Punishing the Innocent: Children of Incarcerated and Detained Parents

Abstract

About 2 million minor children in the U.S. have at least one parent incarcerated for criminal offenses. There are about 33,000 undocumented persons detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in jails and federal detention centers around the country, and 79% of the minor children of these detainees are U.S. citizens. There are few government programs that measure and respond to the harm caused to these children by the incarceration and detention of their parents, and the negative effects on these children are largely ignored in public policy debates about incarceration and immigration detention. I argue that we have an obligation to these children based on (1) the special status of children, (2) the harm caused to children by the arrest, detention and incarceration of their parents, (3) current incarceration and detention policies even in the presence of alternatives that would, on balance, create less harm.

Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Children of Incarcerated Parents

“…Existing research implies that parental incarceration is associated with numerous negative effects (Manning 2011 ; Murray et al 2012 ; Miller and Barnes 2015 ; Phillips et al 2006 ). Parental incarceration meets the criteria for complex traumatic exposure, which is defined by the National Child Trauma Stress Network Complex Trauma Task Force ( 2003 ), as a “[child]’s experience of multiple traumatic events that occur within the caregiving system…” (p. 5).…”

“…The United States (U.S.) is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2.2 million people currently in the nation’s prisons and jails, representing a 500% increase over the last 40 years (Glaze and Maruschak 2008 ). To underscore the extensive nature of this issue in US society, nearly two million children have at least one incarcerated parent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (Mumola 2000 ), a number that is likely underreported because it does not consider the custodial states of individuals who are a child’s guardian or who perform other significant caretaking functions (Manning 2011 ; Miller et al 2013 ; Murray and Farrington 2008 ). Children can exhibit the emotional effects of parental incarceration through complex trauma-related stress symptoms such as isolating themselves from their peers, anxiety, struggling to form healthy interpersonal relationships, concentration problems, sleep difficulties, emotional withdrawal from family members, substance use or dependence, and significant feelings of shame and secrecy.…”

“…Children can exhibit the emotional effects of parental incarceration through complex trauma-related stress symptoms such as isolating themselves from their peers, anxiety, struggling to form healthy interpersonal relationships, concentration problems, sleep difficulties, emotional withdrawal from family members, substance use or dependence, and significant feelings of shame and secrecy. If unaddressed, the impacts of these symptoms can often lead to long-term psychological and emotional functioning problems (Manning 2011 ; Murray et al 2012 ; Miller and Barnes 2015 ; Phillips et al 2006 ). Parental incarceration also threatens the future liberty of the children themselves by placing them at a far greater risk of future criminal justice involvement.…”

“…Besides these material consequences, a parent’s incarceration can abruptly dismantle a family. Children of incarcerated parents are less likely to live in a home with both parents present (Geller et al 2009 ) and are sometimes placed indefinitely in foster care while family members are sent to distant penitentiaries, making travel and visitation difficult for families with limited resources and few transportation options (Manning 2011 ).…”

“…Parental incarceration poses an emotional risk on children and, as early as age three, children of incarcerated parents can begin to exhibit signs of emotional distress like aggression and difficulty attaching to primary caregivers (Geller et al 2009 ). Well into adolescence and young adulthood, the emotional effects of parental incarceration can be exhibited in the form of trauma-related stress symptoms such as depression, anxiety, difficulty forming relationships, concentration problems, sleep difficulties, emotional withdrawal, substance use or dependence, and significant feelings of shame and stigmatization (Manning 2011 ; Murray et al 2012 ; Miller and Barnes 2015 ; Phillips et al 2006 ). These emotional and behavioral symptoms have far reaching consequences and may partially explain the educational under-attainment and school-based difficulties like truancy, drop-out, and grade failure that are more common among children of incarcerated parents (Murray and Farrington, 2008 ; Murray et al 2012 ; Phillips et al 2006 ).…”