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Incarcerated parents and children effects
Incarcerated parents and children effects
The effect of a parent's incarceration on a child
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Should kids be allowed to see their parents? And what impact will it cause? In a study of a group of kids when asked about their parents being incarcerated many replied with “We’re not supposed to talk about him.” What does this mean? Does the kids have a terrible experience or is it traumatic to even think about them. Visiting incarcerated parents should not be allowed because prisons are a negative environment, the family is widely affected, and it has a long term impact emotionally on children. Visiting a loved one in prison can be a perilous subject. When someone visits a loved one in prison they have to go through a perilous process to be allowed inside the prison walls. This is is the process you will have to go threw; you have to go into a small room, show ID with child birth certificate only if they are too young to have ID, empty your pockets, got through a metal detector, then you get your items back, and through the process the officers examining your atiur to make sure you are wearing the right clothing, if not they will send you away. You are prohibited to wear gang affiliated colors, skirts, anything flashy or provocative (Weil “My First”). Once you finish the entering process you exit the room and end up outside to the front of the prison with fences on both sides and a concrete walkway. When you enter the prison you have to go through another metal detector then you enter a “lobby” some places have chairs or you just stand, …show more content…
A prison visit is very emotional and very stress full for a child. If the child is young enough the will not understand what is going on (Lynne “A Voice”). Only being able to touch a parent for a few seconds can cause them to be irritable and lead to crying. If your child causes problems the officers will escort you out and might not let you come back for a
Murray, J. (2005). The effects of imprisonment on families and children of prisoners Retrieved from http://www2.bgsu.edu/downloads/cas/file77089.pdf
When people are in prison, they cannot support their families. Inmates also can’t spend time with their family and their sons or daughters might turn towards crime. When families are split up, the offender’s family is less likely to succeed in the community. This might be because the remaining parent might not be able to handle all the pressure. The remaining parent might also not have a good job that can support the family so they will be in poverty.
When a person becomes a parent, their role in life undoubtedly changes. The person must become a teacher, a guide, and a helping hand in the life of the child. Research has shown that there is a distinct connection between how a child is raised and their overall developmental outcome. John Bowlby’s attachment theory emphasizes the importance of the regular and sustained contact between the parent-infant or parent-child relationship (Travis & Waul 2003). Yet, what happens when the only physical contact a child can share with their parent is a hand pressed on the shield of glass that separates the two? What happens when the last memory of their mother or father was from the corner of their own living room as they watched their parent become handcuffed? In 2007, there was an estimate of approximately 1.7 million children of incarcerated parents in the United States (Poehlmann, Dallaire, Loper & Shear 2010). Of those 1.7 million children, 58% of those children are under the age of 10, with the mean age being 8 (Travis & Waul 2003). The children of incarcerated parents are often moved from one family and one school to the next. The child must cope with this issue in home and in school, and may find it especially hard to cope with during school. Schools, however, can be a safe place for these children. This research explored the psychological effects of parent incarceration on the child, the school-based problems that occur as a result, and what educators can do to support children of incarcerated parents.
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 evident that the spouse, children, and grandparents of the family system will be impacted by the incarcerated individual’s situation.
Can you imagine having your parents incarcerated? I can, when I was 10 years old my father was incarcerated and at age 23 my mother was incarcerated. Parental incarceration impacts you as a child or a teen in so many ways due to only one parent or grandparent being able to raise the child without the other. Parental incarceration is a very dramatic event in a child's lifespan. Having a parent incarcerated can have an impact on a child's mental health, social life and educational needs. Studies show parental incarceration can be more traumatic to students than even a parent's death or divorce, and the damage it can cause to students' education, health, and social relationships puts them at higher risk of one day going to prison themselves.(Sparks,
The cells in which inmates are kept are very small; they have a toilet, a shelf, a desk and a bed that contains a thin mattress (Shalev, 2011). Inmates are not allowed to have physical contact with their visitors. In fact, they cannot even see them face to face in certain facilities. Inmates cannot participate in any work activities, and only if the facility offers it can they receive small amounts of educational programs on a television on a secured circuit (Shalev, 2011). The only time inmates are permitted to leave their cell is to exercise inside a caged enclosure for about an hour a day. Most cells contain a solid door with a single slot so that inmates may be cuffed or received their meals. Also, depending on the facility they may have a small rectangular window in their cell that is extremely small. The most common way that inmates communicate is through shouting because the cells are set up so that no contact can be made to other inmates.
Another factor would be the unfriendly environment of the jail and prison. The prison environment can be frightening and upsetting for children and may lead them to not want to return. The child welfare caseworker needs to help the caregiver know how to prepare the child for the visit, giving the child some idea of what to expect about the security procedures and a description of the facility and assuring the child that it is all right to talk about his or her reactions (Appendix 4.16, pg3). The most common is a negative relationship between the caregiver and the incarcerated parent, the caregiver may feel that any contact with the inmate may harm the child mentally and physically. Which leads to the caregiver cutting all ties with the incarcerated parent. The main goal of the caregiver is to provide a safe living environment for the child.
First you walk into the room with the guard sitting behind the window and wait for him to buzz us in. Then you walk into the visiting room where there was grey square plastic tables and black chairs. At the front of the room was a guard siting at the table watching over all of the visitors and inmates. Then in the back of the room there was two bathrooms, one for the visitors and the other for the inmates. My family and I are assigned a table and we wait for my dad to come in.
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.
“The Long Goodbye: Mother’s Day in Federal Prison”, written by Amanda Coyne depicts the struggles of parents and family members with the emotional trauma children go through due to the absence of their loved one. The story tugs the heart strings of readers with its descriptive account of Mother’s Day in a minimum security federal prison. Coyne describes the human emotions and truly gives an accurate account of what being in a visitation room is like. “The Long Goodbye: Mother’s Day in Federal Prison” makes the reader question the criminal justice system and convinces him or her to adjust their way of thinking towards the definition of criminalization through the logos, pathos, and ethos demonstrated throughout the text.
There are millions of adults in federal prison, but The United States is the only country in the world that condemns children to die in prison (Pequeneza, 2014). It’s sad to think about children being sentenced to life in prison, and frankly it is a disturbing and a scary fact to face. However, in recent years the U.S Supreme Court has made it illegal to charge juveniles with life sentencing for anything less than murder (Pequeneza, 2014). This new law gives children a second chance at life when they are finally released from prison. Many children are forced to be in a household that is not suitable for a developing child. Children are mistreated, neglected, abused, and other factors. These unfit situations that children are in make them more likely to become violent, and maybe end up in juvenile
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines Probation as a period of time given to someone who commits a crime and instead of being incarcerated are allowed to spend their sentence in the community based on conditions set aside by the courts. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/probation) The task was given to me to build the ultimate model of Probation Services. After careful consideration and great thought this is the route I decided to take. I believe that parents play a great role in some of the decisions their children make. The decisions children make today are a reflection of their parents. My focus on this probation model is to place both child and parent in an institution were they would undergo a period of restoration of family values, rehabilitation, parenting courses, academia and counselling. The ages of these juveniles will range between the ages of ten (10) to seventeen (17) years old.Therefore I stand for institutionalized probation and how this probation will assist in instilling family values.
children faced with the trauma of loss, they are also faced with a myriad of other
for youngsters who have a long history of convictions for less serious felonies for which the juvenile court disposition has not been effective” (qtd. in Katel).
The challenges of children who grow up with parents whom were incarcerated at some point in their childhood can have a major effect on their life. The incarceration of parents can at times begin to affect the child even at birth. Now with prison nurseries the impregnated mother can keep her baby during her time in jail. With the loss of their parent the child can begin to develop behavioral problems with being obedient, temper tantrums, and the loss of simple social skills. Never learning to live in a society they are deprived of a normal social life. “The enormous increase incarceration led to a parallel, but far less documented, increase in the proportion of children who grew up with a parent incarcerated during their childhood” (Johnson 2007). This means the consequences of the children of the incarcerated parents receive no attention from the media, or academic research. The academic research done in this paper is to strengthen the research already worked by many other people. The impact of the parent’s incarceration on these children can at times be both positive and negative. The incarceration of a parent can be the upshot to the change of child’s everyday life, behavioral problems, and depriving them a normal social life.