Children of Incarcerated Parents

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Children of Incarcerated Parents

When a person goes through incarceration, the person has to provide information as to whether or not they have children. In case the person has children, the children need to be taken care of. The various states, the country, and other concerned groups deal with these children in various ways. The main aim is to make sure that the children continue with their lives, school and that the food that they get is enough for them. The children also need to get other kinds of care such as medical care and hobbies and personal interests.

In order to understand what the children go through, it is important to understand the kinds of parents that go through incarceration. According to research, most of the children with parents in incarceration are black, have parents with low levels of education, have parents in rural areas or have parents who are poor. The issue of black parents facing incarceration disproportionately is a racial discrimination issue. For the rest of the groups, the parents are more likely to commit crimes when compared to other parents (Christian, 2009). However, it is possible for children other than those with the above types of parents to be incarcerated. 

These children often face other adverse conditions depending on where they live next. Some of them are likely to remain with the parent still available. Others live with a relative, while others go through the various state programs. In the first two cases, the children may end up with a person who has a history of drug and substance abuse. Apart from that, these children are more likely to experience parental divorce when compared to children without incarcerated parents. Most of them also witness their parents or guardians argue or fight physically, while others may live with a suicidal or mentally ill person (Christian, 2009). Sometimes, these kids may face all these conditions at the same time.

Some of the programs that these children have include support groups, after school activities for the children and social recreation activities. These programs are meant to help the children live a normal life (Johnston, 2012). The after school programs are common among these children. One of the positive things to come from this is that these children are likely to do well in school and in other academic related activities. However, some children may not experience these results especially if their home environment is worse. Instead, they may become worse at school.

Social service providers also help children who have incarcerated parents. Their aim is to check and make sure that these children continually get the care that they deserve. They also make sure that abuse of these children, especially physical abuse does not take place. They may evaluate the caregiver to determine whether they are in a position to take care of children. This evaluation includes past criminal records and drug use (Graham, Harris, & Carpenter, 2010). The reason for this is that these can determine whether the care giver will do a good job with the children.

In conclusion, it is clear that children with incarcerated parents often face difficulties. In addition to no time with the incarcerated parent, they are more likely to experience other problems such as physical abuse and divorce or separation of parents. However, there are programs in place to help them. These include social services, school based programs and activities that involve being social. Eventually, some of the incarcerated parents may come back to their children. However, these children often have to grow up with one of the parents, and sometimes both being absent for an important and lengthy time of their life.

References

Christian, S. (2009, March) Children of Incarcerated Parents. In National conference of State Legislature (p. 1)

Graham, J. A., Harris, Y. R., & Carpenter, G. (2010) The changing landscape in the American Prison population: Implications for children with incarcerated parents. Children of Incarcerated Parents: Theoretical development and Clinical issues 3-19

Johnston, D. (2012) Services for Children of Incarcerated Parents. Family Court review, 50(1), 91- 105