Parents in Prison who leave behind siblings



It is estimated that between 1 and 2 percent of the nation’s children age 17 or younger have a parent in the prison system in 1999. In addition, a majority of those children were younger than 10 years old. The imprisoned parents are overwhelmingly male and in a state prison instead of a federal facility, but the number of children with the mother incarcerated (98 percent from 1991 to 1999) are increasing at a faster rate than fathers (58 percent over the same time period). (Mumola)

The children are traumatized by the separation from their parents and stigmatized by the experience. They find themselves in situations where they may well be deprived of a regular home, in a household with little or no income, caregivers may shift constantly, they may be separated from any siblings, and they have no parental guidance. “Because of all of this, the children of incarcerated parents should be of special concern to … child welfare workers.” (North Carolina) An emphasis needs to be placed on getting these children into a safe and secure, permanent form of housing.

These children may react in different ways to the parental incarceration. According to Wright & Seymour these things can include:

□ Identification with incarcerated parent, awareness of social stigma

□ Change in future orientation and intrusive thoughts about their parents

□ Concerned about outcomes of case, unsure and worried about how to live without mother, concern about an uncertain future

□ Flashbacks to traumatic events related to arrests

□ Embarrassment

□ Fear, anxiety

□ Anger and hyperarousal

□ Sadness

□ Guilt

□ Low self-esteem

□ Loneliness, feelings of abandonment, emotional withdrawal from friends and family

□ Depression

□ Sleeplessness

□ Eating and sleeping disorders

□ Attention disorders and developmental regression

□ Diminished academic performance, classroom behavior difficulties and truancy

□ Aggression, acting out, antisocial behaviors, and trauma-reactive behavior leading to early crime involvement

All of these will interact, and it will be difficult to tell which factors are the most important with any specific child. In addition, they may result in Developmental Delays for the child and maladaptive coping strategies (including antisocial behaviors and regressions to childhood activities). (North Carolina)

Despite all of this, it is important that the children maintain contact with the parent (s) while they are incarcerated, and whether this is handled by social workers or the foster family, this allows family relationships to be maintained and help the family reunify after the parent’s release.

Even on release, the time when the children are returned to the parents is vitally important. Prisoners leave jail with little support, no income, usually without a car, and they cannot meet the needs of a normal probation and family social worker arrangement with its many meetings and scheduled times to see each other. In essence, if you are not careful, you are setting up the situation so the parents will be forced to fail. (North Carolina)

In fact, there are many times the existing process has set up the parent being arrested to fail. Few arresting officers worry about whether or not there is a child at home And once they are asked the child will often be moved from one caretaker to another for some time until the social worker is able to put the child in a longer-term situation. In California, a state known by economists for collecting more information than is needed for everything (The typical birth certificate includes not only mother and father and mother’s maiden name and the new child’s name, but also the number of years of education the parents have, their home address and what type of home it is, and more, making the information invaluable for social scientists doing long-term studies) the children of prisoners are not recognized or tracked by any agency or department. (Simmons)

According to the Women’s Prison & Home Association, Inc., “Children of offenders are

five times more likely than their peers to end up in prison themselves. One in 10 will

have been incarcerated before reaching adulthood.” So the damage is not only done to the children because of the arrest, it will be carried on and continue to be a problem to society for decades after that first parent being placed in prison.

Add to all of this that most of the incarcerations are related to drug or alcohol use or illegal sales of the same items, and you see a pattern among the parents who are arrested: They are usually not very well educated, either using or selling drugs or alcohol, and after they are arrested, unable to help their children, who will follow the same path much of the time. In addition, according tot he National Council on Crime and Delinquency, among the female prisoners, there is almost always sexual abuse (41.7%), physical abuse (52.8%) to add tot he regular use of alcohol or drugs (64.5%)

In addition, according to the North Carolina information, the situations are developing their own patterns:

The prison population is growing. During the 1990s, the number of inmates (parent and nonparent) in federal and state prisons and local jails grew steadily. Although they make up a small minority of the prison population, growth rates have been higher for women than for men. (Mumola)

There are significant racial disparities in the prison population. African Americans are disproportionately represented in the prison population, just as they are in the foster care population. Because of this disproportionality, in 1999 black children were nearly 9 times more likely to have a parent in prison than white children. Hispanic children were 3 times as likely as white children to have an inmate parent. (Mumola)

Mothers and fathers tend to be incarcerated for different offenses. In 1997, forty-five percent of fathers in state prison were violent offenders, compared to 26% of mothers. Mothers were more likely to be sentenced for drug offenses and fraud. (Mumola)

Sentences tend to be long. In 1997 fathers in state prison reported serving sentences that were, on average, 5 years longer than those of mothers (12.5 years vs. 7.8 years). Because they tended to commit less serious offenses than fathers, 48% of mothers in state and federal prisons were serving sentences of less than five years. (Mumola)

Substance abuse is a major problem. Like many of the other parents involved in the child welfare system, those in prison tend to have problems with substance abuse. (Mumola)

Mental illness and poverty are also a concern. 23% of mothers and 13% of fathers reported an indication of mental illness. More than half of the parent inmates reported income of less than $1,000 in the month before their arrest. (Mumola)

So the effects on the family and the children are strong and disproportionate in many ways, does this mean we need to do something about our arrests? Do things to help the prisoners? Change or modify laws? In reality, it merely points that there are always people who are destined to fail, whether because of an illness or a drug or alcohol or abuse problem that are going to end up in prison. Moreover, if they have families they are most likely going to produce others who will fill their places in the jail cells when they get older. This does not mean we should open the jail cell doors for all the parents so children can grow up in a happy home (if a home filled with drug use, abuse, and more can ever be considered happy). Instead, we need to look at those who do not turn to crime like their parents. That 90% of the “Children of inmates” population needs to be studied to find out why they succeed.

REFERENCES

Mumola, Christopher J. (August 2000) “1.5 Million U.S. Kids Have Parent in Prison.” Retrieved 1/29/10. .

National Council on Crime and Delinquency (1993)

North Carolina Division of Social Services and the Family and Children’s Resource Program. Vol. 7, No. 1 (January 2002) “Working with Children with Parents in Prison.” Retrieved 1/29/10. .

Simmons, Charlene Wear. (March 2000) California Research Bureau, CRB Note Vol. 7, No. 2. “Children of Incarcerated Parents.” Retrieved 1/29/10.

search?q=cache:PjkssYFMT50J:library.CRB/00/notes/V7N2.pdf+children+with+parents+in+prison&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a.

The Women’s Prison Association & Home, Inc., Family to Family; Partnerships between Corrections and Child Welfare, Part Two, A Project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, p. 8.

Wright, L. E. & Seymour, C. B. (2000). Working with children and families separated by incarceration: A handbook for child welfare agencies. Washington, DC: CWLA Press.

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