If Family Matters

• Author: Megan Comfort,Anupa Bir,Christine Lindquist,Tasseli McKay
• Date: 01 May 2016
• Published date: 01 May 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12209

POLICY ESSAY

INCARCERATION AND FAMILY

RELATIONSHIPS

If Family Matters

Supporting Family Relationships During Incarceration

and Reentry

Tasseli McKay

Megan Comfort

Christine Lindquist

Anupa Bir

RTI International

In the context of growing evidence that prisoners’ family relationships play a pivotal

role in their reintegration after release, Thomas Mowen and Christy Visher(2016, this

issue) find that some individuals are more vulnerable than others to deterioration in

these relationships over the course of incarceration and reentry. Having prior convictions,

living with a mental health condition, being single or divorced, or reporting institutional

barriers to family contact were all associated with experiencing a sharper decline in family

contact or support over the course of an incarceration and release from prison, whereas being

Black, female, or participating in parenting classes were associated with improvements in

family contact and support. It is also important to note that in the modal case, family inter-

actions and family emotional support both declined steeply from pre- to postincarceration.

Although this finding does not establish the impact of incarceration on family relationships

(as there is no comparison with family relationship trajectories of similar nonincarcerated

individuals), it does indicate that incarceration often exacts a heavy toll on the very family

relationships on which reentering persons will rely for “housing, emotional support, finan-

cial resources, and overall stability” (Visher, Kachnowski, LaVigne, and Travis, 2004)—in

short, almost every aspect of their survival and well-being—upon release.

What would public policy look like if it reflected not only the known importance of

family relationships in the lives of reentering individuals but also the specific factors that

Direct correspondence to Tasseli McKay, RTI International, Hill Building, 3040 East Cornwallis Road, Post Office

Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194 (e-mail: tmckay@rti.org).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12209 C2016 American Society of Criminology 529

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 15 rIssue 2