Family Programs

Some of the most important services provided by Aleph are for families in crisis, particularly the thousands of innocent spouses and children of inmates. The United States Department of Justice National Institute of Corrections recognizes Aleph in its Directory of Programs Serving Families of Adult Offenders . Before sentencing, Aleph prepares proposals for courts across the United States, presenting judges with alternative means to provide punishment while eliminating or minimizing periods of incarceration -- and the accompanying separation from family and productive living. In providing these specialized professional services,

-- and the accompanying separation from family and productive living. In providing these specialized professional services, Aleph has worked with many of the foremost attorneys and criminal justice specialists in the country, and makes available a host of services, referrals and a nationwide network of sentencing specialists, former parole and probation officers, forensic psychologists, social workers, immigration specialists and other professionals in this area. In addition to formal court presentations, Aleph's staff provides invaluable consulting services to attorneys and counseling to offenders and their families at every stage of the proceedings, including plea agreement strategies, sentencing guidelines analysis, pre-sentencing investigations and court appearances.

Aleph's wide experience with the federal and state prison systems also proves invaluable to offenders and their attorneys when alternatives to incarceration are not available by law or when the sentencing court decides that such alternatives are inappropriate. Aleph's rabbis and staff regularly visit over 350 state and federal prisons each year and interact with wardens, chaplains and institutional staff on a daily basis.

Aleph also receives approximately 600 collect telephone calls and 1,000 letters each month from inmates around the country and their families. As a result, Aleph's staff can provide unique insights and counseling as to what may be expected in the prison setting, which particular institutions may best meet the particular needs of prospective inmates and their families, and what actions should be taken at each step of the process to secure religious and other needs. If and when a family member is incarcerated, Aleph sponsors support groups and telephone/e-mail networks that bring together the spouses. If and when a family member is incarcerated, Aleph sponsors support groups and telephone/e-mail networks that bring together the spouses, parents and children of inmates to work through their physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

Professional counselors work with inmates and their families to strengthen and maintain family bonds throughout the crisis of incarceration and to aid in the readjustments required by the incarceration of loved ones.

Aleph is the only Jewish organization providing such a wide range of nationwide services to these particularly needy families. Among other things, and through the generosity of a number of clothing manufacturers, we distributed hundreds of new clothing outfits before the High Holidays and Passover to impoverished spouses and children. All year long, we provide educational programs, counseling and, in cases of extreme need, direct financial support to pay for housing, heat and electricity. Aleph has helped pay for both bar-mitzvahs and funerals. Aleph's in-prison services include religious freedom advocacy, visitations, holiday food packages, educational material, videos, and more.

During the Chanukah holiday season, volunteers pack and ship thousands of menorahs and candles to almost 4,000 Jewish men and women across the country who otherwise would not be able to receive them. Even more significantly, our volunteers sort through piles of requests we receive from parents who know they will not be with their children. Understandably, the pain of separation is magnified when innocent children watch their peers celebrating the holidays with family and friends while, for reasons they cannot possibly accept or comprehend, know they will have to endure the holidays alone.

With the help of toy manufacturers, distributors and generous individual benefactors, we send thousands of toys, books and other gifts to the all-too-many boys and girls who are in no position to receive anything for Chanukah from a parent far away. Toys for tots, toys for toddlers, gifts for growing boys and girls who so desperately need some connection with a parent they will not get to see for far too long.

None of the packages we send to children has any markings to show that they came from Aleph. Instead, each and every one has a personalized card enclosed, signed by "Mommy" or "Daddy" - or sometimes "Grandpa." Over the years, we have learned that many of these children hold on for dear life to these toys - however tattered they become - because they represent an essential connection to the parent who could not be with them. It is one of the most heartwarming and essential activities we perform.

Over the summer, we conduct the most wide-ranging visitations program in history -- to men and women at over 350 institutions around the country, many of whom have not received a visit from a rabbi in months or years! In our ongoing efforts to maintain and strengthen essential family ties through times of crisis, Aleph's distribution center in Miami ships Torah books daily and throughout the summer months to children of inmates, so as to help fill their long summer days with spirituality, too.

On an ongoing basis throughout the year, we are approached by families of inmates seeking designation or transfer of their loved ones to certain facilities closer to home, furloughs at times of family or health emergencies, or for additional halfway house/home confinement time upon release so as to meet family responsibilities. Wherever possible, Aleph contacts appropriate officials to help resolve these humanitarian issues. Although our budget does not yet permit us to provide full-time staff in areas of drug counseling or post-release housing and work placement, our counselors provide appropriate referrals to assist families in these areas, too.