Parental Incarceration: Chapter Analysis

The purpose of the juvenile incarceration project is to gain insights into whether or not parental incarceration is related to juvenile incarceration. The research problem is the loss is the cost of incarceration to the state or society. Incarceration is expensive with costs to society for the crimes committed and the resulting confinement of the convicted offenders. This research hopes to diminish this problem by determining a correlation between juvenile offenders and whether or not their parents were previously or

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

After reading about the population of females in correction facilities, I came across the issue of incarcerating mothers. “Approximately 7 in 10 women under correctional sanction have minor children” (women offenders pg.7). Before reading this chapter, I have never put any importance to the challenge of sending mothers to prison. For the most part, I believe that judges and juries should consider the “motherhood” as a mitigating circumstance during a sentence. However, the age of the child and the crime should also play a role in the type of sentence given to a woman.

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.

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.

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

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

The safety of the youth in his incarceration depends on factors that may go way back to family and may be less related to (although supplementary to) institutional conditions as the Keeping Kids Safe (KKS) (2009) research study of Judy Finlay showed.

Since the late 1900’s incarceration rates have been rising constantly. Incarceration impacts other individuals that aren’t behind bars locked up in a cell. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1.5 million minors deal with parental incarceration every year (Harrison & Beck, 2006).This project will investigate/ observe the effects of parental incarceration on male juveniles. Young juveniles of prisoners appear to suffer from the difficult living environments due to lack of guardianship leading them to commit crimes and violent offenses. The main focus of this project is to validate and observe the behavior of juveniles whose parents are incarcerated. There would be two control groups to be evaluated; Juveniles that haven’t had their parents incarcerated, and those who have been incarcerated throughout their lifetimes. This study will use data from the analysis conducted from the office of state courts administrator juvenile office risk. These children would be observed to analyze if any anti-social behavior is depicted. It is reasonable to predict that juveniles, whose parents have been incarcerated throughout their lifetime, will demonstrate acts of violence and illegal behaviors towards society. Prisoners’ children are more accessible to violence since no parental supervision is acquired when the parents are locked up.

The emotional increment in the quantity of ladies in jail in this nation is a consequence of changes in criminal equity arrangement that were expected to 'really begin to tackle wrongdoing' and pay a 'war on medications'. The outcome of these strategies for ladies is from time to time said and even less is caught wind of their effect on youngsters. 76.4% of the ladies in State detainment facilities are moms contrasted with 59.6% of male detainees who are fathers. (As indicated by the Department of Justice). As a rule the offspring of detained men live with their moms some time recently, amid and after their fathers' imprisonment. At the point when moms are sent to jail, their kids are destined to live with a grandparent or other relative (75.2%).

Kids with imprisoned parents face a lot of societal problems related to behavior, financial needs, standards of living and stigmatization among others. The problems that the children face are enough to influence their future behavior and well-being. It is important to address the issues since the group of children is very special and vulnerable. Helping them will ensure that they grow up to become good and supportive citizens in their adulthood. Studies reveal that incarceration of parents has serious problems on children and the community as a whole. This particular study concentrated on the effects that the incarceration of parents will have on children. This topic is very important for researchers and society since it will help the society to solve the increasing problems that have been caused by delinquency behavior. Some children have been forced to get involved in criminal behavior due to lack of parents. Increasing the interactions and contacts between the parents and their children will help the society to reduce or minimize the issues. Succinctly, the increasing number of incarcerated parents in the United States of America and other countries around the world have serious effects on children.

Introduction According to Bowen’s (2013) family systems theory, individuals in a family unit are all interconnected and the system is comprised of interlocking connections (Bowen, 2013). Consequently, whenever an individual in a family system is experiencing a stressor or problem the other individuals in the system will be affected by the stressor and will experience a change in the family system (Bowen, 2013). Bowen (2013) suggests that this family system can be used to understand the dynamics of the family unit and explains that an individual’s behavior has a specific function in his or her own family system (Bowen, 2013). By taking into consideration this theory when looking at a family struggling with an incarcerated parent, it is

Boys who live without their fathers consistently score lower on a variety of moral indexes such as measures of internal moral judgment, guilt following transgressions, acceptance of blame, moral values and rule conformity. Girls who live without their fathers are more likely to cheat, lie, and not feel sorry after misbehaving. Both boys and girls are less likely to be able to delay gratification, have poor impulse control over anger and sexual gratification, and have a weaker sense of right and wrong.

Incarceration on individuals can either have a negative or positive effect on the outcome of a person’s life. There are many different trails that people go through when they are incarcerated. Depending on their situations, it can either help change them for the better or take them backwards. The question is does being incarcerated affect recidivism?

The Osborne Association helps with challenges that children face when it comes to having a parent incarcerated. (24) Some children are judged when a parent goes to prison. One example is the CEO of Osborn had her children’s father taken to prison, and her 6 year old’s friends canceled play dates when they heard of this (24). In addition to this challenge, other children bully them because of their parent going to prison. Another challenge is that some children blame themselves when a parent goes to prison, but sometimes they also blame the parent for putting them in that situation. When children blame themselves, sometimes they think “if I didn’t ask for an iPad maybe they wouldn’t be in prison (24). If children blame their parents for being incarcerated, they may not call the parent or visit them, so the parent isn’t involved