Beyond the Home: Strengthening Parent-Child Relationships During Incarceration

When a parent is incarcerated, it affects their ability to develop and maintain relationships within their family, especially with their children.

For more than a decade, Washington County Department of Public Health and Environment in Minnesota has provided home visiting services via parenting groups offered in the county jail. In 2024, the department began using the Circle of Security curriculum, which focuses on secure parent-child attachments, to better meet the needs shared by past participants.

In this NHVRC video, Public Health Nurse Deana Olsen and Family Health Nursing Supervisor Tyler Roenicke discuss the importance of delivering modified home visiting in the jail setting. Two fathers also share what they have learned about parenting–and themselves—through the program.