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Prison Nursery Project
Global Prison Nursery Network Symposium
In 2023, CIC and a group of global non-profit partners launched the Global Prison Nursery Network (GPNN), a coalition advocating for children who live with their caregivers in prisons, often in settings called prison nurseries, créches, or mother-baby units. The GPNN’s mission is to protect and promote the rights of these children. We advocate for improved standards and practices, promote community-based alternatives to incarceration, and elevate the voices of impacted children and caregivers. Our work also focuses on improving legal processes for determining whether a child should be in prison with a parent, and on enhancing prison conditions and resources for these children.
In November 2024, CIC and GPNN held our second annual symposium at Columbia Law School, co-hosted by the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. The event’s thematic title was Children Living with their Mothers in Prison: Advocacy and Alternatives. We convened human rights experts, scholars, and women with lived experience to discuss the unique challenges faced by children and mothers in prison. A key focus was the balance between children’s rights and mothers’ rights, exploring how to support both in carceral settings. Panel topics included “The Due Process Void: Centering the Rights of Children and Mothers” and “Parenting in Prison: A Conversation with Impacted Mothers.” If you are interested in reviewing materials from the symposium, you can view various elements here.
Committee on the Rights of the Child Comment
This year, the GPNN has truly begun its work as a coalition. We recently put forth a submission for the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s call for evidence related to General Comment No. 27 on Children’s Rights to Access to Justice and Effective Remedies. Our comment urges the Committee to set forth guidelines to guarantee an individualized process for evaluating whether placement in a prison with a parent is in a child’s best interest, taking into account the child’s voice and including a mechanism for appeal. Concurrent with our symposium, we also hosted a global consultation in New York to get input from experts and practitioners on this issue of due process. The information gathered at the consultation will also be submitted to the Committee.
Families Together
Update on our Hub Residency
Over the past few months, CIC has been co-leading an exciting project with the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Program. We are currently wrapping up our first semester of “Parental Incarceration and Children’s Human Rights,” a Liberal Arts Engagement Hub Residency. This project involves a weekly seminar that’s made up of a mix of law, undergrad, and Master of Human Rights students and monthly workshops that focus on topics related to parental incarceration. Our seminar has introduced students to making change through the legislative process, using concepts such as asset-based community development, and framing issues through a human rights lens. The semester began with a presentation by Associate Professor Dr. Rebecca Shlafer, a world-renowned expert in the field of parental incarceration who explained the magnitude of the issue.
Our monthly workshops, held in the University of Minnesota’s Hub space, have convened students, guest speakers, and our Policy Team—a mixture of community experts with lived experience and people working in the criminal legal system. Our guest speakers have included representatives from the Advocates for Human Rights and the New Tactics in Human Rights project from the Center for Victims of Torture, as well as University of Minnesota professors Christopher Uggen and Joshua Page.
In 2025, we will continue our seminar and workshops and will conclude with a symposium on April 17.
CIC Connects 
Photo by Emily Baxter
YMCA Family Camp
Since 2019, CIC has partnered with the YMCA of the North to send youth impacted by parental incarceration to YMCA Camp Icaghowan for a week of summer camp each year. This fall, we introduced a new opportunity to CIC youth and their caregivers: a weekend family camp. The families who participated had YMCA Camp Icaghowan all to themselves and enjoyed activities such as dodgeball, the climbing wall, and even swimming in the chilly water. The feedback we received from caregivers was resoundingly positive, and we are planning a two-night family camp for the fall of 2025.
Our Second Annual Fundraiser
On October 26, CIC hosted Grassroots to Global Advocacy, our second annual fundraiser. We gathered at the American Swedish Institute’s Larson Hall for brunch, conversation, and a celebration of resilience. Guests watched a performance by Dance City, a North Minneapolis dance group, and a photography slideshow that showed CIC kids and families enjoying YMCA Camp Icaghowan. They also heard from Kiwanis Vilella, a caregiver in CIC’s family network and consultant to CIC, describe the joyful experiences his sons have had at Camp Icaghowan and the meaningful time he spent with them at family camp.
Thank you to everyone who attended our event, donated a prize to our auction, or made a contribution. Special thanks to our sponsors: Fredrikson & Byron PA, YMCA of the North, Matonich Law, Barbara Frey & Howard Orenstein, and Ricki & Peter Thompson.
If you’d like to support CIC’s mission of researching, identifying, and implementing solutions to enhance the lives of children affected by a parent’s incarceration, please click here. Any amount helps.