Working with children of incarcerated parent Essays

Working with children of incarcerated parent Essays Working with children of incarcerated parent Essay Working with children of incarcerated parent Essay Parental incarceration is a plague in the modern day society. Millions of children in the United States of America have at least one parent in prison and millions more have experienced the incarceration of one of their parents in their lifetime. Parental incarceration has several adverse effects in the lives of these children. These children experience problems in school, drug abuse, join mobs or gangs and they eventually become delinquent. This paper explores and discusses the problems that the children face and how to manage the trauma of an incarcerated parent. STATISTICS America has over two million children with at least one parent in jail; this estimate to about two out of every a hundred children is directly affected. In 1999 it was estimated that 721,500 of State and Federal prisoners were parents to 1,498,800 children under age 18. Twenty two percent of all minor children with a parent in prison were under 5 years old. Prior to admission, less than half of the parents in State prison reported living with their children. Of those who lived with their children forty four percent were fathers, while sixty four percent were mothers (Wright and Seymour, 2000). EFFECTS OF PARENTAL INCARCERATION ON THE CHILDREN There is a correlation between parental incarceration and child behavior; parental incarceration poses a great hindrance to a child’s social, psychological and emotional development. Children become traumatized by the incarceration of their parents; this trauma is characterized by confusion. They fail to understand their parent’s actions as the young ones don’t understand how the judicial system works. Children from the ages of 7-11 tend experience anger and sadness some children experience health problems as well as phobias such as fear of darkness among others (Mumola, 2000). Trauma further interferes with a child’s control of emotions and makes them unable to deal with future emotional traumas. Due to the absence of a parent, a child faced with the social stigma of paternal incarceration will often also encounter embarrassment and shame, which may in turn further inhibit the ability of the child to adequately adjust to the anxieties resulting from the separation through incarceration (Arditti, 2003). Prolonged embarrassment promotes depression and withdrawal from social interactions. Parental incarceration leads to family disruptions such as separation from siblings, especially when the children end up in foster homes. Sibling separation results in the feeling of loneliness among the children causing them to become withdrawn and the children are stressed due to the change in caregivers. When both parents are incarcerated or one of the parents is unavailable while the other is incarcerated, the child ends up in the custody of a friend of the family or a relative or most of them end up in foster homes. This is stressful when the care given by the new guardians is not as good as the care they received from their parents. It is a well known fact that children are likely to do better as functional members of society when they are brought up by both of their parents. Furthermore, the children may at times lack financial support which results in poverty. Desperation for money may lead the children to crime and prostitution (McMahon, 2002). Although children are affected by the separation resulting from parental incarceration, some sociologists argue that these social emotional problems evident after parental incarceration are mainly a result of pre-incarceration faulty parental structures. Faulty parental management practices such as child abuse, both verbally and physical best predict a child’s behavior (Johnson Waldfogel, 2002). Other researchers agree but claim that the children of incarcerated parents are more at risk to have these social and emotional problems than the children of parents who were not incarcerated (Arditti, 2003). Other studies further show that incarceration of the father encourages the child to act out more than maternal incarceration. This behavior is observed after incarceration of the parent regardless of whether the child had similar problems prior to incarceration of the parent. CARE OF CHILDREN WITH INCARCERATED PARENTS Children with parents in prison are a responsibility to the society in general. Society should realize that these children may be grieving and they should learn to be patient with them. When one parent goes to prison it is the responsibility of the remaining parent to take care of the children this is stressful for the parent in terms of time management and finance, however this should not discourage them to do as much as they can. It has been observed that incase of paternal incarceration mothers are likely to leave their jobs because they become overburdened by the work of taking care of the children even though they will be facing financial difficulties at the time. This leads the family to rely on government assistance. The family has to get used to the new lifestyle and this becomes stressful for the children and this could further hinder the child’s development (Arditti, 2003). In some extreme circumstances, the children become accustomed to a life of assistance and reli ance and hence, involuntarily or otherwise, lead a similar life themselves. Incase the other parent is unavailable, the nearest relative takes custody of the children. Â  If there is no one to take care of the children they become the responsibility of the state. The social services department takes control of them. It is the duty of the social welfare to workers ensuring all children have a safe, permanent home, one that maintains and promotes their well-being. The guardian should try to alleviate the child’s uncertainty by explaining to them what has happened to their family. The guardian should reassure the child that life hasn’t come to an end with the incarceration of the parent. The guardian should preserve the honor of the parent such that the child still respects his parent regardless of his or her past actions. PARENTS IN PRISON Understanding parents in prison is important in helping a child progress from the trauma of incarceration of a parent. Building a relationship with the parent is difficult for a person managing a child whose parent has been incarcerated. A large number of people in prison are parents; approximately fifty six percent of these prisoners are parents to minors. The population of incarcerated parents is growing. The population for women is growing faster than the male population. The male population is growing by 6.6% while the female population is growing by 8.5% (Wright Seymour 1990). Since the mother is considered to be the primary care giver, the re has also been an increase in the number of children in foster care. Most fathers are incarcerated because violence while the mothers are jailed for drug trafficking and fraud (Mumola, 2000). Most of these parents are serving long sentences. Some of these parents further suffer from a mental condition. It should also be noted that substance abuse is a very big problem to the parents serving jail term. 85% of these parents in jail abuse drugs. REUNIFYING FAMILIES AFTER PARENTAL INCARCERATION Ideally, after a parent is incarcerated the family should go through a counseling session, in reality this is difficult as the parents are unstable at the time, both psychologically and financially. Most of them don’t have any support system and find it difficult to cope with the ‘outside life.’ Returning the child to the parent soon after the release of the parent is not good because of the parent’s instability. Returning the child to the parent soon after release also stresses the parent and demoralizes him from stabilizing himself. CONCLUSION Parental incarceration has a lot of negative effects on the children that is evident throughout their lifetime. Childhood is a very sensitive stage in a person’s development hence it is crucial that a child has a very stable environment. The most important thing to do is to assure the children that their parents are absent not because of something bad or wrong that the children did. This is to help them overcome the guilt that tends to riddle these children. It then becomes the responsibility of the society as a whole to help in the development of children. It is necessary that the members of society are patient with them and help them in all the ways possible so that they overcome the trauma.