Parental incarceration can affect many aspects of a child’s life, including emotional and behavioral well-being, family stability and financial circumstances. The growing number of children with an incarcerated parent represents one of the most significant collateral consequences of the record prison population in the U.S. Children who have an incarcerated parent require support from local, state, and federal systems to serve their needs. Kids pay both the apparent and hidden costs while their loved one serves out sentences in jail or prison. Families are often forced to choose between supporting an incarcerated loved one and meeting basic needs for their families and themselves. For many families the loss of income from the relative who goes to jail or prison results in deep poverty and can last for generations to come. Alongside physical separation, the …show more content…
In addition to improving chances of successful reentry, maintaining contact with family during incarceration has been shown to significantly reduce chances of recidivism. The separation caused by incarceration as well as the barriers to sustaining meaningful contact while incarcerated have been shown to impede reentry and create profound challenges to family stability. Parental incarceration increases the risk of children living in poverty or experiencing household instability, independent of any other factors present in a young person’s life. The impacts of incarceration on economic stability, health, education, and well-being also disproportionately affect young people who live in communities devastated by decades of unjust criminal justice policies that have had strong intergenerational impacts. Parental incarceration often displaces children, leaving other family or community members as the primary support system for these children, or pushing children into foster care or unstable
Most black Americans are under the control of the criminal justice today whether in parole or probation or whether in jail or prison. Accomplishments of the civil rights association have been challenged by mass incarceration of the African Americans in fighting drugs in the country. Although the Jim Crow laws are not so common, many African Americans are still arrested for very minor crimes. They remain disfranchised and marginalized and trapped by criminal justice that has named them felons and refuted them their rights to be free of lawful employment and discrimination and also education and other public benefits that other citizens enjoy. There is exists discernment in voting rights, employment, education and housing when it comes to privileges. In the, ‘the new Jim crow’ mass incarceration has been described to serve the same function as the post civil war Jim crow laws and pre civil war slavery. (Michelle 16) This essay would defend Michelle Alexander’s argument that mass incarcerations represent the ‘new Jim crow.’
Travis, Jeremy & Waul, Michelle. (2003). Prisoners Once Removed: The Impact of Incarceration and Reentry on Children, Families, and Communities. The Urban Institute Press: Washington, D.C.
In 2007 there were approximately 77,200 fathers and 65,600 mothers incarcerated in the United States (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2007). As our society continues to grow, our jail and prison population are growing as well. When a parent or guardian is taken into custody the juvenile (child) is taken and released to a relative or child protective services. The children are either given to a close family member or a surrogate parent, meaning a foster home. This may have an emotional impact on the juvenile involved, which may lead them to committing delinquent acts. The children sometimes feel they are left to fend for themselves emotionally and the stress of these emotions are left upon the guardian at the time. These intense sufferings sometimes leave the juveniles in a harmful mental state resembling depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and feelings of abandonment from their parents/guardians. Children with incarcerated parents are five times more likely than their peers to commit crimes (Texas Department of Criminal Justice, 2008).
Gender related issues within U.S. Prisons initially involve consideration of the family. Family bonds are often broken whenever a convicted parent is sentenced to jail, according to Nell Bernstein’s article “Relocation Blues.” However, as stated by Carol Fennelly, “There was an outcry about mothers being separated from their children, but nobody bothered to ask what would happen to the dads and their relationship with their kids,” (109). Due to overcrowding, Fennelly explains how convicted fathers are constantly being moved into prisons far from their families, mainly because they do not seem to share that special bond a mother shares with her children; however, this is not always the case. Fennelly’s contribution of using Microsoft Ne...
Easterling and Johnson. (2012). Understanding Unique Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children: Challenges, Progress, and Recommendations. Journal of Marriage and Family, 342-356.
The United States of America has the world’s highest incarceration rates, for several reasons. The United States of America doesn’t necessarily possess any unique strict laws in comparison to other countries of the world, yet we still have the highest incarceration rate in the world. More federal level and state level prisons are built in order to control and hold more prisoners because most are reaching its full capacity. The United States of America’s “crime rates” increased about 40 years ago when there became a new focus in the areas of crime. The President of the United States of America at the time Richard Nixon used the term “a war on drugs” in order to shed light on public health due to substance abuse. Initially, these policies created
The population of people entering the prison systems nationwide is increasing exponentially. Often times, it is due to the living conditions in which they return to such as facing the same poverty, limited prospects and minimal network connections that make them turn to crime to survive. For obvious reasons, income is the solution to many of their problems which can only be obtained with their “by any means necessary” mindset. Prison has almost become a second home for recurring inmates a...
Krisberg, B. A. & Temin, C. E. (2001). The plight of children whose parents are in prison. National Council on Crime Delinquency. Available:F:USERSEveryoneWEBSITE ARTICLESChildren of Incarcerated Parents Newsletter.wpd
When a parent is incarcerated, his or her family must find a way to make ends meet without a necessary source of income Additionally, even a minor criminal record comes with significant consequences that can serve as lifelong barriers to getting out of poverty. For example, people with criminal records face substantial barriers to employment, housing, education, public assistance, and building good credit. More than 90 percent of employers now use background checks in hiring, and even an arrest without a conviction can prevent an individual from getting a job. Furthermore, a lifetime ban for individuals with felony drug convictions on receiving certain types of public assistance persists in more than half of U.S. states, making subsistence even more difficult for individuals seeking to regain their footing, and their
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.
Overcrowding of prisons due to mass incarceration is among one of the biggest problems in America, mass incarceration has ruined many families and lives over the years.America has the highest prison population rate , over the past forty years from 1984 until 2014 that number has grown by four hundred percent .America has four percent of the world population ,but twenty-five percent of the world population of incarcerated people Forty one percent of American juveniles have been or going to be arrested before the age of 23. America has been experimenting with incarceration as a way of showing that they are tough on crime but it actually it just show that they are tough on criminals. imprisonment was put in place to punish, criminals, protect society and rehabilitate criminals for their return into the society .
This time together in prison aids with the early mother-child bonding which is paramount for the lifelong success of the child. It helps the mother be more maturing while reducing their recidivism rate, and because the mothers can raise their children in a safer environment compared to the streets with no assistance. The mother-child bond is a uniquely powerful bond that must be established for the ultimate well-being of the child. Through these means, allowing mothers to serve time with their babies in prison is a beneficial alternative than raising them on the cold, dangerous, and rough streets. In the end, what is best for the child must be the primary goal, and mothers know
There is a plethora of data within the last 10-15 years that repeatedly show family, friends, and entire communities or neighborhoods being drastically affected by the consequences of mass incarceration as well. The data focus primarily on the effects on the partners, children, families, friends, and caregivers of those incarcerated; particularly the economic, emotional, and personal relationships between incarcerated individuals and those the data also
Following maternal imprisonment, if children don’t have a trusted caregiver they enter the Child welfare system and go into Foster care homes. Black children of incarcerated parent are becoming overrepresented in the child welfare system, and by 2012 they represented 30 percent of the nation’s foster care population (Robert, 2012). Roberts describes the Foster care system as a significant means to support black children however, it comes with the high prize that requires “poor mothers to relinquish custody of their children in exchange for the state support needed to care for them” (2012). Correspondingly, foster care becomes the only reasonable and available solution for children whose mothers are incarcerated. Similarly, kinship foster care
A large burden is placed on families when youth are incarcerated. There is not only the pain of being separated, but it also prevents families from being involved in the juvenile’s life, which is a barrier to the child’s recovery, future, and