Incarceration: Does It Affect Social Stress When Their Parents

The United States’ ever-expanding prison and jail population has brought about many questions regarding the side-effects of mass incarceration, namely involving the effects on the children and families from which those incarcerated are removed. Regardless of the perspectives on the appropriate position of incarceration in the criminal justice system, imprisonment disrupts many positive and nurturing relationships between parents and their children. In fact, more than 1.7 million children have a parent who is incarcerated in a state or federal prison as of 2007 (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008). These youths are at risk for developing behavior and school problems in addition to insecure attachment relationships. Parental incarceration, which may also be coupled with economic disadvantage and inconsistent living arrangements (Geller, Garfinkel, Cooper, & Mincy, 2009) can be an extremely difficult experience for children. It should come as no surprise that families with children suffer economic strain and instability when a parent is imprisoned, considering how each parent in today’s world typically needs to set aside time to earn an income to support their family, and most are unable to support their homes on one income. While it may be considered intrusive to some to intervene in the lives of children and families with incarcerated parents, research has suggested that there are positive societal benefits to intervening in the lives of incarcerated parents and their

The collateral consequences of mass incarceration are effects in an inmate’s community, social life, employment, wages, and family life. The separation of an inmate from their family causes many struggles to occur in the household such as the inability to become financially stable for their partners, a loss of connection with their partner and children, living with a social stigma, and divorce or separation. Even after an inmate gets out of prison, their life is still impacted from being incarcerated. Because of the stigma that comes with being incarcerated, “ex-offenders” find it hard to either find a job, maintain a job, or get a job with a decent amount of pay. These consequences contribute to inequality through establishing a type of status on an individual. By becoming an inmate or even before they are imprisoned, inmates’ deal with Lower-class family issues and stigmas that stick with them for life.

When someone is incarcerated it not only affects them but it takes a toll on their family. For example, men who are incarcerated and leave children behind. This affects the household and its finances. This is due to the fact that in some households men are the primary breadwinner. Children of women who are incarcerated sometimes end up homeless or in foster homes. This has a negative effect on the children because they lack the guidance and basic fundamentals a parent provides. Children who have a parent in jail are emotionally affected because there's no balance within their life, especially if their parent is always in an out of jail. Some kids start doing poorly in school, acting out and sometimes get involved in criminal

The effects of mass incarceration on ethnic minorities are the increased lack of economic opportunity, the discouragement of welfare for people of color, the worsening of racial biases, increased childhood discrimination and the toxicity of internalized stereotypes, and prominent racial disparities that are found in the criminal justice system. Mass incarceration came as a result of the establishment of the private prison industry. The U.S. has a school-to-prison pipeline where kids’ actions can be observed from a young age to help project the amount of needed prison beds.

Since 1970 the rate of incarceration has more than tripled in the United States alone. In may urban cities such as Washington D.C., it has increased five fold. But statistics do not reveal what it is like for the children, wives, and parents of prisoners. It certainly does not show how the increasing numbers of inmates on the inside are having a profound effect on the outside--reaching deep into the family and community life of urban american families. Drawing on numerous powerful family structures supported by extensive empirical data, studies are shining a light on the darker side of a system that is failing the very people it is designed to protect.

Researchers have begun to measure not only how incarceration influences parents, but the effects the consequences of parental incarceration on children. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1.5 million minors deal with parental incarceration every year (Harrison & Beck, 2010). In addition, as jail and prison residents continue to increase, the number of children affected by parental incarceration will also continue to increase. Therefore, researchers have taken a certain interest in studying the short and long term consequences of parental incarceration on children. Investigators show that children of incarcerated parents are up to ten times more likely to be incarcerated during their generation than children of non-incarcerated parents (Johnson, 2010).

They explain how incarceration affects the life course perspective for people who are influenced by it either directly or indirectly. The life perspective about which Western and Wildeman (2009) write is the life trajectory that most people have or want to have. It is what parents want for their children and usually consists of stages in which a person graduates from high school, goes to college, marries, buys a house, has a family and establishes a career. Incarceration interferes with this for the person who is imprisoned, but also for their children for several reasons, not the least of them is financial reasons. Not only are the chances of the child of an incarcerated parent going to college much lower than for children whose parents are not incarcerated, the chances of a child with an incarcerated parent being incarcerated him/herself is increased. Part of the reason for the increase is that the child most likely will not pursue a college degree. People without a college education are more likely to be imprisoned and among African American and Hispanic populations that number is even higher. For African American children, when their parent becomes incarcerated, it is almost as if a cycle begins and they also will be incarcerated themselves, and if nothing is done to break the cycle, their children will

On December 31, 2005, 2,320,359 people were incarcerated in the United States. Of these inmates, 107,518 were female. As of 2004, the most recent date for which statistics are available, it is estimated that there are approximately 2.8 million children of incarcerated parents. Of this number, approximately 320,000 are children of incarcerated mothers. The problem with these estimates is that at best, they are an educated guess. Most states lack uniform methods of recording the demographic information regarding an inmate’s children. Moreover, many inmates may choose not to identify their children for the fear of the possibility

In our society, a stigma is put on anything related to crime or incarceration. I don't a have direct relationship with incarceration and the pressure it puts on families, but I have witnessed the negative perspective and preconceptions that are set when talking about incarceration. As a society, we speak of the families or children that have been impacted by incarceration as if they are the ones that have committed the crime. I have been guilty of this prejudice as well. I've automatically assumed the that families impacted and children know the implication of their parent's or spouse's crime and should have the ability to cope with incarceration. However, I now realize that because of this stigma of incarceration, it often impacts those involved in their capacity to deal, to find resources to help with the financial stressors and their overall mental health. To better improve the over the health of the families, the state and the federal government have implemented resources and policies that can better help families understand their unique situation and the resources available to them. The research has to lead me to gain a perspective on incarceration and its impact, giving me a perspective and the resources to help families

Whether people like to admit it or not, society is still stuck on the stereotypical image that fathers are supposed to be caretakers for their families and mothers are supposed to be in charge of the care and well-being of their children, and this ideology has been transferred to how parental rights are granted within the United States Prison System. For example, single fathers that are incarcerated are more likely to have their parental rights curtailed, and they are not given the same services for reuniting with their children as incarcerated mothers (Patton, 1999). Although the struggles faced by mothers and fathers behind bars are different, they both have a large impact of the development of the affected

Chapter one is all about the framework for understanding parental incarceration. While reading this chapter, there was a lot facts I knew or didn’t know like we discuss in class. Professor Ann Adalist-Estrin told everybody in class to write what knew about parental incarceration. This chapter talks about all the families and children dress up in their Saturday best outfit sitting on their mother’s slaps, rolling around on the dirty floor, trying to make something out paper to entertain themselves while in jail waiting to see their love ones. Historically criminal justice have been study within criminology and a family lens was not utilize. So reading this chapter show the study of incarceration with particular emphasis on parent’s incarcerations

The youth in the United States are at a high risk due to parents being the number one highest rate of incarcerated people in the world. Incarceration of parents is a beneficial research topic because children and adolescents perceive going to prison is a pleasant place, but caregivers explain to children that bad people that do terrible things go to prison. Kids are under a tremendous pressure from the social stigma which makes them feel they will end up like their parents. This topic has keened an interest because children of incarcerated parents are going through a tough time when parents are absent from their lives and do not have people around to lean upon when they are facing problems that are internally or externally. I am trying to learn the effects, perception, knowledge, trauma, and emotion of children which face problems to facilitate a positive or negative outcome to having incarcerated parents. I want to help readers understand the reasons that children from minority families believe they will turn out to be criminals like their parents because society has deemed their minds to think internally and externally which caused major stress to their behaviors.

Hjalmarsson, R., & Lindquist, M. J. (2012). Like godfather, like son exploring the intergenerational nature of crime. Journal of Human Resources, 47(2), 550-582..

Our client Tonya Morris is currently in foster care after her mom left her behind with an unwilling caregiver sixteen days after her father, Terence Calvert, was incarcerated. Tonya has been in the same foster family for nearly nineteen months and knows nothing outside of this family. Tonyas biological mother, Paula Morris, has a reputation of long time drug use and has been unable to locate since she left her. While Tonya was in utero she was exposed to drugs causing developmental delays and she went through drug withdrawal as an infant. Her foster family has expressed their desire to adopt her on more than one occasion. Her biological father, Terence, also has the desire to reunite and raise Tonya after he is released from incarceration.

Prisons have been around for centuries and in many countries the prison population has grown quickly. The prisoners’ health, behavior and well-being have been focal points in many social concerns, however; incarceration goes beyond the prisoners’ experience. It touches employment after incarceration, social stigma, and families and communities that have been affected by incarceration, especially a child with incarcerated parents. That is what Joseph Murray, David P. Farrington, and Ivana Sekol focus on, the “forgotten victims” of crime (Matthews 1983). It is no surprise that children will experience many hardships emotionally and socially during their parental incarceration. This article aims to describe the associations between parental incarceration and children’s antisocial behavior, mental health, drug use, and low educational performance prior to this event.