New York City reunites incarcerated fathers with children at museum visits

The most consequential part of the museum visit was not the gallery, but the chance for children to spend two uninterrupted hours with a father they normally saw under the strict controls of Rikers Island. In a setting built for play instead of custody, families shared food, music, storytelling and art, turning a jail visit into a test of whether contact can soften the damage incarceration does across generations.

The New York City Department of Correction, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and Robin Hood resumed off-island family visitation on October 24, 2022, after a two-year pause during the pandemic. The program allowed up to fifteen incarcerated fathers or mothers at a time to visit with their children and caregivers, and it came with free museum memberships, educator-led tours, arts-based workshops, healthy meals and take-home art kits. Officials said the idea was first opened to women in custody before being expanded to men.

The contrast with a standard Rikers visit was stark. Under the usual rules, parents and children sat across from each other for about an hour, with security procedures limiting the kind of movement, conversation and physical contact that define ordinary family time. At the museum, the point was different: lunch, crafts, singing and hugging in a relaxed environment that staff said gave families time together that was difficult to replicate behind jail walls. The Department of Correction said the broader goal was to preserve family bonds, support children’s development and improve reentry outcomes and recidivism.

The program also became a measure of scale. By June 26, 2023, nearly 130 parents had taken part, and the model was being watched closely enough that similar efforts were later described as having spread to other cities. The Department of Correction also pointed to companion Baby Brain Building Hubs inside jail visitation areas, which were expected to serve about 50,000 visitors a year, as another attempt to make family contact more child-centered and less institutional.

That approach was later extended in Brooklyn through Haven: Reunification at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, a once-a-month program for parents incarcerated at Rikers and their children when the museum was closed to the public. Backed by a $160,000 two-year grant from the Social Justice Fund founded by Clara Wu Tsai, the Brooklyn effort was designed to blunt the impact of incarceration and give families autonomy, play and some sense of normalcy during separation.