Research to Action: Informing Policy Makers About the Needs of Mothers and Children at Risk of Separation

Over the past two decades, Congress has helped states develop demonstration projects enabling mothers at risk of incarceration for drug offenses to be diverted to community-based facilities to serve their sentence. Many of these projects allow mothers to live with their children while serving their sentence and completing a treatment program. While these demonstration projects are a step in the right direction, there are not enough of them to address the growing needs of mothers at risk of incarceration and children at risk of placement in foster care. With concentrated and thorough research assessing the effectiveness and possibilities for improvement of current demonstration projects, researchers can help demonstrate that it is sound for policy makers to move toward a nation-wide implementation of comprehensive community-based treatment programs for mothers and their children as an alternative to incarceration and foster care placement for families struggling with drug addiction. (C) 2006 by TheHaworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.