Children of Inmates Suffer for Sins of Fathers--and Mothers : Advocates: About 200,000 youngsters in California have a parent behind bars. Concerned groups fear that they may eventually end up in prison as well.

SAN QUENTIN — Sabrina, 10 years old, eyes sparkling in a lean, tanned face, likes to talk to her dad about school, about how she’s doing.

But she doesn’t like being separated from him by a wall of glass, and sometimes she skips the family’s twice-monthly pilgrimage to Corcoran State Prison.

“We get to see him and talk to him, but we can’t touch him,” she said.

Tracy, an 11-year-old with blond hair, hopes her dad will be able to keep his promise to teach her to drive.

“My dad said he’ll probably get out before I’m 16,” she said.

Tracy and Sabrina haven’t done anything wrong, but they’re more familiar with the inside of a prison than most people twice their age. They’re part of a group that advocates say is largely forgotten, the estimated 200,000 California children with a parent behind bars.

“Some of these children are what I call closet children,” said Pauline Walton, chairwoman of Centerforce, an advocate and provider of prison visitor services statewide. “They’re at risk in every way other children are in low-income areas, but then in addition to that, they’re at risk because they’re living with the reality of their father being incarcerated.”

Often the children are quiet and withdrawn, burdened by keeping their secret and having to behave irreproachably during the visits. Sometimes they feel guilty about having a parent in prison and sometimes they feel guilty about not wanting to visit, Walton said.

Sabrina, for instance, used to see her father twice a week. But then he was moved to Corcoran, home to the infamous Charles Manson, which scares her. Recently, her father was put “in the hole,” meaning the family must talk to him by phone because he’s kept behind a glass divider during visits.

“It’s sort of sad,” Sabrina said. “If one of my brothers gets up on the window and tries to touch him, the guards all get on him.”

“It’s devastating when the inmate you’re visiting gets in the hole,” generally the result of some prison infraction, Walton said.

Tracy’s father went to prison when she was 5 and is at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, about 40 miles from her home near Sacramento. She, her mother and sister visit about twice a week, starting out before dawn to get a good place in line, out of the sun.

Like Sabrina, she finds prison oppressive and is “sick of gray walls all the time.”

Breaking up the gray is part of the job of Centerforce, said Assistant Director Dawn Nickoloff. The nonprofit agency began as a small house outside the gates of San Quentin. It contracts with the state to run 23 centers, with a budget of about $1.3 million.

The centers offer transportation, shelter, snacks and clothes to borrow if the visitor has fallen afoul of prison dress codes. They also offer programs for children, and Walton would like to establish special Girl Scout troops, a goal furthered in June with an award from the San Francisco Bay Girl Scout Council.

“Our mission is to serve all girls, including girls who are not in traditional communities,” said Rosalie H. Moore of the regional council’s board of directors.

Child advocates say one of their biggest concerns is making more people aware of the cost of letting children suffer for the sins of their parents.

“Everybody suspects what the problem is, but we’ve never done the research,” said Assemblyman William J. Filante (R-Greenbrae), who is sponsoring legislation commissioning a study. “I’m trying to ring the alarm.”

“It’s been very difficult to demonstrate to people that this is a unique population and they have unique needs,” said Denise Johnston, director of the Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents based at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena.

Children who lose a parent, which often leads to an unstable home life, can “develop very disorganized behaviors. They’re angry, they’re sad and they’re anxious,” Johnston said. “Things like drugs and gangs become very attractive because those coping mechanisms help them organize all these chaotic emotions.”

Prison officials say they’re not insensitive to the problems, but have limited resources.

“Anytime you incarcerate a parent, that is going to affect a family, but the DOC (Department of Corrections) certainly has no legal jurisdiction in the area of child welfare,” spokeswoman Christine May said.

The state has seven mother-infant programs, serving 124 women, under which nonviolent offenders may live with children under 6, she said. Eligible inmates can also have extended family visits in special units.

“Our responsibility is to incarcerate the inmates,” May said. “Within those requirements we certainly do as much as we can to create an environment that would be beneficial to the children.”

Putting together a picture of the children of offenders--and how they grow up--is a priority, Johnston said.

So far, it doesn’t look good.

Records indicate that where 30 years ago only one in five prisoners had been the child of an incarcerated parent, current data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics and another task force show that 51% of all juveniles imprisoned had a convict parent, she said.

The center recently asked Los Angeles schools to send them problem children for a pilot counseling program. Of the 56 children referred, 54 had a parent incarcerated, Johnston said.

Like other advocates, she recommends getting help early.

“It’s really hard to make people understand that the parents of these kids 10 years ago were these kids. This is something that doesn’t get better,” Johnston said.

The Problems They Face

Here is a look at California children with a parent incarcerated and the problems they face. Data was provided by Centerforce, the state’s visitor center network, and The Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents.

How Many Are There?

California: estimated 200,000

United States: estimated 1.5 million

Possible Problems

Secrecy: sometimes urged to keep incarcerated parent secret.

Lies: may feel compelled to make up story when asked where they go each week, or where they went for holidays.

Fear-Anger: parent left with pressure of taking care of family may get angrier sooner, child may feel intimidated by prison setting or guilty for cutting visit short by screaming or crying.

Possible Consequences

Thirty years ago, one in five U.S. prisoners had a parent who had been incarcerated.

Recent research by the CCIP found 40 percent of mothers in a Southern California jail had a parent who had been incarcerated.

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics and American Correctional Association’s Task Force on the Female Offender found that more than half of juveniles imprisoned had a parent who had been incarcerated.

Aid to Imprisoned Mothers in Atlanta estimates children of prisoners are five to six times more likely to be incarcerated.