Vol. 32, No. 1, 8. Incarceration and the Sentences for the Children Left Behind.

• Author: By Dona Playton

Wyoming Bar Journal

2009.

Vol. 32, No. 1, 8.

Incarceration and the Sentences for the Children Left Behind

Wyoming Lawyer Issue: February, 2009

Incarceration and the Sentences for the Children Left Behind By Dona Playton

In a society focused on meting out punishment, it is no surprise that the prison population has grown dramatically. Today, mothers are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. prison population.(fn1) The majority of women inmates are incarcerated for non-violent crimes such as prostitution, fraud or drug offenses.(fn2) Many were caught up in criminal behavior as a result of being in an abusive relationship.(fn3) "Indeed, female convicts across the board report alarming rates of abuse: in 1999, the federal government found that close to sixty percent of all women in state prisons nationwide suffered abusive histories."(fn4) The incarceration of women uniquely impacts families and communities because women are often the primary caregivers of children.(fn5) "This change in the U.S. prison population has taken place with little to no understanding of the long-term effects on these women's ability to function as a parent, or the consequences for their children."(fn6) Three times the number of women have been put behind bars in the last ten years, over 75 percent of whom have minor children.(fn7) "Yet when a mother is arrested, there is no specific public policy nor routine process to coordinate what happens to the children, even immediately after childbirth."(fn8)

Understanding how the sentencing of an adult impacts a child's future is not readily contemplated. However, the reality is that the lives of millions of children have been impacted by the incarceration of one or both of their parents.(fn9) About three quarters of all female prisoners and two thirds of all male prisoners are parents with an average of 2.4 and 2.0 children each, respectively.(fn10) The nation's prisons held approximately 744,200 fathers and 65,600 mothers at midyear 2007.(fn11) "Parents held in the nation's prisons-52% of state inmates and 63% of federal inmates-reported having an estimated 1,706,600 minor children, accounting for 2.3% of the U.S. resident population under age 18."(fn12) Among mothers, 48 percent were white, 28 percent were black, and 17 percent were Hispanic.(fn13) A significant but unknown proportion of the children of incarcerated mothers also have an incarcerated father.(fn14)

Just what happens to the children when their parent or parents are incarcerated depends. "During their parent's incarceration, 90 percent of children with a father in prison live with their mother, whereas almost 80 percent of children with an incarcerated mother live with a grandparent (53 percent) or other relative (26 percent)."(fn15) Ten percent of children with mothers in prison are sent to foster homes.(fn16) Though the majority of children with a mom in prison live with grandparents, when a grandparent is forced to take on the role of parent to young children, the nature of the grandparent-grandchild relationship is forever changed.

In addition and...