Analysis Of The Article ' Jailing Black Babies ' By James G. Gilman

Since the mid 80’s, the number of women incarcerated has tripled.The majority of women incarcerated are unskilled, impoverished and disproportionately women of color. As a result, African American children are nine times more likely to have a parent in prison than a White child.

Today prisons are overcrowded and over two million Americans, male, and female are sitting in jail or prison, and two thirds of those people incarcerated are parents (U.S. Department of Justice). Approximately two million of these children are separated from their mom or dad because of incarceration of which these are the custodial parent. These children suffer from poverty, inconsistency in caregivers, separation from siblings, reduced education, increased risk for substance abuse, alcoholism and incarceration themselves.

Mass incarceration has been an ongoing problem in America that became prevalent in the 1960s and still continues today. The reason this mass incarceration is such a crisis in our country is because it has been ripping apart the family and impacting all those involved. This epidemic affects those of every race, but more specifically, African Americans. Many researchers attribute this prison boom to police officers cracking down on crime, but only focusing on the inner city which is often times it is made up of a predominately black population. Because of this, America saw such a rise in the number of African American males in the system in at least some way; whether they were in prison, jail, or probation the numbers were astounding. When a father is removed from a home it impacts the family whether that is the wife, girlfriend, child or stepchild, it has proved to have some short and long term psychological affects on them. It is impossible to parent behind bars, so all the parenting is left up to the mother while the father is locked up. In addition, when a person goes to prison it leaves a mark on the inmate as well. Mass incarceration among African Americans is an ongoing problem impacting thousands of people, both directly and indirectly, and because of this, it is breaking apart the family structure and taking a psychological toll on the loved ones involved.

The phenomena known as the cradle to prison pipeline has been cited as a major contributor to racial discrepancy of incarceration rates. The phrase denotes the ever-increasing amount of contact that students have with the juvenile and adult criminal justice system. The “pipeline” is a product of schools adopting strict zero-tolerance polices , Schools that inpose these polices lagerly exist within communities of color due to the precived . In America’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline, the President of the Children’s Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman states “disparities start early and continue throughout African Americans’ lives. Black children are pushed out of school given no meaningful alternatives and soon find themselves in the criminal justice

Maternity care for women in prison has not been respectable. Prison health care is undergoing a modernization program with a requirement that prisoners receive health care to the same standard as those not imprisoned. An article written by Sally Price describes the findings of a research study into the maternity services for women in prison. She provides a background to the project and describes the pregnant prison population and the current services available to them. What is evident from the findings is that the standard of care for women in prison is variable, dependent upon the establishment in which they reside. Two different studies showed results involving the incarcerated pregnant woman. The first study questioned wardens about

Alexander provides an example in the book of a young single mother who is arrested with a group during a sweep. While being held, she has no one to care for her children, and she is not working. After several weeks she pleads guilty simply because waiting for justice to be served has meant a great deal of difficulty for her children, who are being kept in foster care. For the others in the group that were arrested, they are eventually found to be innocent of any wrongdoing. In the meantime, the young woman has become, at least on paper, a convict, and can no longer remain in federal public housing. The problem with justice is not a simple case of higher crime rates or criminality, it is how the criminal justice system interacts with factors in the community to create outcomes that are definitely not just. This seems like a subtle form of discrimination until the scale is understood. This systematic challenge to the black community impacts equality and equity, as criminal incarceration reduces access to economic opportunities and social mobility (Hagan and Foster, 259). Criminalization of black Americans results in the same outcomes as Jim Crow laws, in that black Americans are segregated and left without the power to vote or control their own lives. The discriminatory effects are also broader than just the criminal justice system. Social justice cannot be achieved while there are significant health disparities between black and non-black Americans which goes further than genetic and lifestyle issues (Boulware, 358). Black Americans are more likely to be betrayed by institutions such as health care, and this is reflected in high levels of distrust of authorities that, in addition to law enforcement, include nurses, physicians, school principals and

My papers purpose is to inform the reader of the ever increasing number of U.S children with incarcerated parents. According to Department of Justice data African American children are nine time more likely than white children to have incarcerated parents, A number double that of what was reported in 1991 Most children of incarcerated parents live in poverty before, during and after their paren't incarceration( Johnston 1995).The social consequences of not meeting the need of these children and their non incarcerated parent will come to the attention of social workers in array of fields of practice. This includes child welfare, mental health and child development, crimminal justice , schools and the juvenile justice system.

Even though nearly 100 countries have national laws allowing for incarcerated mothers to stay with their babies, there is still an ongoing debate in the United States regarding policies and laws on how to deal with this

Increased incarceration rates negatively distress African Americans families and children. Per Clear (2008) parental incarceration causes strain in social relationships, and increases the economic strain on families (p.102). In African American families, men are the providers in the household. When the man is detained, the resources that he provides to the family is no longer available. Consequently, mothers must now find additional resources to compensate for his absence. Research conducted by Schwartz-Sorcher, Geller, and Garfunkel (2014), examined the effects of paternal incarceration on the material well-being of families. Using data from the Fragile Families & Child Well-Being survey, they found that paternal incarceration increases material

In the U.S., our criminal justice system incarcerates more people than any other country on earth. Incarceration rates have skyrocketed over the past 30 years due to stricter laws and harsher penalties for drug use and possession. As a result of these high incarceration rates, many households and society, in general, has been adversely affected by the absence of men and women from their families and from their communities. While being in confinement is definitely tough on those incarcerated, the ones left on the outside are also greatly affected. Several studies have shown that this absence has had a dramatic impact on children as they struggle to survive without mothers and fathers. This is a significant sociological issue because this societal phenomenon can have lasting effects and create family voids that can contribute to the deterioration and arrested development of the offspring of those who are incarcerated.

Who is incarcerated and how many of those incarcerated are mothers? According to recent estimates (Mumola, 2000),

Some of the challenges in the perinatal care in the correctional setting include lack of prenatal care prior to incarceration, drug or alcohol dependency, psychosocial problems or lack of outside family support, victim or transgressor of past abuse or violence and the psychological challenges of being incarcerated. For many women, the reality of being in the prison system can be devastating; the separation from family, which often includes their own children, and friends can cause depression, anxiety and fear. Personal physical safety is also a concern, as prison is often described as having its own “culture”, structure and hierarchy,

In the past 20 years, women inmates have been one of the fastest growing prison populations in the United States. Women inmates represent a myriad of voices that speak to poverty-stricken lives, histories of abuse, separations of mother and child, struggles with substance abuse, health issues, and economic hardships. Women’s prisons have increasingly become a source of intrigue and controversy, particularly through the broadcasting of a number of television documentaries, such as Orange Is the New Black. This explores all the issues and concerns regarding female inmates. Many times women in prison are overlooked, as the prison problems that receive media attention occur primarily at male institutions.

The nation’s jail population is at an all-time high and this has raised a series of questions about the collateral effects it will have on children, families, and the community. The number of parents being incarcerated has increased dramatically and the privatization of this institution indicates that the number of children growing up without their parents due to incarceration will continue to rise. As the number increases, generalist practitioners must prepare themselves to deal with this emerging trend. So as new trends emerge, generalist practitioners

However, when Federal judges displayed concerned regarding the number of infants being born at Alderson (Susan C. Craig, 2009). Hostile scrutiny on the conditions for children nurture by their mothers in confinement initiates the end of having babies and children remain with their mothers in most prisons. The era of childcare in confinement came to an end in the 1960s (Susan C. Craig, 2009).