MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Lecturer in Law Amy Cyphert has been cited by the Iowa Court of Appeals in a parental custody rights case.
The court cited Cyphert’s article " Prisoners of Fate: The Challenges of Creating Change for Children of Incarcerated Parents" in In the Interest of R.B., Minor Child, 919 N.W.2d 769 (2018).
The appeals court upheld the district’s court ruling that terminated a formerly incarcerated mother’s parental rights to her child, who now resides with his grandparents.
Cyphert's article was cited by a judge who wrote separately to raise concerns that no case worker had reached out to the mother while she was incarcerated to arrange visitation with her son, and to urge the relevant departments to "not operate on the assumption that incarcerated parents are irredeemable and not worthy of pursuing reasonable efforts toward family reunification."
Cyphert’s article, which was published in the Maryland Law Review (vol. 77) in 2018, details the challenges faced by children of incarcerated parents and urges revision to visitation policies to help guard against those harms."
-WVU-
