The Children of the Incarcerated

One child in 30 – or 2.4 million children – has a parent in prison or jail, according to analysis from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Add children whose parents are on probation or parole, and the figure balloons: one child in 10 (or 7 million children) has a parent under the supervision of criminal justice systems. (The number of incarcerated women is also on the rise, the BJS reported.)

"The growth in incarceration is part of the criminal justice story, and children are a huge but invisible part of that story,” said Nell Bernstein, who has written about the issue for more than a decade and in a new book, “All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated” (The New Press, 2005). Bernstein spoke with the Journalism Center's Patrice Pascual about ideas for covering the growing number of families involved in the criminal justice system.

When happens to children during a parent’s arrest?

This was shocking to me: I’ve met a number of kids who witnessed their parent’s arrest, but were left unattended or unsupervised when the police took that parent away. This problem has been under the radar. Researchers at the Department of Justice wrote an article in the current issue of Police Chief Magazine about the need for police departments to have written policies for dealing with the children of people they arrest, before it becomes a liability issue. So if you’re doing a crime story, ask the police about the suspect’s kids. And make sure you have someone in your rolodex who can talk about family issues. Some of the best sources are former prisoners who’ve become advocates. They can be very knowledgeable and can connect you to families for your story.

How do kids maintain contact with an incarcerated parent? 

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a prisoner has no intrinsic right to receive visitors, and while that decision was fairly narrow, it suggests that a child also loses his right to see his incarcerated parent. The holidays are coming up and that’s when the issues around family contact come to a head.

Try to tell this story through the kid’s eyes. First, as the prison population has grown, we’ve set up more facilities in remote rural places that need jobs, places that are hard to get to. There’s a great feature in just riding the bus for a prison visit – what it costs, how exhausting it is. And when kids go into that visiting room, they can be subject to invasive searches, even diaper peeks. The idea behind those searches is that visitors bring contraband. Ask officials for documentation – not anecdotes – about the amount of contraband they’re collecting from visitors; a report to the Florida state legislature found that only 2.5 percent of contraband could be attributed to visitors. But visitors are often treated like criminals themselves.

It’s not just visitation. In some states, if you want to send gifts to an inmate, you have to use a catalogue from a certain vendor, even though it’s more expensive than buying items on the outside. That’s also done in the name of security, but it means families are essentially being taxed for keeping in contact.

The other barrier is that most prisoners can only make collect calls, which are billed at four to 20 times the standard rates. (In the federal system and some states, prisoners can buy a phone card so they don’t put their families at risk of losing phone service.) Prisons give exclusive contracts to phone companies, and both the company and prisons can make big profits. Find out what the prison is doing with that money.

What happens if a parent is arrested and the child enters foster care?

We’re nearing the 10-year anniversary of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), which accelerates the termination of parental rights (TPR); that law has a big impact on these kids. A child may enter foster care because her parent is arrested for shoplifting and does two weeks in jail. When the mother is released she may not meet the requirements for getting her child back, and TPR becomes a real possibility. As women continue to be incarcerated, this is becoming a bigger problem.

What about reentry?

Because of tougher sentencing laws, more people are leaving prison or jail with a felony conviction, especially for nonviolent and drug offenses. Former felons face big barriers during release or reentry, and reporters should be looking at how that affects families. The most common restrictions start at the federal level – felons can be ineligible for TANF benefits, public housing, student aid – but states have some policy discretion. There are workplace barriers too. For instance, since 9/11, many places won’t hire a former convict. So a child is waiting for a parent to get out of prison, but then the parent can’t get work, relapses and ends up back in prison.

Where do you find kids to talk to?

Given the statistics, you could probably find kids in any after-school program. I wouldn’t suggest asking a child about a parent’s incarceration unless you’ve talked to an adult who is sensitive to the family situation. There's so much stigma around this, even for kids in communities with high levels of incarceration. The kids know that situation is not normal, but they’re rarely able to talk about it and get help with their feelings.

Bernstein, who has written for The Washington Post, Mother Jones, Salon.com, Newsday and other publications, is willing to help other journalists who face barriers in reporting on children of the incarcerated. Contact her by e-mail.