Research has demonstrated that parents’ involvement with their children’s educational activities, particularly reading, translates into increased interest and, ultimately, achievement in school. For incarcerated parents, reading programs provide an opportunity to reestablish parental roles, reassure the children of their continued love, and encourage the children’s reading behavior. For the children of incarcerated parents, such reading programs stimulate interest in reading, which is a necessary precursor to reading achievement and, ultimately, academic success. Thus, prison reading programs feed two birds with one seed by benefiting inmates and their children in numerous ways.

“The Family Connections program offered by Reading Legacies is a popular, promising program for incarcerated parents and their children.”