(b) Age of child In Victoria, children are permitted to live with their mothers in prison until

These programs have effectively begun setting incarcerated mothers up for success. The prison nurseries that are in place have taken the time to educate staff and set forth more education programs for the mothers (Yoho &Backes, 2015, p. 42). The emphasis has been focused on teaching this women how to be proper mothers for their children and creating a bond that will affect their children outside of the prison. Creating this bond has been found to be “later in life responsible for successful peer relationships and the ability to better cope with life stressors” (as cited in Jbara, 2012, p. 2). Although not a guarantee for the child to stay out of prison unlike their parents it is a good indicator that it is less

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.

Research has revealed that a father’s involvement in his child’s life greatly improves the child’s chances for success. Helping incarcerated fathers foster stronger connections with their children (where appropriate) can have a positive effect for children. What is needed is stronger training of social workers and prison personnel to help males with bonding and effective parenting skills. Prisons also need to work on reorganizing visiting spaces in prisons because they are not always

Some of the children become dependent on the government sustenance. Incarcerated women often find that their actions hurt their family “especially of women, destroys the family network. When the men got to prison, potential role models are lost. When women go to prison, families most often fall apart” (Hotelling) while in an institution they might never see their children. As statistics continuously provides that children lived with and cared for by their

The purpose of this research seeks answers to the question: “How do children experience loss and trauma after their parents are incarcerated?”

The number of children with incarcerated parents continues to increase, thus the long-term ramifications of parental incarceration has become a topic of interest to many concerned people. In addition to understanding the effects of parental incarceration on children, school officials and penal institutions must be involved in support services available to incarcerated parents and their families.

The International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies article titled, “Incarcerated Mothers and Fathers: How their Absences Disrupt Children’s High School Graduation” by Huynh-Hohnbaum, Bussell, and Lee (2015) details a great deal of research on how parental incarceration affects the children in regards to education. Lately, along with the entire justice system, parental incarceration has also been scrutinized for its effects on the children of incarcerated parents and how well they do in school as well as the other effects an incarcerated parent has on other aspects of a child’s life. Huynh-Hohnbaum, Bussell and Lee (2015) point out that having an incarcerated mother seems to have a greater effect on a child, but having either parent

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,

Children whose parents have been detained and imprisoned confront a variety of difficulties. The behavioral consequences can be severe, absent of decisive intervention, emotional withdrawal, failure in school, delinquency and risk of intergenerational incarceration. However, these children appear to become misplaced and unrecognized by the criminal justice system (Dallaire, Zeman, & Thrash, 2015). Even though a significant number of children are present at the time of their mother’s arrest, law enforcement usually does not ask upon arrest whether a woman offender has children nor do sentencing judiciaries or correctional agencies ever inquire about the matter. Since agencies do not gather information regarding the children, it is vague just how many children are affected when sentencing these women (Dallaire, Zeman, & Thrash, 2015).

While being a father in prison, it is still necessary to establish a parental connection with their son or daughter. It has been said that it is most beneficial to have both parents in the child’s life. They must create their own role even though they are behind bars. A study showed that most incarcerated fathers have feelings of “helplessness and difficulties in being a ‘good father (Rosenburg 2009).” There are many reasons why the fathers may feel this way. A lot of mothers refuse to bring the children to a prison or jail, but a lot of mothers may have a problem with finances, transportation, or time. There are strict rules and codes to follow when visiting a prisoner, so it would be difficult for a child to act normally with their father. Waiting times can be long, children will be frisked, and chances are it will be hot, dirty, and crowded. The caregiver may say that is emotionally scarring and the visiting can have a bad influence on the child. When a father is sent away, he is not sent to a prison in accordance with the family’s home. For those that are close, they are lucky, but if a person is in the state’s Department of Corrections, they can be sent anywhere in the state. When these fathers are taken away, the children receive little or no support on how to deal with

If charges are dropped or alternative sentencing is utilized, an individual may only be away from home for a few days or weeks. However, if an individual is convicted on severe charges, they could be imprisoned for many years. Although varying sentence lengths will have varying effects on families, all sentence lengths for parents will likely disrupt the family structure in ways that negatively affect the incarcerated parents, their children, and/or the parents or guardians caring for the children. Eddy and Poehlmann (2010) argue that, “Each parent-child separation represents moments of childhood that cannot be put on hold and missed life experiences that may be crucial for a child’s well-being and development” (p. xiii). The following literature review delves into research on the effects that parental incarceration has on the family unit and identifies factors which lessen or intensify the impact of such effects. Finally, I conclude the literature review by applying the presented research to the Montgomery County Collaboration Council’s Creating Healthy Bonds program, noting the extent to which areas of the programmatic structure do or do not address the effects of parental

Neglecting to consider or consult children of imprisoned parents at all stages of the criminal justice process – from arrest to trial to imprisonment to release to rehabilitation into the community – can result in their needs, rights and best interests being overlooked or

In relation to the support the professionals could provide to families, the findings were consistent with those of Morgan et al (2012). The education professionals appeared to currently offer the most support to families and were able to identify multiple ways in which they have previously worked with both children and carers. These interventions have included one-to-one sessions with prisoner 's children, emotional support for caregivers, advocacy in professional meetings and referrals to other agencies. It was clear from the findings that the home school liaison officer had the most experience through working directly with five cases of parental imprisonment. This experience is presumably gained through being a frontline practitioner within a school as their role will be to support children and families with any issues they may be experiencing and work as a gate keeper to other services. Interestingly, the head teacher within the same school had only encountered one case of parental imprisonment. This limited involvement may stem from the demanding nature of the professionals role in managing all members of staff and policies. Potentially cases may have needed to reach a certain threshold to receive attention of the head teacher within the school. This finding has reaffirmed the importance of early help strategies and the important role professionals such as home school liaison officers can have in supporting families both

In South Africa, there are two avenues for residential youth confinement: child and youth care centers or prisons. The former provides support services for youth with varying needs such as children with substance abuse problems, children living in overcrowded homes and so on. This is as a temporary measure and is only advocated as a measure of last resort. In prisons, a child under the age of 14 is ineligible to serve a prison sentence and can only serve the minimum amount of time as deemed necessary by the judge; this is in stark contrast to the United States juvenile system where there is variation in the age limits, which depends on the state lines. North Carolina’s minimum age is at 6-years; others use the age of seven with a majority using the age of seventeen. Juvenile supervision can be further extended its jurisdiction for individuals who were tried under a juvenile system well into their twenties.

The aims of the research were to explore the awareness professionals have of the adversities families may experience when loved one is incarcerated. In addition to this awareness the study went on to explore what options of support these professionals currently offer to prisoner 's families and their perceptions of the barriers to support services. The study firstly explored previous literature surrounding the adversities of prisoner 's families to identify which professionals would be most beneficial to meeting their needs. Through this approach, it was possible to hypothesise that education, welfare and social work would be strong focus areas for this research. Semi-structured interviews were utilised to explore the knowledge and viewpoints a sample of one home school liaison officer, a primary school head teacher, a looked after children 's social worker and a welfare rights officer. The data was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to identify codes and themes within the data. The analytical software NVIVO was used to organise the data. From this analysis it has been possible to conclude that all the professionals had a good awareness of the adversities prisoner 's families may experience and were able to draw upon their knowledge and experiences of ways in which they would work to support both the adults and children within the families. This exploration has also highlighted the important