Watch our conversation with Amelia Watson here on Substack or on YouTube.
A program helping mothers and fathers in prison with their dependency cases will end on June 30, 2025. Lawmakers did not renew funding for the two staff positions during the 2025 legislative session, despite the pilot program’s apparent success in keeping parents connected with their children.
The Parent Navigator program placed one staff member at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor and one staff member at the Airway Heights Corrections Center, a men’s prison near Spokane. Airway Heights houses over 1,800 incarcerated individuals, making it Washington’s third largest prison by population among eleven prisons that collectively house over 13,000 people.
Uniquely, Parent Navigators have firsthand experience both as people convicted of crimes and as parents who successfully navigated a dependency case and who secured a long-term future with their children.
We spoke with Amelia Watson about what specifically the Parent Navigators have been doing to help parents and children, and what hope there is that the program will be re-started in 2026. Amelia is with the Washington State Office of Public Defense, serving as Co-Supervising Attorney of OPD’s Parents Representation Program.
Watch our conversation with Amelia here on Substack or on YouTube.
“Before the establishment of the parent navigator positions, parents often missed hearings due to a lack of process knowledge and advance notice. Parents also were unable to receive necessary services, such as collaboration with DCYF, attorneys, courts, hearings, domestic violence assessments, and arrange services for dependency cases. Now, due to the implementation of parent navigators, parents at WCCW and AHCC have the opportunity to be more actively engaged with their cases…The need to expand these services to all facilities is evident and will positively support family reunification journeys, which is a key factor in lowering recidivism rates in Washington state.” — Parent Navigators and Dependency Support Final Report, Washington Department of Corrections, October 2024
