The Silent Battle: The Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children and Families
By: Jessica Stamper
The loss of a parent has an overwhelming impact on a child. When a parent dies or there is a divorce, there are endless opportunities to discuss the loss, but what happens when the absence is due to incarceration? Incarceration is not met with the same understanding and sympathy death and divorce are, making it harder to cope, creating additional and often more severe emotional and psychological effects on children. The topic is often considered taboo and this inability to communicate creates more anxiety for the child. They often feel alone, leaving them to suffer in silence. The loss of parents to prison can cause depression and trauma to a child. It compounds the existing environmental stress, such as the violent neighborhoods, poverty and a poor school system. The trend for the incarcerated differs with race, age, gender and economic status. In the same way, the effects on children range from emotional, behavioral and economic aspects. When a parent goes to prison, leaving behind their children, it creates devastating and often lasting effects on the family, as a whole. Equally affected, are the parent or guardian left to care for the children. It is a growing epidemic and with the constant rise of prison population, so does the numbers of families left to suffer the consequences. This paper investigates the effect of incarceration of a parent can have on a family and also takes a deeper look into the existing visitation programs and the impacts they can have.
The number of the US inmates has increased drastically over the last few decades. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Over 52% of state inmates and 63% of federal inmates are parents, with an estimated over 1,700,000 minor children being affected, representing 2.3% of the total