Children of Incarcerated Parents

For over centuries, the only form of punishment and discouragement for humans is through the prison system. Because of this, these humans or inmates, are sentenced to spend a significant part of their life in a confined, small room. With that being said, the prison life can leave a remarkable toll on the inmates life in many different categories. The first and arguably most important comes in the form of mental health. Living in prison with have a great impact on the psychological part of your life. For example, The prison life is a very much different way of life than what us “normal” humans are accustomed to living in our society. Once that inmate takes their first step inside their new society, their whole mindset on how to live and communicate changes. The inmate’s psychological beliefs about what is right and wrong are in questioned as well as everything else they learned in the outside world. In a way, prison is a never ending mind game you are playing against yourself with no chance of wining. Other than the mental aspect of prison, family plays a very important role in an inmate’s sentence. Family can be the “make it or break it” deal for a lot of inmates. It is often said that “when a person gets sentenced to prison, the whole family serves the sentence.” Well, for many inmates that is the exact case. While that prisoner serves their time behind bars, their family is on the outside waiting in anticipation for their loved ones to be released. In a way, the families

“When parents are imprisoned it is not only they who suffer, but also their offspring.” “Children of incarcerated parents are more likely to drop out of school; misbehave in school; develop learning disabilities.” These children are acting out of anger, sadness, and lack of relationship with mom or dad. Whenever a parent is missing out of the household it plays a major role on the child in every way possible; academically, socially , and even emotionally. This only leads to these kids being thrown into the streets, doing drugs, in the graveyard, jail or prison. Every child needs a father and mother in their life to guide them along the way, be there for them to cheer them on and see them grow into an adult. But cops and higher officials do not care about any family or children that is not their own. They also don’t care about you if you do not look similar or have the same social status. It's like they look down on us as if we are beneath them. That is a pure example of selfishness. So to the policeman this is basically a repeated cycle; lock up mom or dad then the kid will go astray and start getting his or herself into illegal trouble, soon enough being locked up as well. And because of this cycle it seems like the norm thing to kids and even

The United States’ ever-expanding prison and jail population has brought about many questions regarding the side-effects of mass incarceration, namely involving the effects on the children and families from which those incarcerated are removed. Regardless of the perspectives on the appropriate position of incarceration in the criminal justice system, imprisonment disrupts many positive and nurturing relationships between parents and their children. In fact, more than 1.7 million children have a parent who is incarcerated in a state or federal prison as of 2007 (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008). These youths are at risk for developing behavior and school problems in addition to insecure attachment relationships. Parental incarceration, which may also be coupled with economic disadvantage and inconsistent living arrangements (Geller, Garfinkel, Cooper, & Mincy, 2009) can be an extremely difficult experience for children. It should come as no surprise that families with children suffer economic strain and instability when a parent is imprisoned, considering how each parent in today’s world typically needs to set aside time to earn an income to support their family, and most are unable to support their homes on one income. While it may be considered intrusive to some to intervene in the lives of children and families with incarcerated parents, research has suggested that there are positive societal benefits to intervening in the lives of incarcerated parents and their

Being the child of an incarcerated parent has substantial amounts of negative influences on youth today. As young children, many consider their parents as role models. Someone who they can confide in, someone who will preserve them, and someone who will guide them through life. For most youngsters having an incarcerated parent, means that their admirable example in life is absent. Not having a parent present in one's childhood leads to innumerable negative outcomes and impacts.

We know much more about incarcerated mothers than we know about incarcerated fathers. For example, over 70% of female inmates are mothers of dependent children under the age of eighteen. Almost 90% of incarcerated females are single parents and heads of households. According to some estimates, a quarter of a million children are separated from their parents each year by jail and prison (Glick & Neto, 1977; McGowan & Blumenthal, 1978; McPeek & Tse, 1988; U.S. Department of Justice, 1992). We do not have this kind of information about incarcerated fathers. The lack of statistics concerning fathers in prison may suggest that they are a forgotten group.

When someone is incarcerated it not only affects them but it takes a toll on their family. For example, men who are incarcerated and leave children behind. This affects the household and its finances. This is due to the fact that in some households men are the primary breadwinner. Children of women who are incarcerated sometimes end up homeless or in foster homes. This has a negative effect on the children because they lack the guidance and basic fundamentals a parent provides. Children who have a parent in jail are emotionally affected because there's no balance within their life, especially if their parent is always in an out of jail. Some kids start doing poorly in school, acting out and sometimes get involved in criminal

However, inmates with children are perhaps the most affected by the pains of imprisonment as the separation and loss of contact to these children effect both the parents, children and all loved ones close by. According to a study done by Joseph Murray (2005) titled, The effects of imprisonment on families and children of prisoners, "imprisonment of a partner can be emotionally devastating and practically debilitating", causing a "loss of income, social isolation, difficulties of maintaining contact, deterioration in relationships, and extra burdens of childcare can compound a sense of loss and hopelessness for prisoners’ partners (para 7)”.

When someone’s parent is put into prison, a new issue is added to the many that are already on that person’s plate. This is illustrated well when Goffman says, “we’re asking kids who live in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods, who have the least amount of family resources, who attend the country’s worst schools… were asking these kids to walk the thinnest possible line to basically never do anything wrong”(How we’re). The kids who are dealing with many issues are slowly being crushed by all the issues they go through with one being added each moment. They only do the things that they do to survive and the judicial system is not helping because it seems to target these kids. J. Mark Eddy, a licensed Psychologist, and Jean Mollenkamp Kjellstrand, from Columba University, states that “The incarceration of a parent is not often the start of the problems for a child and family, but rather a continuation… characterized by poverty, social disadvantage, unstable home life, substance abuse difficulties, mental health problems, abuse, trauma, and community violence” (552). This is just saying when kids are put through all these difficulties, they are more likely to fill that hurt with drugs, hurting someone or themselves, crimes, and even suicide. All these things can cause emotional trauma because it was already hard enough to live happy then now their parent went to jail and just made it even tougher. It just seems as if weights are slowly being added to them until they can’t resist to do something illegal. Neglecting the kids that have parents that are in prison will only cause them to replace their parents when the time comes. According to Richard J. Coley, the director of the Educational Testing Service Center for Research on Human Capital and Education, and Paul E. Barton, an education writer and consultant, children who have a parent who is

Especially if that someone is Black. It’s statically proven that everyday a black person is put into prison more than the average white person. As stated before, “African Americans are incarcerated in state prisons across the country at more than five times the rate of whites, and at least ten times the rate in five states” (The Sentencing Project). After so many years there are still ways to bring down the black community. Mostly among the people going to jail in their community are African American Males. A Father is most of the time the holder and keeper of the family, he’s the one who holds everything down, between working hard at a job or doing the little things at home simply raising his children. So, when he’s missing in a child’s life it really takes a tole on the whole entire family. Leaving the mother to do everything trying to provide and watch her kids at the same time. It’s not easy to do both at all which leaves room for kids to do things on their own and in mostly a little boys case leads them down the wrong path into being introduced to drugs, gangs, and violence. An article states, “Many of those who escape do so for one generation only: as things now are, their children may have to run the gauntlet all over again. That is not the

stress and adverse interpersonal issues such as fear of getting close to anyone, lack of

On December 31, 2005, 2,320,359 people were incarcerated in the United States. Of these inmates, 107,518 were female. As of 2004, the most recent date for which statistics are available, it is estimated that there are approximately 2.8 million children of incarcerated parents. Of this number, approximately 320,000 are children of incarcerated mothers. The problem with these estimates is that at best, they are an educated guess. Most states lack uniform methods of recording the demographic information regarding an inmate’s children. Moreover, many inmates may choose not to identify their children for the fear of the possibility

Both Mariner and Bernstein’s articles reflect on the difficulties male inmates face within the U.S. prison system. While Nell Bernstein’s “Relocation Blues” discusses the challenges fathers face in keeping in touch with their children while in jail, Joanne Mariner’s “Deliberate Indifference” highlights the horrors of prison-rape conducted by male inmates. Despite whether one is a victim or a potential threat, or a good father or a bad

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,

One change in a family system experiencing incarceration that affects grandparents is the difficulty maintaining family ties with the incarcerated individual. Travis, McBride, and Solomon, (2005) state that factors such as the presence of security guards, the time it takes to visit inmates, difficulty of coordinating visits, and geographic location of the prison all hinder the ability for family members to maintain ties with the incarcerated family member (Travis, McBride, & Solomon, 2005). These particular challenges in visitation are difficult for family members, such as grandparents, to

“I used to believe are our future but now I realize that this, sadly isn’t the reality. Through laws that treat kids like adults, the government is throwing away the future of children in this country.” (D. Lee) An estimated 200,000 juveniles are tried as adults. The term juvenile refers to any young person under the age of 18. For most states in the United States, the age of majority is 18. While there are many things that juveniles are unable to do until they reach the age of 18, being charged as an adult for a crime is not amongst those things in some states. Juveniles are not allowed to vote, drink alcohol, or sign a legal contract, yet they can be charged and treated like adults when it comes to them being