Parental incarceration is one of seemingly innumerable consequences of mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex. The United States incarcerates 1.68 million people as of January 2023, second only to China. Over 7% of children in the U.S. have a parent who is or was imprisoned. According to the most recent data, from 2016, 47% of state prisoners and 58% of federal prisoners have at least one child under the age of 18.
Prisoners are not the only victims of the prison industrial complex. Their children are deeply affected by the system as well, and having a parent in prison often leads to harm that can span into adulthood.
African American children are disproportionately affected by parental incarceration, as about one in ten African American children in the U.S. have a parent in prison. Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly five times the rate of white Americans, and they make up almost 40% of the country’s prison population despite only making up only about 12% of the country’s population. This is caused by racial injustices stemming from the decades-old war on drugs, over policing of Black communities, mandatory sentencing laws, and various other factors.
For all children of prisoners, there is an increased risk of becoming a future prisoner. Children of incarcerated people are six times more likely to be incarcerated in the future, and a third of inmates in state prisons in 2016 were children of formerly imprisoned people. This creates a cycle called intergenerational incarceration that holds entire families back from socioeconomic success.
Children of incarcerated people are more likely to become poor, especially due to the fact that more than half of inmates were the primary income provider for their families prior to their incarceration. Losing this source of income over an extended period of time is already challenging, and even after release, previously incarcerated people often struggle to find jobs. This deepens the likelihood that these families will not mobilize over the course of multiple generations. On top of all this, families of incarcerated people are often forced to directly support the institutions that imprison their loved ones if they want to contact their incarcerated family member, when this contact can already be stressful and traumatic to begin with.
Parental incarceration can lead to stress that affects both the mental and physical health of children. This stress can lead to conditions such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Children with an incarcerated parent are more than three times more likely to have behavioral problems or depression than children without an imprisoned parent, and they are at least twice as likely to suffer from learning disabilities, ADHD, and anxiety.
Prisoners are often disenfranchised and treated unjustly within the prison system, and this marginalization causes children of incarcerated people to be “less likely to perceive government institutions as just, trustworthy, or deserving of their participation.” If the government wants increased participation within its systems, it must improve these systems and create a cycle of trust for younger generations that does not exist today.
Solutions that could help children of prisoners right now would be changing practices for responses to nonviolent drug offenses, supporting prisoners through transitional education, employment, and social services for those released from prison, and getting rid of unnecessary and sometimes impossible-to-pay fees for current and former prisoners. There is also a need for better communication between government agencies that affect both prisoners and children, like law enforcement, child welfare, and education.
References
BOP Statistics: Inmate Race. Federal Bureau of Prison. (2023, October 14). https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp
Brief felon voting rights. National Conference of State Legislatures. (n.d.). https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/felon-voting-rights
COLLATERAL COSTS: Incarceration’s effect on economic mobility. Pew Trusts. (n.d.). https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2010/collateralcosts1pdf.pdf
ICPR; World Prison Brief. (2023, August 22). Most prisoners per capita by country 2023. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-the-most-prisoners-per-100-000-inhabitants/#:~:text=Prisoners%20in%20the%20United%20States,1.69%20million%20people%20that%20year.
Martin, E. (2017, March 1). Hidden consequences: The impact of incarceration on Dependent Children. National Institute of Justice. https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/hidden-consequences-impact-incarceration-dependent-children#child-criminal-involvement
Maruschak, L. M., Bronson, J., & Alper, M. (2021, March). Parents in prison and their minor children: Survey of prison inmates, 2016. Bureau of Justice Statistics. https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/parents-prison-and-their-minor-children-survey-prison-inmates-2016
Morsy, L., & Rothstein, R. (2016, December 15). Mass incarceration and children’s outcomes: Criminal justice policy is education policy. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/publication/mass-incarceration-and-childrens-outcomes/
Nellis, A. (2022, December 16). The Color of Justice: Racial and ethnic disparity in state prisons. The Sentencing Project. https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/the-color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons-the-sentencing-project/
Scommegna, P. (2014, December 3). Parents’ Imprisonment Linked to Children’s Health, Behavioral Problems. PRB. https://www.prb.org/resources/parents-imprisonment-linked-to-childrens-health-behavioral-problems/#:~:text=In%20particular%2C%20children%20with%20an,ADD%2FADHD%2C%20and%20anxiety.
Williams, T. (2015, March 30). The High Cost of Calling the Imprisoned. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/us/steep-costs-of-inmate-phone-calls-are-under-scrutiny.html
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