Our Projects
The Miracle Project
The MIRACLE Project serves pregnant, jailed mothers and their families.
In the jail, MIRACLE provides prenatal, infant and child development education classes; family life and family resource management education; mothers' support groups; sentencing and child custody advocacy; and social-recreational activities. In the community, MIRACLE serves the families of formerly-incarcerated mothers, providing home-based doula services, infant/child development education and case management. Families may receive MIRACLE services for up to 3 years after the mother's release from incarceration.
MIRACLE outcomes include significant decreases in premature births, low birth weight babies and neonatal hospitalizations. MIRACLE mothers have decreased rates of postpartum depression, longer inter-pregnancy intervals and a 5% rate of recidivism. MIRACLE families achieve sustained reunification, with less than 2% experiencing the removal of a child to foster care
MIRACLE jail-based services were placed on hiatus in March, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The MotherRight Project
MotherRight addresses healthy reproductive relationships, healthy reproduction and mothers' reproductive freedom as key precursors of healthy parenting and healthy families. MotherRight is offered in women's correctional facilities and residential treatment settings. MotherRight offers reproductive health education, reproductive health support groups and reproductive health advocacy workshops. In all of its components, MotherRight focuses on reproductive justice for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women.
MotherRight outcomes include reduced multi-partnered fertility, increased inter-pregnancy intervals, decreased relationship conflicts and decreased maternal stress.
D.E.E.P.
The Developmental Education & Enhancement Project [D.E.E.P.] offers home-based parenting support for mothers who have completed MIRACLE services. DEEP provides comprehensive developmental assessments and referrals, as needed, for children 36-60 months of age, as well as individualized child development education and mother-child activity sessions designed to strengthen the mother-child relationship and improve children's developmental skills/capacities.
A Focus on Healthy Relationships
Families & Criminal Justice is a relationship-based practice agency. We believe that healthy human development occurs within a nest of nurturing, responsive relationships and we try to duplicate that setting and process for the children, parents and families we serve.