Essay On Family Incarceration

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

financial impacts of incarceration place tremendous strain on families, breaking ties and weakening the relationships incarcerated individuals need to get back on track after their sentence is complete. Families struggled to cover basic expenses like rent and food, but endured these sacrifices because failure to pay fees and fines can send incarcerated individuals back to prison or jail. Also, after incarceration they might face termination of parental rights because their children have been in the foster care system beyond the time allowed by law.

The arrest of a parent can be highly traumatic to a child, yet to understand the impact of the incarceration process on children it is necessary to consider separately the short-term effects of the arrest and separation of the child from the parent, the impact of the unavailability of the parent to the child during the period of incarceration, and the effects both positive and negative of reunion after the incarceration period. Prisoner re-entry also can be challenging and stressful for children. Children grow, change and often form relationships with new parental figures during a parent’s incarceration. These parental figures often are reluctant to allow a child to re-establish a relationship with a parent upon release. Such family conflicts can destabilize already fragile families and leave children confused and torn. More important, the return of a violent offender can increase the risk that a child will be subjected or exposed to domestic violence.
A key factor explaining the limited contact is that incarcerated parents are generally housed far from home. Many children were in single parent homes and are then cared for by a grandparent or other relative, if not in foster care. If family is available to take dependent children when a parent is incarcerated, it is often grandparents. They may be physically, emotionally, and financially inadequate to provide sufficiently for the displaced children. And in some cases, due to substance abuse and other factors, incarcerated parents had either not lived with their children or not provided a secure environment for them. Following release from prison both parents and children face challenges in reuniting their families. Parents have to cope with the difficulty of finding employment and stable housing while also reestablishing a relationship with their children. One such claim is that children of incarcerated parents are six times more likely than other children to be incarcerated as adults. Children who live in stable households with nurturing caregivers during their parents’ incarceration are likely to fare better than children who experience family instability as a result of a parent’s confinement. Foster care, in particular, carries with it the risk of multiple placement changes and loss of connection to school, community, friends, siblings and extended family. Maintaining family contact during incarceration can be beneficial to both children and their parents. It is generally thought that maintaining parent-child contact through personal visits during incarceration is important for the well-being of many children, although little empirical evidence exists on that point. Visiting is important in maintaining parent-child relationships and increases the likelihood of successful reunification after release.
Upon release, formerly incarcerated individuals face significant barriers accessing critical resources like housing and employment that they need to survive and move forward. When returning offenders can find and keep legitimate employment, they are more likely to be able to pay restitution to their victims, support their children and avoid crime. When inmates return home, they are suddenly confronted with all of the demands and responsibilities of everyday life, as well as the repercussions of their prior choices. On top of these challenges, many inmates emerge with substantial financial obligations, including child support, restitution and other court-related fees. Incarcerated parents also face the challenge of developing a means by which to reunite with their children. This often necessitates securing the economic resources necessary to care for children and providing family counseling in appropriate cases. To address the issues presented by these developments policymakers should consider a range of programmatic and policy changes to minimize the harm caused to these children and to do so in ways that are consistent with public safety. Many parents who are discharged from prisons intend to reunite with their minor children, but may not anticipate the difficulties associated with doing so. Former inmates face immense challenges, both internal and external, to build productive lives for themselves, including finding jobs, housing and health care and avoiding further involvement with the criminal justice system.
The importance of maintaining contact with family throughout incarceration is well understood and accepted.

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

situations.
Most people in America would agree that it is in societies and the economy’s best interest to reduce crime rates and the resulting numbers of people behind bars. However, given the fact that so many people do end up in prison, we also are concerned with the serious repercussions for them, their children and families, and broader society. Intervening in the lives of incarcerated parents and their children to preserve and strengthen positive family connections can yield positive societal benefits in the form of reduced recidivism, less intergenerational criminal justice system involvement, and promotion of healthy child development.