Children with Incarcerated Parents and the Effects on the Family

Children with Incarcerated Parents and the Effects on the Family

Incarceration rates in the United States are at record high levels; new prisons are being built yearly to hold the millions of adults, both male and female, fathers and mothers. According to U.S. Department of Justice, there are nearly three-quarters of a million parents in our prison system, which severely disrupts their relationship with their children. There is very little research that explores the burden of parental imprisonment, not only to the children, but also the causes of hardships to governmental agencies such as the foster care system and state adoption agencies, which have to try and find, in most cases temporary homes but at times permanent homes for children while their parents are serving their sentences .Not much attention is given to how these agencies and the criminal justice system could come to an understanding together to find ways to allow parents and children to have relations while behind bars. According to research, visits and communication are important not only for children but also for the incarcerated parent for when they are reunited. It is indicated that when a parent(s) are incarcerated, many children are not told why or even where their parent(s) are at. When this happens research has shown that children with incarcerated parent(s) suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, feelings of abandonment and behavioral issues which lead to poor outcomes at school.

This is an important issue because there needs to be an understanding between the criminal justice system and social children agencies regarding the importance of the benefits to both the children and inmates to stay connected while the parents are serving time.

The effects on children

Descriptions of children's stress and coping behaviors in regards to the loss of their parent being incarcerated have been a correlated with the same type of response as to the death of a parent. When children are separated from their parents, they often have no way to stay in contact with them. Half of all prisoners report having lived with their children prior to being incarcerated, however the majority of these parents report having no in-person contact with their children since their admission. The most frequent modes of contact between children and prisoners are mail and by phone (Mumola 2000). There is an estimated 1.5-2 million children whose parents are in prison (Ardittiet al.2003: Miller 2006: Mumola 2000). When a father is incarcerated, a child is most likely in the care of his or her mother. When a mother is incarcerated, a child is most likely in the care of the mother's family, most likely the maternal grandparents (Mumola 2000).

The family structure before a parent is placed in the correctional system may include complex issues that cause a family to have stress such as, poverty, domestic violence and substance abuse. When the parent is in prison children are often not given the emotional support they need to help cope with the disruption of what is typical part if their lives. The majority of these children are African American, low socioeconomic background and the majority live with their mothers with no or little contact with their fathers. Children from this population are found to exhibit internalizing and externalizing behavior; guilt, rage, sadness, depression, and anxiety; disrupted and insecure attachment patterns; symptoms consistent with posttraumatic stress disorder; and decreased academic performance. Studies also show that conduct problems are associated with parent criminality, placing children of prisoners at a greater risk to engage in criminal activity and be imprisoned them (Eddy and Reid 2003).

There is much more research needed on this subject, but with what researchers have learned so far has created the framework of the ambiguous loss theory. This theory helps give an insight to the nature of parental incarceration. Due to the absent family member results in family boundary ambiguity, which is defined as a " state in which family members are uncertain in their perception about who is in or out of the family and who is performing what roles and tasks within the family system" (Boss and Greenberg 1984, pg. 536).

When children are placed with caregivers, studies have shown that they describe their relationships with the caregivers as complicated. Many children have reported abuse; they often expressed anger, hurt, fear, and confusion. Children in research interviews expressed clearly that family relationships were very important to them, and that they struggle to make sense of the complexity of the nature if their families.

Results of research and interviews with children of incarcerated parents show that children experience high levels of stress and trauma. These findings are consistent with other research showing children's posttraumatic stress may mediate the relationship between trauma and decreased mental health functioning (Ruchkin, 2007).

The question that needs to be answered, is what can be done to help children better understand and to cope with the complex issue of their incarcerated parent(s)? Programs need to be put into place to help deal with children's behaviors and feelings with great care and caution. Mentors should be assigned who can maintain consistent mentoring relations with these children.

The effects on Caregivers

We have learned from earlier research that the majority of children end up residing with their maternal grandparents while their parent(s) are serving time, now we will discuss the stress and complex issues that grandparents face while raising their grandchildren.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported a published report that 600,000 children have parents who are incarcerated (BJS 2000). Research gives an insight to the grandmothers who take upon the role of mothers while their daughters are serving time. Data compiled, points out that most maternal grandmothers who are providing care typically have low education and low income levels, which places much stress to this aging population. Most grandmothers are pleased that they can "be there" for their grandchildren in spite of the challenges