Q: My son is incarcerated and his exwife has submitted paperwork to the court to have his parental rights taken .

A: The mother cannot request that your son's parental rights be taken away. What she can request is a parenting plan that may limit his right to visit with his children or which will change custody of the children if they are technically in his custody but being cared for by others while he is incarcerated. It is possibly to get forms on line and fill them out and submit them to the court or you could go to the court house and pick up the forms for your son and bring them to him so he can fill them out. All he needs to do is file a response to whatever the mother is filing.

Now if this is an action by the State of Oregon to terminate the parental rights of BOTH parents, that is a different thing altogether. Your son would have the right to a court appointed attorney if this is the type of proceeding that is going on. This type of proceeding is brought by a district attorney acting on behalf of the State of Oregon and would only be an action to terminate parental rights if it is aimed at both parents.

There is case law out of the US Supreme Court that found that the right to parent one's children is a right protected by the US constitution. The State can interfere with that right only when it is necessary to protect the welfare of the children but it is not easy for the State to do this. The State will first work with the parents to give them a chance to overcome the problems that are negatively impacting the children, such as substance abuse and criminal activity. But eventually the State will stop trying and will seek to have the children move to a more stable family situation usually by terminating the parental rights and putting the children up for adoption.