact on their relationships with their children.

Conclusions and Implications

These findings suggest that PIO-24 has strong potential to be an effective and scalable model for strengthening parenting and family connections within the transient and unpredictable context of jails. By improving parent-child communication and fostering collaborative partnerships with caregivers, jail-based interventions can help sustain parental identity and mitigate the adverse effects of incarceration on families. These results underscore the value of delivering evidence-informed family services in jail settings, provide a roadmap for practices aimed at supporting justice-impacted families during short-term incarceration, and call for more rigorous research in the future.