The effects on children with incarcerated parents.
Social Justice Issue:
Children’s lives are seriously disrupted when parents are incarcerated. Working in the child welfare field, I see this first hand. I see the effects of when one or both parents are incarcerated. Sometimes child removal is warranted. Other times, case management services are warranted to ensure that the family has services in place to prevent high risk situations. There are a high number of children whom are overlooked in the child welfare system when parents are incarcerated due to friends or families members stepping in to care for these vulnerable children.
The effects on the children vary in so many different circumstances. Studies have shown according to Kampfner, “children have a variety of behavioral, psychological, and educational problems”. Children all respond in different ways, including sadness, excessive crying, depression, diminished school performance, truancy, disciplinary problems, alcohol and other drug use, running away and sometime aggressive behaviors. Of course, all children respond in different ways these were just a few that stuck out to me in several different throughout my experience as a caseworker. (Kampfner, 1995). The majority of incarcerated mothers of minor children were the primary caregivers for their children prior to confinement. …show more content…
Studies of prison and jail inmates have found that about 70% of female inmates with children had lived with their children prior to incarceration, compared to about 50% of males. (Children of incarcerated parents, pg. 165). Incarceration is a vigorous process that many people do not understand. There are short term effects of separation of the child from the parent, the impact of lack of parental involvement during the period of incarceration and the effects of reunification after the incarceration period. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Reform Act mandates that children who are in the agencies custody be returned to their parents or placed with a legal guardian within 12-18 months after placement. This is ensure that children do not age out of foster care and that have the opportunity to be in a stable long term placement and potentially get adopted and to avoid multiple placements. With this reform act in place, agencies are mandated to follow through and work on reunification efforts along with concurrent goals including permanent placement and/or adoption. This does not allow the incarcerated parent much time to work on reunification goals, especially if they are incarcerate 18 months or longer. There have been some expectations to this plan if the plan for the incarcerated parent is to be released in a timely manner. Analysis of the Issue: I have identified three common characteristics found in most children of incarcerated parents: Multiple parent-child separations, which can be cause by lack of family supports, inadequate quality of care often associated with poverty and sometimes multiple placements, and stress associated with trauma that children experiencing during traumatic events such as parental incarceration. (Johnson 1992) Children of incarcerated parents all experience different effects which depends on the circumstances of the incarceration. Age also plays an important part of what the child is experiencing due to children’s developmental levels. Children development is affect by incarceration of parents especially the bonding component at age 0-2 years of age. Children from the ages 2-6 years old usually cannot recall the entire situation but they can recall the traumatic events and most children have a hard time dealing with separation issues. Children ages 6-10, lack of school success, have trouble with peer relationships and demonstrate aggressive behaviors due to the trauma they experienced. Children ages 11-14, sometimes overcome the events and others continue to acts out and become troubled. Adolescent aged children from 15-18 years old, demonstrate negative attitudes towards the criminal justice system and some children engage in criminal activity to survive. They have a misconstrued recollection of the events that occurred and want to blame everyone else, not their parents. Visitation is the key component to how children of all ages stay connected with their incarcerated parent. Many prison programs lack integrating appropriate visitation policies for children and their parents. I value the importance of human relationships. I feel that children should be able to have in person contact with their parents while incarcerated.
Social Justice Issue:
Children’s lives are seriously disrupted when parents are incarcerated. Working in the child welfare field, I see this first hand. I see the effects of when one or both parents are incarcerated. Sometimes child removal is warranted. Other times, case management services are warranted to ensure that the family has services in place to prevent high risk situations. There are a high number of children whom are overlooked in the child welfare system when parents are incarcerated due to friends or families members stepping in to care for these vulnerable children.
The effects on the children vary in so many different circumstances. Studies have shown according to Kampfner, “children have a variety of behavioral, psychological, and educational problems”. Children all respond in different ways, including sadness, excessive crying, depression, diminished school performance, truancy, disciplinary problems, alcohol and other drug use, running away and sometime aggressive behaviors. Of course, all children respond in different ways these were just a few that stuck out to me in several different throughout my experience as a caseworker. (Kampfner, 1995). The majority of incarcerated mothers of minor children were the primary caregivers for their children prior to confinement. …show more content…
Studies of prison and jail inmates have found that about 70% of female inmates with children had lived with their children prior to incarceration, compared to about 50% of males. (Children of incarcerated parents, pg. 165). Incarceration is a vigorous process that many people do not understand. There are short term effects of separation of the child from the parent, the impact of lack of parental involvement during the period of incarceration and the effects of reunification after the incarceration period. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Reform Act mandates that children who are in the agencies custody be returned to their parents or placed with a legal guardian within 12-18 months after placement. This is ensure that children do not age out of foster care and that have the opportunity to be in a stable long term placement and potentially get adopted and to avoid multiple placements. With this reform act in place, agencies are mandated to follow through and work on reunification efforts along with concurrent goals including permanent placement and/or adoption. This does not allow the incarcerated parent much time to work on reunification goals, especially if they are incarcerate 18 months or longer. There have been some expectations to this plan if the plan for the incarcerated parent is to be released in a timely manner. Analysis of the Issue: I have identified three common characteristics found in most children of incarcerated parents: Multiple parent-child separations, which can be cause by lack of family supports, inadequate quality of care often associated with poverty and sometimes multiple placements, and stress associated with trauma that children experiencing during traumatic events such as parental incarceration. (Johnson 1992) Children of incarcerated parents all experience different effects which depends on the circumstances of the incarceration. Age also plays an important part of what the child is experiencing due to children’s developmental levels. Children development is affect by incarceration of parents especially the bonding component at age 0-2 years of age. Children from the ages 2-6 years old usually cannot recall the entire situation but they can recall the traumatic events and most children have a hard time dealing with separation issues. Children ages 6-10, lack of school success, have trouble with peer relationships and demonstrate aggressive behaviors due to the trauma they experienced. Children ages 11-14, sometimes overcome the events and others continue to acts out and become troubled. Adolescent aged children from 15-18 years old, demonstrate negative attitudes towards the criminal justice system and some children engage in criminal activity to survive. They have a misconstrued recollection of the events that occurred and want to blame everyone else, not their parents. Visitation is the key component to how children of all ages stay connected with their incarcerated parent. Many prison programs lack integrating appropriate visitation policies for children and their parents. I value the importance of human relationships. I feel that children should be able to have in person contact with their parents while incarcerated.