“No one has ever asked me if I’m a dad:” Supporting families in the context of incarceration through community-university-corrections partnerships.

A growing body of evidence indicates that mass incarceration has devastating consequences for children, families, and communities. Estimates from the National Survey of Children’s Health indicate that more than 5 million children have had a parent who lived with them go to jail or prison. Yet, most states do not systematically collect information about an incarcerated person’s parenting status. This article describes two studies—one about parents in Minnesota prisons and another about parents in Minnesota jails—and the challenges and opportunities that developed from these studies. The authors discuss building community-university corrections partnerships to collect essential data to inform policy and practice in Minnesota.