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Negative effects of solitary confinement
Negative effects of solitary confinement
Effect of incarceration on inmates
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Over the past few decades, an increase in incarceration has occurred. During the 1990’s, America’s prison population increased by half as well as the number of children with a parent in prison. By 2002, 1 in 45 minor children had a parent in prison. This continuous increase has a tremendous effect on families, especially when children are involved, due to prisoners being separated from their loved ones. Incarcerated parents are forced to learn a new way of life, such as not being a part of their children’s lives, while their children must learn to live with an absent parent and accept an alternated support system that may remove them from the only environment that they know. Additionally, research has shown how families who suffer from incarceration
policies pass the effects down to the next generation, which results in the children engaging in criminal behavior and following an incarcerated family member’s footsteps. As we can see, having a parent who is incarcerated has several negative effects on children and their future depends on the quality of their family life. As for the prisoners, being detached from their spouses and children will higher their chances of conducting more crime or reentering prison after their release. This creates a cycle that needs to be stopped. If research has shown the negative effects of incarceration on prisoners and their children, why are incarceration policies still the same. Prisoners need more access to their families, such as additional phone calls and visiting hours. This will benefit the prisoners as well as their families. I think is crucial for America to reconsider their incarceration policies for the sake of American families.
“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.
The United States has a long history of racial problems, starting during the times of slavery, and discrimination is still seen in the present-day. Looking back on history allows us to create parallels between the past and present giving us the opportunity to see what will happen before it actually does. Since this problem has continued to exist, certain patterns have recurred. Similar issues come up in every era, unfortunately, but we are able to get a sense of what may happen if theses problems continue as those of the past. In “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, descriptions of slavery and the Jim Crow South are used to show the effects of years of injustice on minority
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.
3) In Throwaway Moms: Maternal Incarceration and the Criminalization of Female Poverty, authors Suzanne Allen, Chris Flaherty, and Gretchen Ely specifically focus on mothers incarcerated for drug offenses. Furthermore, they discuss the negative effects incarceration has had on the relationships between mothers and their children. The article involves the interviews of 26 mothers incarcerated in a Kentucky prison in 2007. According to the authors, maternal incarceration is surrounded by a large number of issues and policies. This includes poverty, addiction, federal legislation, the War on Drugs, child welfare, and other financial issues that mothers in particular face (Allen, S., Flaherty, C., & Ely, G. 2010).
Black Incarcerated Males For the past two decades, the criminal justice system in the United States has been undergoing tremendous expansion. There are now more than one million black men in jail and one out of every four black males will go to prison in their lifetime. Knowing these statistics puts a burden on the black community because many families are left with single family homes, the unemployment rate for black males goes up, they can not vote and now they make jail seem like it is fun to go to. Black men in jail are having drastic effects upon the black community.
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).
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
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...
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.
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
It is undeniable that mass incarceration devastates families, and disproportionately affects those which are poor. When examining the crimes that bring individuals into the prison system, it is clear that there is often a pre-existing pattern of hardship, addiction, or mental illness in offenders’ lives. The children of the incarcerated are then victimized by the removal of those who care for them and a system which plants more obstacles than imaginable on the path to responsible rehabilitation. Sometimes, those returned to the community are “worse off” after a period of confinement than when they entered. For county jails, the problem of cost and recidivism are exacerbated by budgetary constraints and various state mandates. Due to the inability of incarceration to satisfy long-term criminal justice objectives and the very high expenditures associated with the sanction, policy makers at various levels of government have sought to identify appropriate alternatives(Luna-Firebaugh, 2003, p.51-66).
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.
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
Some states require parents to terminate their parental rights when they are incarcerated, based on the length of their incarceration, so the child can be put with a new family permanently, severing all ties between mother and child (Luke, 2002). This situation can exacerbate the effects a child is already feeling during their mother’s incarceration. Luke recommends laws exclude jail or prison time from being a criterion for terminating a parent’s parental rights (2002). Luke also recommends parenting classes for incarcerated mothers during their incarceration (2002). Parenting classes can be useful for mothers to reintegrate themselves into the household an role as a mother following their incarceration. There is little research in the effectiveness of parenting class, studies only having been done in individual prisons, but all research points to the potential long term benefits of providing incarcerated mothers with parenting classes and resources
Households that suffer from the loss of one or both parents greatly increase the probability of juvenile delinquency. Delinquency becomes a revolving door; therefore, the community along with the Juvenile Justice System need to work together on the implementation of rehabilitation programs. Based on the findings in the study, there is an indication that the lack of family stability hinders juveniles from being law-abiding citizens. Nonetheless, the other studies did not mention the juvenile’s family stability or lack of.