Introduction – Statement of the Problem:
             The U.S. prison population is the largest of any nation in the world in relation to
             its overall population, and is substantially over-represented by race in proportion to the
             non-incarcerated community. Single-parent families headed by a mother without
             substantial assistance from the father vastly outnumber two-parent households in much of
             urban American society, which is an established contributing factor in the relative
             likelihood of criminal behavior among children (Macionis 2002).
             Furthermore, modern criminologists have determined that the relative explosion
             in urban gang affiliation among teenagers is attributable, in no small part, to the absence
             of paternal guidance Gerrig & Zimbardo 2005) and that incarcerated fathers constitute
             role-modeling circumstances that only contribute negatively to children, by perpetuating
             the "normalization" of incarceration as a rite of passage in many impoverished
             communities (Pinizzotto 2007 ). As a result, a repetitive cycle has developed whereby
             fatherless youths, already predisposed to higher incidence of criminal inclination, become
             more vulnerable to gang recruitment at an earlier and early age, end up incarcerated
             Undoubtedly, education is profoundly related to the course of one's life, and even
             among the incarcerated population, successful participation in voluntary educational
             opportunities corresponds to much lower recidivism rates and to greater post-
             incarceration vocational success (Schmalleger 1997). Again, in this respect,
             incarceration of the father directly corresponds to lower educational performance and
             dramatically reduces the likelihood of their children pursuing advanced education
             compared to children whose fathers are not incarcerated (Macionis 2002). Finally,
             prisoner conduct and cooperation is always a primary concern within correctional
             ins...