Lab for Family Wellbeing & Justice
Affecting Change Through Research, Training, and Community Engagement and Collaboration
Pajarita Charles
Principal Investigator
Pajarita Charles, PhD, MSW, MPA is an Associate Professor at the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work and an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty and the Center for Law, Society, and Justice. Her research focuses on the development, implementation, and testing of family-focused preventive interventions to promote positive outcomes for children and families affected by the criminal legal system. Dr. Charles’ efforts foster research, practice, and public sector partnerships to build capacity for reform and the reduction of the footprint of the criminal legal system. She is a co-leader of the national Promote Smart Decarceration grand challenge network for the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and frequently collaborates with local and state organizations to provide expertise and guidance on issues pertinent to families impacted by the criminal legal system.
Parenting Inside Out Best Practices Toolkit
Parenting Inside Out (PIO) is an evidence-based parent management treatment training curriculum designed to improve outcomes for incarcerated parents, their children, and their families. PIO is implemented by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) with technical assistance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-M) and support from the Wisconsin Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board (CANPB) in four Wisconsin state prisons. The following toolkit shares resources for implementation and operation of the PIO program based upon lessons learned from this collaboration. It puts forth best practices and strategies, intending to reach prison staff, correctional administrators, researchers, policy makers, and other stakeholders with an interest in the mitigation of negative consequences of incarceration on families.