Parental Incarceration and Children's Human Rights

The Human Rights Program and its NGO partner, Children of Incarcerated Caregivers, have been awarded a residency in the University’s Liberal Arts Engagement Hub for 2024-2025, which was extended through 2025-2026. The project, Parental Incarceration & Children's Human Rights, explores alternatives to parental incarceration that center the rights of the child. Hub Residencies provide funding and access to resources for collaborative projects that facilitate reciprocal engagement between College of Liberal Arts faculty/staff and community members/groups around topics of important public interest.

International laws call for the best interests of children to be considered at every stage of a parent’s involvement in a criminal legal process. Yet in the United States, as well as in many other countries, children are largely invisible when courts determine whether their parents will be incarcerated. Our Hub residency will focus on how legal systems violate children’s human rights by not considering their best interests in such cases, and how promising alternatives to parental incarceration can be implemented in Minnesota and beyond.

The project includes a two-semester University of Minnesota seminar, interactive monthly workshops, and a symposium to be held in May 2025. The workshops will convene community partners, people with lived experience, and academic experts to explore proposals and ideas. Throughout the year, the collaborative team will develop policy alternatives to parental incarceration and will present these alternatives to local decision-makers—potentially bringing real change to Minnesota.

Learn more about the Children of Incarcerated Caregivers project.