Elizabeth Gaynes and Emani Davis. Photo: Tora Mårtens

The incarceration of two million people in U.S. prisons has profound repercussions on the detainees' families and communities. At least 10 million children have previously experienced or are currently living through often debilitating emotional, economic, and social consequences stemming from the arrest, detention and/or imprisonment of a parent. The nonprofit Osborne Association seeks to mitigate these negative effects by assisting individuals and families whose lives are roiled by incarceration. It also advocates on their behalf, promoting innovative programs that demonstrate that over-reliance on imprisonment is a costly and counterproductive approach that fails to recognize or support the basic capacity of people to transform their lives.

The Osborne Association's work was recognized at an international level when its executive director, Elizabeth Gaynes, and her daughter, Emani Davis, were one of three nominees (and the first from the United States) for the most recent World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child. The prize honors people working to uphold the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Some 1.3 million children in 52 countries voted to select the 2004 prize recipient; they chose Prateep Ungsongtham Hata from Thailand, who has devoted her life to giving vulnerable children the opportunity to attend school. Gaynes and Davis were awarded the 2004 World's Children's Honorary Award from Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden at a ceremony in April 2004.

At a forum at OSI's New York offices on June 15, 2004, Gaynes and Davis discussed their work, the World's Children's Prize, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. They were joined on the panel by two young people with incarcerated parents who accompanied them on the April trip to Sweden: 14-year-old Malik Gooden and 13-year-old Idalmin Santana. The fifth panelist was Ellen Rafel, a guidance counselor at the Crossroads School in New York City, where students participated in the global vote for the prize. The panel was moderated by Susan Tucker, director of The After Prison Initiative, a program of OSI's U.S. Justice Fund.

Read a summary of the forum.