Abstract
In the May 2020 edition of this publication, I wrote a guest commentary entitled “In support of children of incarcerated parents.” This commentary attempted to shed some light on the estimated 2.7 million minors — or one in 28 children — who are currently suffering the consequences of their parent's incarceration. Many more children have a parent that has recently been released from the correctional system. One in 14 kids will have a parent incarcerated before they are 18 years of age! Think about that — every classroom and every faith‐based community in America likely has a child or several children who fall into this subgroup.
In the May 2020 edition of this publication, I wrote a guest commentary entitled “In support of children of incarcerated parents.” This commentary attempted to shed some light on the estimated 2.7 million minors — or one in 28 children — who are currently suffering the consequences of their parent's incarceration. Many more children have a parent that has recently been released from the correctional system. One in 14 kids will have a parent incarcerated before they are 18 years of age! Think about that — every classroom and every faith‐based community in America likely has a child or several children who fall into this subgroup.
Parental incarceration involves the loss of a significant adult from the child's household and daily routine. This disruption of the parent/child relationship is traumatic and often life‐changing. There are two main issues that often intersect in the lives of these children: (1) parental problems such as financial stress, mental illness, substance use disorder, or domestic violence that predate and may have contributed to the incarceration and (2) problems such as school disruption, food insecurity, homelessness, and loss of financial safety introduced as a result of the parental absence. The intersection of these risk factors and other issues unique to this population are explored in the Handbook on Children with Incarcerated Parents — Research, Policy and Practice (Eddy & Poehlmann‐Tyran, 2019).
It is approaching two years since the COVID‐19 pandemic has added additional layers of complications and emotional pain into an already complex picture for these children and adolescents. In a recent chat with an adolescent whose father is in federal prison on a drug‐related, non‐violent offense and nearing the end of his term of incarceration, the 14‐year‐old shared: “With the Covid, we heard that lots of guys would be released so that they would not die, but Dad did not come home.” While it is true that both prison and jail populations are lower than they were pre‐pandemic, data suggests that most of the population drops are a result of reduced prison admissions as opposed to releases aimed to prevent the spread of COVID‐19. Worry about the safety and health of an incarcerated parent can be added to the list of mental health challenges for these children.
During usual times, communication between a child and an incarcerated parent is challenging — often resulting in fear, suspicion, and confusion on the part of both the child and the parent. Needless to state, consistent contact is critical to sustaining the parent/child relationship. Factors such as the age of the youth, whether it is the mother or the father who is incarcerated, the caregiver's support for communication, family proximity to the correctional institution, the infrastructure at the prison, and prison policies impact the frequency and quality of parent/child contact. In‐person family visitation in many facilities have been suspended because of the pandemic, leaving phone contact as the primary vehicle of parent contact.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, American households pay $1 billion annually to call family members in prison. Prison telecommunication companies not only charge a per minute fee for calls, but also charge a fee each time monies are added to a family or inmate call account. As the majority of those behind bars are Black and Hispanic, this fee structure not only produces a disproportionate financial burden on communities of color, but also creates a wedge between parents and their children who are often desperate for mutual contact. In 2020, Senator Amy Klobuchar led a cadre of senators in challenging the exorbitantly high costs charged by prison telecommunication companies which resulted in the Federal Bureau of Prisons temporarily waiving fees for telephone and video visitation during the pandemic. As a footnote to communication challenges, once in person visitation resumes or parents are released, children of parents returning from incarceration likely face a heightened risk of COVID‐19 disease transmission.
As the country emerges from the pandemic, we hope that the pre‐pandemic movement to improve connections between children and their incarcerated patents will resume. Model Practices for Parents in Prisons and Jails: Reducing Barriers for Families while Maximizing Safety and Security offers a comprehensive guide to inform correctional administrators of efforts to reduce barriers to incarcerated parents' contact and communication with their children. The guide describes low‐cost, high‐impact practices and provides administrators with evidence on the effectiveness of recommended practices and resources for successful implementation. Examples of family‐friendly practices include designing welcoming visitor lobbies, providing parenting and parent‐child relationship programming, allowing for contact visiting, coaching parents on telephone calls with their kids, hosting family activity days, and conducting family‐inclusive reentry planning. Forward progress in this area will require significant support from federal and state grants and private foundations.
As long as the pandemic is raging, this subgroup of minors will continue to worry about the safety of their parents, to endure the loss of face‐to‐face parent contact, to suffer the disruption of telephone contact caused by burdensome financial demands, and to face increased health risk when personal contact is resumed.
Add many of the well‐documented stressors faced by these children in a non‐pandemic world such as stigma, shame, grief, educational disruptions, parental re‐partnering, food insecurity, homelessness, and financial insecurity and these kids cry out for support in so many areas. It is imperative that we identify and support these youngsters who are often hidden in plain sight!
Peterson B, Fontaine J, Cramer L, et al. Model Practices for Parents in Prisons and Jails: Reducing Barriers for Families while Maximizing Safety and Security, Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the National Institute of Corrections (NIC). 2019.
Eddy JM, Poehlmann‐Tyran, J. (Eds.) Handbook on Children with Incarcerated Parents Research, Policy and Practice, Second Edition. Springer Nature Switzerland AG; 2019. Available by press or e‐book.
Margaret R. Paccione‐Dyszlewski, Ph.D. is Director of Clinical Innovation, Bradley Hospital and Clinical Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University.