Children of Prisoners by

Parental Prisoners and their children 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 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).

Children’s reactions to parental incarceration  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  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

And getting reunited 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.

Release, continued 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.