Parental incarceration: What we know and where we need to go

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Volumn 104, Issue 3, 2014, Pages 597-604

  Uggen, Christopher ^a   McElrath, Suzy ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84907051016     PISSN: 00914169     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. See generally Sara Wakefield & Christopher Uggen, Incarceration and Stratification, 36 ANN. REV. SOC. 387 (2010).
2. SESAME WORKSHOP, LITTLE CHILDREN, BIG CHALLENGES: INCARCERATION (2013).
3. Hans Peter Peters, Scientists as Public Experts, in HANDBOOK OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATION OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 131, 133-34 (Massimiano Bucchi & Brian Trench eds., 2008) (noting some scientists’ reluctance to speak as public experts due in part to the uncertainty involved in the research process)
4. Herbert J. Gans, A Sociology for Public Sociology: Some Needed Disciplinary Changes for Creating Public Sociology, in HANDBOOK OF PUBLIC SOCIOLOGY 123, 128 (Vincent Jeffries ed., 2009) (noting the small number of people who seek to communicate their science to the general public, in part due to institutional disincentives and disparagement by colleagues).
5. The workshop, jointly sponsored by the American Bar Foundation and the National Science Foundation, was held in the White House Executive Office Building on August 20, 2013.
6. Christopher Uggen & Suzy McElrath, Six Social Sources of the U.S. Crime Drop, in CRIME AND THE PUNISHED 3, 10-11 (Douglas Hartmann & Christopher Uggen eds., 2014)
7. Michael Tonry, Why Are U.S. Incarceration Rates So High?, 45 CRIME & DELINQ. 419+422+427 (1999) (arguing that the “exceptionally” high incarceration rates in the United States relative to Western democracies reflect differences in politics, public perceptions, and punitive policy responses rather than crime rates).
8. PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS, COLLATERAL COSTS: INCARCERATION’S EFFECT ON ECONOMIC MOBILITY 19 fig.9 (2010).
9. Christopher Wildeman, Parental Imprisonment, the Prison Boom, and the Concentration of Childhood Disadvantage, 46 DEMOGRAPHY 265+276 (2009).
10. Sara Wakefield & Christopher Wildeman, Mass Imprisonment and Racial Disparities in Childhood Behavioral Problems, 10 CRIMINOLOGY & PUB. POL’Y 793, 802 & fig.3 (2011).
11. Amanda Geller, Paternal Incarceration and Father-Child Contact in Fragile Families, 75 J. MARRIAGE & FAM. 1288+1295 (2013)
12. Amanda Geller, Remarks at the White House Parental Incarceration Workshop (Aug. 20, 2013) (slides available at http://goo.gl/K1GqtC).
13. Lauren E. Glaze & Laura M. Maruschak, BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS, U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, PARENTS IN PRISON AND THEIR MINOR CHILDREN, at 4 tbl.7 (2010)
14. Geller, Supra note 10, at 1294 tbl.1, 1295 (who estimates that, among urban families, between 33% and approximately 43% of fathers lived with their young children prior to jail or incarceration).
15. Geller, Supra note 10, at 1295.
16. Sara Wakefield & Christopher Wildeman, CHILDREN OF THE PRISON BOOM: MASS INCARCERATION AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN INEQUALITY (2014)
17. Rebecca J. Shlafer & Julie Poehlmann, Attachment and Caregiving Relationships in Families Affected by Parental Incarceration, 12 ATTACHMENT & HUM. DEV. 395-409 (2010).
18. WAKEFIELD & WILDEMAN, Supra note 13, at 56-57 & fig.3.3 (showing that, in some cases, paternal incarceration may provide respite from abuse); Raymond R. Swisher, Remarks at the White House Parental Incarceration Workshop (Aug. 20, 2013) (slides available at http://goo.gl/slwPia) (showing a protective effect of parental incarceration for sexually abused girls).
19. Philip M. Genty, Remarks at the White House Parental Incarceration Workshop (Aug. 20, 2013) (slides available at http://goo.gl/8UuT3X)
20. Philip M. Genty, Moving Beyond Generalizations and Stereotypes to Develop Individualized Approaches for Working with Families Affected by Parental Incarceration, 50 FAM. CT. REV. 36+39 (2012).
21. WAKEFIELD & WILDEMAN, Supra note 13, at 71-96
22. Sara Wakefield, Remarks at the White House Parental Incarceration Workshop (Aug. 20, 2013) (slides available at http://goo.gl/18jWaO)
23. Raymond R. Swisher & Michael E. Roettger, Father’s Incarceration and Youth Delinquency and Depression: Examining Differences by Race and Ethnicity, 22 J. RES. ON ADOLESCENCE 597+598 (2012).
24. Terry-Ann L. Craigie, The Effect of Paternal Incarceration on Early Child Behavioral Problems: A Racial Comparison, 9 J. ETHNICITY CRIM. JUST. 179+192 (2011)
25. WAKEFIELD & WILDEMAN, Supra note 13, at 71-96.
26. Raymond R. Swisher & Unique R. Shaw-Smith, Parental Incarceration and Adolescent Well-Being: Life Course Contingencies and Other Moderators, 104 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY (forthcoming Oct. 2014) (discussing a positive association between parental incarceration and delinquency, and a positive but weaker association between parental incarceration and depression).
27. Rosalyn D. Lee et al., The Impact of Parental Incarceration on the Physical and
28. Mental Health of Young Adults, 131 PEDIATRICS e1188-e1191 (2013).
29. Emily Bever Nichols & Ann Booker Loper, Incarceration in the Household: Academic Outcomes of Adolescents with an Incarcerated Household Member, 41 J. YOUTH & ADOLESCENCE 1455, 1462 tbl.1 (2012).
30. Holly Foster & John Hagan, Incarceration and Intergenerational Social Exclusion, 54 SOC. PROBS. 399 (2007)
31. Holly Foster & John Hagan, Remarks at the White House Parental Incarceration Workshop (Aug. 20, 2013) (slides available at http://goo.gl/MezHDJ)
32. Holly Foster & John Hagan, Maternal and Parental Imprisonment and the Children’s Social Exclusion in Young Adulthood, 105 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY (forthcoming Feb. 2015) (finding that both maternal and parental incarceration significantly contribute to young adult social exclusion).
33. On social isolation and family instability, see generally Joyce A. Arditti, PARENTAL INCARCERATION AND THE FAMILY (2012)
34. Foster & Hagan, Incarceration and Intergenerational Social Exclusion, Supra note 20.
35. On economic loss and deprivation, see generally WAKEFIELD & WILDEMAN, Supra note 13.
36. Convention on the Rights of the Child, Nov. 20, 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3. On prison nurseries, see Lorie Smith Goshin & Mary Woods Byrne, Converging Streams of Opportunity for Prison Nursery Programs in the United States, 48 J. OFFENDER REHABILITATION 271, 288-89 (2009).
37. For an overview of programming, see generally Ross D. Parke & K. Alison Clarke-Stewart, EFFECTS OF PARENTAL INCARCERATION ON YOUNG CHILDREN (2001), available at http://goo.gl/fMGuiR. For an analysis of the effects of paternal incarceration on the relationship between the child and the caregiver left behind, see generally
38. Sara Wakefield, Accentuating the Positive or Eliminating the Negative? Father Incarceration and Caregiver-Child Relationship Quality, 104 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY (forthcoming Oct. 2014).
39. Jillian J. Turanovic et al., The Collateral Consequences of Incarceration Revisited: A Qualitative Analysis of the Effects on Caregivers of Children of Incarcerated Parents, 50 CRIMINOLOGY 913, 916-19 (2012).
40. Philip M. Genty, Damage to Family Relationships as a Collateral Consequence of Parental Incarceration, 30 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 1671, 1684 (2003) (proposing that the parental role should be an explicit factor in sentencing)
41. Myrna S. Raeder, Special Issue: Making a Better World for Children of Incarcerated Parents, 50 FAM. CT. REV. 23, 32 n.33 (2012) (citing Mary Flood, Lea Fastow Expresses ‘Regret’ at Sentencing, HOUS. CHRON., May 7, 2004, at 1A (discussing staggered sentences of mother and father regarding their convictions in the Enron scandal)).
42. Becky Pettit, INVISIBLE MEN: MASS INCARCERATION AND THE MYTH OF BLACK PROGRESS (2012)
43. Becky Pettit, Remarks at the White House Parental Incarceration Workshop (Aug. 20, 2013) (slides available at http://goo.gl/NIQG0Z).
44. WAKEFIELD & WILDEMAN, Supra note 13
45. Swisher & Roettger, Supra note 16.
46. For instance, a multi-agency collaboration in Denver, Colorado, offers an integrative approach to reentry services, offering assistance with employment, child support issues, and family reintegration. See generally Jessica Pearson & Lanae Davis, SERVING PARENTS WHO LEAVE PRISON: FINAL REPORT ON THE WORK AND FAMILY CENTER (2001). Internationally, several countries allow (or even require) longer-term codetention programs, which range from a few months to several years.
47. WOMEN’S PRISON ASS’N, MOTHERS, INFANTS, AND IMPRISONMENT: A NATIONAL LOOK AT PRISON NURSERIES AND COMMUNITY-BASED ALTERNATIVES 35 app. V (2009), available at http://goo.gl/50SROU
48. PARKE & CLARKE-STEWART, Supra note 23, at 14. In the United States, programming for current and formerly incarcerated parents and their children is offered by private, nonprofit, and government entities (at federal, state, and county institutions). Unfortunately, few programming efforts have been rigorously evaluated.
49. PARKE & CLARKE-STEWART, Supra note 23, at 9.
50. Sarah Shannon et al., GROWTH IN THE U.S. EX-FELON AND EX-PRISONER
51. POPULATION, 1948 TO 2010, at 12 (2011).
52. Alec Ewald & Christopher Uggen, The Collateral Effects of Imprisonment on Prisoners, Their Families, and Communities, in THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF SENTENCING AND CORRECTIONS 83 (Joan Petersilia & Kevin R. Reitz eds., 2012).
53. Christopher Uggen et al., The Edge of Stigma: An Experimental Audit of the Effects of Low-Level Criminal Records on Employment (2010) (unpublished manuscript) (on file with the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology).