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 Blog Post

Parenting Programs at SCI Muncy

Tags: Muncy
May 13, 2019 12:00 AM
By: DOC Staff

PA Coat of Arms

Freshly baked cookiesAt SCI Muncy, the parenting program has two major components -- therapeutic parenting support and family violence.

To strengthen family bonds, the program provides a variety of therapeutic groups, individual counseling sessions, workshops and family support services. The family violence component (House of Hope) was initiated as a treatment unit, in which survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault receive guidance and support as they work through their abuse issues. We prepare and complete a comprehensive plan for mom and baby well in advance of delivery that includes immediate visitor add-on within 24 hours of delivery. 

We're also extremely proud of our Project IM-PACT (Inside Muncy Parents and Children Together). This program focuses on helping children and mothers cope with the separation, fear and guilt that accompany the imprisonment of a parent.

During Project IM-PACT visits between inmate and child, a parenting counselor is present in this home-like setting to provide assistance and counseling, as needed, to help improve the bond between parent and child. In addition, parenting counselors facilitate two of the following groups at any given time: child development, parenting teenagers, PA Family Support Alliance, prenatal/postpartum and positive parenting.

The main area of the Project IM-PACT trailer.

Furthermore, to complement and enhance SCI Muncy's parenting program, staff has initiated the following in the prison's main visiting room and updates to IM-PACT:

  • MUN - 2019 May - IM-PACT Parenting Program2.jpgThe visiting room has coloring books and a variety of coloring sheets for children and parents to color together. The sheets are both holiday themed and general. Crayons, color pencils and, to a lesser extent, color markers are available. The supplies are kept up at the officer's desk in his/her plain sight. They have been available for many years. Supplies are purchased using money from the Inmate General Welfare Fund (IGWF). SCI Muncy officials are pleased to provide a happy, safe and secure environment in which mothers and their minor-aged children can color and visit together. 
  • Project IM-PACT, which has operated inside SCI Muncy since 1986, is a smaller visitation center that has a more home-like atmosphere and less of an Institutional-feeling. Here, mothers and their minor aged children can visit. Recent crafts have included felt reindeer, elf, turkey and pumpkin that were purchased using IGWF funds. In addition, parenting counselors make color paper, crayons, markers and color pencils available to mothers and minor-aged children. Usually 6 to 12 of the craft packets are put out in a bin on the kitchen/craft table at a time and they are replenished by staff as mothers and children put them together. Parenting counselors also have scissors and a glue gun secured in a tool cabinet, that mothers can sign out and use while visiting at Project IM-PACT, depending on the age of their children and the craft at hand. Parenting counselors also make a "snack of the month" and refreshments available to the mothers and their children to have while they are in the kitchen/craft area. Recent snacks included holiday cookies and Halloween candy. When the weather is warmer, parenting staff makes fruit, cookout meats and popsicles available. Water, milk, Kool-Aid and hot chocolate are examples of refreshments served.


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