Family and Crime

The Family and Crime Hub focuses on educating students and the community about the emotional, financial, and relational consequences of incarceration on family systems.

Heidi Williams facilitated the Humanizing the Classroom (HtC) project in her Fall 2025 Family and Crime course. Parterning with the Humanization Project, students were paired with an incarcerated pen pal. The goal of the HtC project was to assess whether exposure to an actual person in prison impacts students’ perceptions about those who are incarcerated. Students opted into this IRB-approved project (IRB-25-761). Nearly every student stated that this project had a profound, positive effect on them. One student stated that her “mindset switched entirely to where I am now considering new career aspirations involving justice for reduced recidivism rates, rehabilitation within the prison walls, reformed policy, and improved resources for the families affected by incarceration of their loved ones.”

Heidi Williams served on the panel, “Deserve or Invest? Rethinking Who Education is For,” as part of the event, “Who Deserves an Education? Rethinking Fairness, Justice, and Opportunity,” held on December 3, 2025, at Virginia Tech (VT). This event brought together people from the Virginia Consensus for Higher Education in Prison, formerly incarcerated individuals, professors who teach in prisons, and an adult career coach and community outreach specialist. Heidi spoke about higher education in prison from an equity and fairness perspective. Specifically, she discussed how a felony status marks individuals and prevents them from gaining access to many jobs and licenses. A college degree has the power to facilitate a successful reentry and has the potential to free families from financial responsibility for their loved ones as they reintegrate into society.

The Family and Crime Hub hosted the talk, “A Conversation with Dr. Sophie Wenzel,” held in VT’s Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention on October 23, 2025. Dr. Wenzel discussed her work on women’s precursors to incarceration at the New River Valley Regional Jail.

The Humanization Project and the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention hosted “Ripple Effects Cause Tidal Waves: Community Impacts of Prisons in Appalachia.” This event, held on September 18th, 2025, at the Lyric Theatre, focused on the collateral consequences of incarceration on family systems. The event included three panels comprised of family members, partners, children, and formerly incarcerated individuals who discussed the challenges of maintaining contact with and the costs associated with loving and visiting an incarcerated person. One challenge to visitation is the distance between home and prisons—which is often hundreds of miles. To demonstrate the difficulty of maintaining contact, Calls from Home, a documentary featuring a radio program that broadcasts messages from loved ones to prisons, was shown. The event drew ~300 people from VT, the New River Valley, and across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Heidi Williams served on the panel, “Understanding the Intergenerational Nature of Trauma,” held on April 29, 2025, at VT. She addressed how trauma is transmitted within families and through systems that oppress the disadvantaged, such as the criminal justice system, foster care, and even welfare. In addition, she discussed how trauma is defined in sociology and criminology, as well as how it shapes families and life chances.

Heidi Williams served on the panel, “The Neuroscience of Addiction: Where Science Meets Policy,” held on April 14th, 2025, at VT. She addressed the role substance use disorder plays in the criminal legal system, as well as in family systems. Specifically, she discussed how family systems are impacted by and sometimes contribute to substance use disorder and suggested policy recommendations that may offer solutions to families that are dealing with addiction and/or the criminal legal system.

The Family and Crime Hub hosted the talk, “Chasing Chaos: A Young Adult’s Reflection on Parental Incarceration,” held on April 15, 2025, at VT and on April 16, 2025, at Radford University. Al, the young adult, discussed his experience with parental abandonment and absence due to drugs and incarceration. He walked us through the sequence of events that shaped his childhood, his own addiction, and ultimately led him to a social work degree program. The event was interactive, with students and community members asking Al questions. In fact, one community member attended the event to learn how to reintegrate into her own children’s lives after struggling with addiction and incarceration herself.

Heidi Williams served as an educator for the workshop “Breaking Down Barriers with Community Tools.” The purpose of this workshop is to provide education about the challenges returning citizens experience. She focused on how adverse childhood experiences are associated with criminality and how they, in combination with a criminal record, complicate reentry. The workshops were held at the Never River Community Action in Radford, VA on November 20th, 2024, and March 18th and 26th, 2025.

Heidi Williams was invited to discuss her research on the consequences of experiencing a parental incarceration on young adult children’s outcomes as part of the FaculTea series, “Families (For Better and For Worse).” FaculTea is hosted by the live-in Faculty Principal of the Residential College at West Ambler Johnston to expose students to faculty research.

The Humanization Project https://thehumanizationproject.org.

Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy https://virginiainterfaithcenter.org.

Parental Incarceration and Young Adult Trajectories. Currently, Heidi Williams and Makenna Clark are collecting pilot data from both young adult children and parents to examine the association between childhood parental incarceration and young adult trajectories. Specifically, we are collecting interview data with young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 who experienced a parental incarceration during their childhoods, and interview data with parents who were incarcerated when their children were younger than 18 but who are now adults. Talking with both young adults and parents allows us to learn how each group interprets the experience of parental incarceration shaping important life choices, such as parenting, educational, and work decisions. Our goal is to use the pilot data to inform a larger, longitudinal study on a set of families who are system impacted. This project is funded by the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention and the Institute of Society, Culture and Environment.

Cultivating Healthier Futures through Policy: Contraceptive and Substance Use Education and Access for Incarcerated Women: Sophie Wenzel and Heidi Williams are working is to demonstrate the need for contraceptive and substance use services in jails. Along with three graduate students, they are identifying current programs in VA and within the United States to understand how policies are developed and implemented. Sophie is collecting interview data with members of the Health Department and jail staff, with the goal of proposing a policy that would provide women access to much needed services that support healthy lives. This project is part of the +Policy Network and funded by the Institute of Society, Culture and Environment.

Heidi Williams was featured on the Appalachian Vibes Radio Show in the segment “Prisons in Appalachia: Music, Healing, and Restorative Radio.” She discussed the factors associated with the carceral boom in Appalachia, how the criminal legal system impacts Appalachian families, and the future of prisons in Appalachia. The episode aired on Spotify and the following National Public Radio stations in VA and North Carolina: WEHC, WISE FM, WNCW, and WUVT. · Heidi Williams was featured on With Good Reason. Her segment, Families and Incarceration, was part of the segment “In the System,” which aired on June 17, 2022.