Incarcerated Parents Essay

1231 Words3 Pages

How people mature into grownups is directly affected by the moments they experience as children and young adults. Most of what children learn happens at home through their parents. Estimates indicate that more than 1.3 million children in the United States have mothers who are in jail, prison, or on parole, and most affected children are less than 10 years old (Mumola as cited in; Poehlmann). That information leads into the research question, what are the effects incarcerated mothers have on their children? Do those children develop and mature just as their peers do? I hypothesize that: the offspring of incarcerated mothers are more at risk for intellectual problems than their peers. Children’s Family Environments and Intellectual Outcomes …show more content…

“Although nearly 90% of children remain with their mothers when fathers go to prison, grandparents usually care for children when mothers are incarcerated” (Johnson & Waldfogel, 2002; Snell, 1994 as cited in; Poehlmann). This shows that the family structure is more drastically upset when the mother is imprisoned versus the father. This also shows that just losing one parent while staying in the same environment is easier to self-adjust back into equilibrium than it is to fully change and integrate into another household. While the mother is in prison, the child is now in the care of someone else and where that child is, is crucial to their development. This explains that a disrupt in family structure can impact a child’s skills that are necessary to a positive development, such as reading and math skills and the ability to focus in class to learn. Emily Durkheim’s structural functionalism theory can be used to further explain this topic. A child’s family is an organism, no matter that typicality of it’s makeup. Every person has a role in the structure and when a mother is incarcerated that disrupts the system and the children are moved into a new structure, the process towards equilibrium can be tough and in some cases detrimental to their development as they are exposed to more intellectual

Show More
Related

  • America's War on Drugs - The Prison Industrial Complex

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    Murray, J. (2005). The effects of imprisonment on families and children of prisoners Retrieved from http://www2.bgsu.edu/downloads/cas/file77089.pdf

    Read More

  • Community Supervision of Law Violators vs. Incarceration

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Article Review: Motherhood As Punishment By Lynne Haney

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the reading by Lynne Haney, “Motherhood as Punishment: The Case of Parenting in Prison”, Haney decided to focus on analyzing a facility that allows mothers to parent from prison. She analyzed what it meant for mothers to have to parent in prison. Specifically she wanted to investigate why it seemed that this program seemed to promise a new alternative, in order to reunify family. However, through her observations she saw that motherhood was being undermined and if anything the mothers had less power, even though the program promised more. She specifically discusses four main points in the article that are as follows: Motherhood is undermined, subsumed, punished, and finally how she observed parenting from mass incarceration.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Parole And Prison Reentry

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    When prisoners are released from prison they rely on their family members as much as they can when they are first released. Supported by Annie Casey she stated “Two months after their release, a strong majority of released prisoners in Maryland (80%) and Illinois (88%) were living with a family member.” This statement can conclude that when prisoners are released from incarceration they are heavily reliable on their families for financial support. There is a difference of who the prisoner lives with when returning home and it can effect whether the prisoner returns to prison when Casey states, “Studies [conclude] that men that end up living with wives and children [happen to do] better than those who either lived alone or returned to live with a parent (Casey 1).” This statement proves that when men return home they have a better chance of staying out of trouble when they live with their wife and child compared to living alone or with a parent; but why is that? I believe that when spouses and children are present in the household the prisoner feels obligated to take care of them and support them when they return compared to living with parents the person may slip into bad habits because they are only going to have to look after themselves instead of taking care of a

    Read More

  • Prison Programs For Families of Incarcerated Persons

    1697 Words  | 4 Pages

    About one child in 50 in the United States currently has an incarcerated parent, but ensuing attachment disruptions for children depend substantially on the parent’s gender (Bretherton, 2011, p. 18). When fathers are imprisoned (by far the most common occurrence), 88% of the children continue to be cared for by their mothers (Bretherton, 2011, p. 18). Only 37% of fathers care for at least one of their children under these circumstances (Bretherton, 2011, p. 18).When mothers are incarcerated, children are most likely to live with a grandmother or aunt with whom they may or may not have a close relationship (Bretherton, 2011, p. 18). The majority of children whose mothers serve prison sentences not only face separation from the person most likely to be their principal attachment figure (Bretherton, 2011, p...

    Read More

  • Parent Incarceration Essay

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • Effects Of Mass Incarceration In Education

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    The writer’s main goals was to persuade that mass incarceration is huge problem for the academics of children whose parents are incarcerated. Melinda D. Anderson wrote the article toward the criminal justice system and audience that are against mass incarceration. People who have families that are in jails and unintentional audience who read news regarding this issue. Several different people each day are facing problems regarding incarceration. They’re people who have their parents, brothers, sister in jail. The writer is trying to prove the point that having those people in jail is creating hardship for families and it needs to be stopped. The Students who have their parents in jail is causing them to lose not only their parents but also their life because of that fact without their parents, the children do not have a source of income, which leads to being not able to eat, study or perhaps live in safe

    Read More

  • Juvenile Delinquency And Family Dynamics Essay

    727 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is an undenialble biological fact of life that to exist one must have a biological mother and a biological father, however after the point of conception nothing is certain about how that child will be raised. Some children are raised by foster parents – people who have absolutely no biological relationship to the child – some children have two mothers, some have two fathers… Frequently children are raised in some combination of stepparents, half-sisters, cousins, grandmothers, and whatever other family members are available to rear the child. It is long past the time where a mother and a father would raise a child except for the rare exception. This untraditional makeup of families has a great impact on the child’s successes and failures, as do traditional families which may be traditional in makeup but deal with several confounding factors from differing communication styles to poverty, to more severe abuse and neglect. Oftentimes there is an almost direct connection to an intact family versus a broken family and the type of juvenile delinquency that the children raised in these environments perpetrate. Recognizing the common patterns of family dynamics which

    Read More

  • Children of Incarcerated Parents

    1829 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Children In Prison

    1993 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Prison Nurseries

    1550 Words  | 4 Pages

    It is important to remember there are several factors to consider when dealing with the subject of prison nurseries. From the medical costs of maintaining both the mothers and their newborns in prison, to the liability of how a prison setting may hinder the infant’s development, determining the pros and cons it is not an easy task. A five-year study on infants raised in a prison nursery (Byrne at al., 2010) showed that infants can be raised securely attached to their mothers, even in a prison setting. However, this study also concludes by stating that the development of attachment relationship is a fragile one and ongoing. It requires the participation of not only the mothers, but also of the future caregivers. This study also acknowledges that it was limited by the small nu...

    Read More

  • Essay On Family Incarceration

    1121 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Incarcerated Parents and Their Children

    2288 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Adult Prison Essay

    1551 Words  | 4 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Juvenile Detention Centers Essay

    805 Words  | 2 Pages

    Juvenile detention centers are places kids are sent to that are up to eighteen years old because they have done some act that violates the law. These facilities are small and designed to look like a school setting rather than a prison and it insures that the juveniles pose no harm to the outside world. Their ability to harm themselves or others are limited since there are teachers, officers, councilors, and other staff within the facilities. The detention centers are necessary and helpful because it provides adolescents with variety of services, helps change their behavior, and it helps develop insight.

    Read More

More about Incarcerated Parents Essay

Open Document