How many times has someone said, ‘I did the best I could with what I had…it’s not like I had a parent manual to follow’.  But, in actuality, there is a manual. Since its publication in 1988, A Nurturing Father’s Journal/Workbook by Mark Perlman, has been adopted by jails and prisons across the U.S. These workbooks are the basis for a 12-week Nurturing Father’s program that is taught by certified trainers to both incarcerated men and those men in aftercare, finding their way back into the community and a new life.  The Nurturing Father’s program is entirely voluntary, but many men who attend the program while incarcerated, attend a second time, once released from jail.  As Mark Perlman writes, “we are not condemned to repeat our father’s mistakes, we can choose to be the father we want to be”.