My sister was recently incarcerated and her 3 children were given to their father, for reasons unknown because he is a worthless human being, but I digress. Anyways, the oldest is 12 yrs old and has frequently told me and my mother that she doesnt want to live with her father. So my question is I know children can voice their choice for who they want to live with parent wise, but could this also apply to their grandparents? Could my neice say she wants to live with my mother and have the courts hear her out?

Minors don't get to decide where they live. In SOME cases, the courts will allow a minor to express concerns or preferences to the judge, but that's almost exclusively seen in divorce cases, where the child could end up with one parent or the other; and even in those cases, it's still up to the judge. In this case, the courts have AREADY placed the children with their father, because mom was unfit due to incarceration. Unless the father is ALSO found by the courts to be unfit and the children are taken away from HIM, then it's legally irrelvent whom the children want to live with, because dad is the other legal parent. If some other family member wants to challenge dad for custody, then they need to retain a family law attorney to advise them of the potential (but if the state found dad a fit parent to place the children with, it's going to be an expensive uphill battle without good chances of success).

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While pointers can be helpful, ultimately the number one lesson in any legal action is: don't take legal advice from books, family, friends, co-workers, police officers, grocery clerks, web sites, or people on legal message boards. The only person who can give YOU legal advice is YOUR attorney.

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I agree with aardvarc. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.