This presentation is very suitable for parent attorneys, mitigation specialists, and other parent advocates practicing in Washington State or in federal court assisting pregnant people looking to keep their newborns with them and parenting them while serving their sentences at WA DOC, including those serving Federal Bureau of Prisons sentences. Faculty will describe the RPP program benefits, requirements, eligibility, and application criteria.

Learning objectives include:  

• Emphasize the importance of preventing parent-child separation through brief review of social research
• Addressing stigma, shame, and bias impeding or impairing the access and motivation of (some) incarcerated parents to parent their children from prison
• Uplift the family defender’s/parent advocate’s role in counselling client to support self-advocacy and application during WA DOC’s classification process and beyond
• Strengthen negotiation, mitigation, and sentencing of pregnant people facing prison sentences through practical tips and legal strategies for preparing parent-clients for eligibility to the WA DOC RPP program

Presented by WDA’s D’Adre Cunningham, Lindsay Owens, Program Manager of the WA DOC Residential Parenting Program, and Larry Ball, Classification Counselor 3 at WA Department of Corrections.

1.0 Law and Legal Credits have been requested for this CLE. To register, please write to wda@defensenet.org with “Pregnant and Heading to Prison” in the subject line.