Children of Incarcerated Parents The Unintended Victims of Prison Sentences
... Prison reform is a hot button issue for both conservatives and liberals. ... , research efforts have failed to address the effect that incarceration has on offenders’ children. This paper is dedicated to the issue of parental incarceration and its effects on children and families. Children are inadvertently punished when their parents are incarcerated. By getting “tough on crime,” the United States has also gotten tough on children. ... 1 million parents serving time behind bars. The unintended “victims” of incarceration represent around 2.3 million children under the age 18. I have organized this paper into three sections: the effects of parental incarceration on children, why these problems vary among children, and what policy changes could help alleviate the stress that parental incarceration produces in children. Part I: The Impact of Incarceration on Children Due to the lack of research on the children and families of inmates, no cause-and-effect relationship to parental imprisonment has been established. ... Researchers lack definitive answers without empirical knowledge of the consequences of parental imprisonment on children. ... Therefore, a great deal of research is needed before we may fully understand the extent to which parental incarceration effects the well-being of children. At best, researchers have identified specific circumstances that combine with imprisonment to produce the most and least harmful effects in children. ... Initial Arrest and Incarceration According to recent studies, one in five children is present when their parent is arrested (Parke & Clarke-Stewart 2002). Typically, children who witness this kind of traumatic event report suffering from nightmares and flashbacks to the incident. How the arrest and sentencing is explained to children greatly impacts their well-being. The question to whether children ought to informed why their parents are incarcerated or the decision by adults to protect children from the truth, is a controversial issue. Researchers encourage caregivers to explain the arrest incident to children, and give them reasons for their parent’s incarceration. Children need honest and factual information, and they benefit from discussing their experience and the emotions it evoked. Providing children with reliable, dependable information allows them to begin to make sense of their situation. ... On the other hand, some parents believe that, in addition to the distress caused by separation, information regarding a parent’s incarceration would exacerbate the child’s trauma. ... Mothers are usually the ones who take responsibility for explaining the situation to children, regardless of whether or not they are the incarcerated parent.