Assess The Impact Of A Mother's Arrest And Imprisonment On A Child

This study was limited to juveniles who are protected under the law. This research team was required to sign a waiver that the participants would never be identified. Another limitation to the study is the fact that the juveniles might not be aware of the previous incarceration status of their parents.

When a parent is arrested the child’s life is most definitely affected. Most of the time, since they are children they do not have a say in the matter of what happens to them. One sixteen year old names Terrance says, “I think they shouldn’t have took my mama to jail that first time. Just gave her a ticket or something, and make her go to court, and give her some community service. Some type of alternative, where she can go to the program down the street, or they can come check on her at the house.” (p.40) The child sees that their mother has been in and out of prison and saw no difference. Prison has not taught her a lesson due to her frequent sentences. Her child is left hopeless and alone to keep the electricity on, feed himself, and protect

Children are forced to forfeit their homes, their safety, their public and self-image, and their primary source of comfort and affection (Bernstein 2005). A national survey found that almost 70% of children when present when their parent was arrested (Bernstein 2005). Researcher Christina Jose Kamfner interviewed children who had witnessed their mother’s arrest and found that many suffered from post-traumatic stress symptoms; they could not concentrate or sleep and had flashbacks of the arrest (Bernstein 2005). The majority of the children at the scene of an arrest are taken away in a police car which is more intimidating than to say if they were taken away in a child welfare worker’s car (Bernstein 2005). Many of these children (is no other family is available) are shuffled around in the course of an arrest; the hospital for physical examinations first, then the police station for appropriate , “paperwork,” then to a juvenile detention center and lastly, they are deposited at a foster home (Bernstein 2005). Anyone can vouch that the process of what to do after the arrest is clearly a traumatizing one at that. After the arrest, children wait anxiously for the level of the sentence that their parent has to face. In most cases, children are unaware of why their parent is being sentenced because they were unaware that their parent was involved in the crime. Carl, for example, only remembered

Approximately 80% of incarcerated women are mothers (Mapson, 2013). On average, the adult female offender is between the ages of 25 and 29. Historically, incarcerated women live with their children prior to incarceration and are the sole financial support for those children. When a mother is incarcerated over 80% live with relatives (mostly maternal grandparents) and about 20% live in foster care. Due to mothers being placed far from populated centers, more than half of mothers will not see their children while they are imprisoned. Women rarely see their children due to the child being in foster care or with family members that do not have the financial resources to travel for visits.

Statistics have shown that one in every five children has seen their parent’s arrest. For young children, who were present at the incarceration have numerous short term effects. Children that are under the age of seven experienced nightmares and flashbacks from

In the past thirty years, the incarceration of women has risen exponentially. Poverty, lack of access to education, abuse, addiction, mental health and parenting issues all impact women’s criminality and health before, during and after they are incarcerated (Hannaher, K., 2007). By 2010 there were nearly 206,000 women currently serving time in the criminal justice system. As the years go by, the numbers are constantly increasing (Women Behind Bars, 2015). The number of pregnant women incarcerated has also been on the rise. Most incarcerated women do not receive proper prenatal care before entering the criminal justice system. Because these women are from mostly poverty neighborhoods, they are more likely to endure domestic violence, poor

Over the last half-century, the United States has turned more and more frequently to the use of incarceration as a form of punishment. Sentencing policies and stricter laws requiring mandatory minimums for certain offenses, no matter the conditions of the offense, have boosted the incarceration rate in this country to staggering heights. The typical issues that affect America’s prison systems are reflected in Jennifer Gonnerman’s book, Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett. Elaine Bartlett’s life, along with the lives of surrounding family and friends, is forever changed by her 16 years of incarceration. Elaine Bartlett is only one of many Americans that have been wronged by the cruel and unusual punishments implemented by a society claiming to have a fair, balanced, and equal justice system. A fair and balanced justice system that convicts people who carries the right amount of drugs in weight to have a mandatory incarceration for a minimum of 15 years to life, yet those who commit murder or rape may receive a lesser sentence. There is also the issue of transitioning back into society after being incarcerated for so many years. Incarceration does not just punish the offender; the offender’s family and friends are also negatively affected by the conviction and imprisonment of a loved one. Children could be put in the system or need to be raised by other members in the family. This could lead the children to deviate down the same path as their parent who

Most girls that are arrested and detained have committed non-violent offenses, and they are usually not able to get the help that they need. Parents are the primary reporters of female status offenders in contrast to male status offenders that are reported by school or law officials (Donley, 2007; Godsoe, 2014). This shows that the girls may not actually be criminal, but that the parents are unable to manage the child.

It contributes to the limited body of literature on impact of incarceration of families of imprisoned adults. This also provides valuable information for the development of services and interventions to support children.

The author’s purpose is to convince us that children and incarcerated mothers have a right to see each other and no one should stop that. Testimony is

There is a fair amount of research surrounding parents being incarcerated, and the effects it can have on those they leave on the outside. Children with incarcerated parents can have quite a few factors working against them. This can cause behavioural and emotional issues (Merenstein, Tyson, Tilles, Keays, & Rufffolo, 2011). There is a need for social support from adult role models. This includes caregivers, teachers and other adults in the community activities they are involved in ( Luther, 2015; Merenstein, et al., 2011). One of the issues children who have one, or both, parents incarcerated face, is the stigma surrounding parental incarceration. This stigma can be from either peers, adults in the community and teachers. (Dellaire,

Assessing the consequences of our country’s soaring imprison rates has less to do with the question of guilt versus innocence than it does with the question of who among us truly deserves to go to prison and face the restrictive and sometimes brutally repressive conditions found there. We are adding more than one thousand prisoners to our prison and jail systems every single week. The number of women in prisons and jails has reached a sad new milestone. As women become entangled with the war on drugs, the number in prison has increased if not double the rate of incarceration for men. The impact of their incarceration devastates thousands of children, who lose their primary caregiver when Mom goes to prison.

Having a parent in jail also has a significant impact on children. Half of all men were the primary source of income for their children. Stats show that 1.1 million men behind bars are fathers and 120,000 women behind bars are mothers, that equals out to about 1 in every 28 children have a parent current in prison or jail. The Economic Mobility ProJect estimates that two factors influenced by parental incarceration have a direct impact on a child’s future employment status, these two factors are family income and the child’s

Child development is an umbrella term that includes social, emotional, and physical. There may be many instances in a child’s life that may put a hold on any or all of the aspects of development. Having one or both parents sentenced to a substantial amount of time in prison definitely has a negative impact on a child’s development. The bill, which will be further discussed, proposes the proper use of resources to ensure a healthy development of children whose parents have been incarcerated. Though no specific budget is discussed nor any specific programs, the ideas suggest by the bill can be highly effective, as supported by empirical research.

Rosalyn D. Lee, PhD, MPH, MA, Xiangming Fang, PhD, and Feijun Luo, PhD conducted a research study on the impact of parental incarceration on the physical and mental health of young adults. The dependent variables were the self-reported health diagnoses and the independent variable was parental incarceration. The researchers based the study on 14,800 participants in grades 7 through 12. The population included those who had both parents incarcerated, neither parent incarcerated, mother only incarcerated and father only incarcerated (Lee, Fang and Luo, 2018).