| Studies on the children
of pregnant prisoners indicate that prenatal stress related to the parents' criminal activity
(often drug use), arrest, and incarceration can lead to poor
perinatal outcomes. Children of pregnant prisoners serving longer
terms have better outcomes than those serving shorter terms,
possibly due to better nutrition and improved prenatal care in
prison. Infants of prisoners appear to experience few direct
effects on intellectual and physical development. However, the
most important impact of parental incarceration may be the
prevention of bonding between the parents and their infants.
As children grow older, the impacts
of separation by incarceration appear to become more serious. For
children between two and six, ability to develop autonomy and
initiative may be damaged by the trauma of the parents' criminal
activity and/or arrest and parent-child separation due to
incarceration. The long-term impacts of parental incarceration may
be worst at this stage, because children can understand and
remember traumatic events, but lack the ability to process them
without help. In middle childhood (7-10 years), parental arrest
and incarceration may have major impacts on social adjustment:
many children in this age group develop aggressive behaviors and
difficulty getting along with others, particularly in school.
Early adolescent (11-14 years)
children of prisoners have typically had multiple experiences with
parental crime, arrest and incarceration. While some are able to
overcome the absence of a parent by developing stable, productive
patterns, many children of prisoners display maladaptive
behavioral patterns and reject limitations on their behavior. Late
adolescence is the period over which children develop a cohesive
identity, the ability to engage in adult work and relationships,
and the capacity to become independent and self-sufficient. By
this stage of life, many late adolescent children of prisoners
have experienced a lifetime of disruption and trauma related to
parental incarceration. The cumulative effects of this manifest
themselves in decreased likelihood of reunification, increased
delinquency, and negative perceptions of the criminal justice
system. In summary, parental incarceration and related enduring
trauma, separation, and inadequate care interfere with child
development, resulting in negative long-term outcomes, including
intergenerational incarceration.
The Impacts of Enhanced
Visitation Programs
Studies show that frequent, regular
visitation is beneficial to children of incarcerated parents:
children who visit their incarcerated parents score higher on
measures of well-being, IQ, emotional adjustment, and behavioral
measures. In a review of important child welfare literature,
Johnston (1995b, p. 138) concludes that parent-child visitation
produces beneficial effects for the several reasons.
- Visits allow children to express
their emotional reactions to the separation. The more
disturbed children are by the separation, the more important
it is that visitation occurs.
- Visitation helps parents to deal
with separation and loss issues, increasing their ability to
help their children deal with the same issues.
- Parent-child separation can
cause irrational feelings and fears in children about their
parents. Visits allow children to deal with those feelings and
fears, and help them to form a more realistic understanding of
their parents' circumstances.
- Visits allow parents to model
appropriate interactions for children who react negatively to
the separation.
- Visits allow parents and
children to maintain their existing relationship, which leads
to more successful reunification after incarceration.
Despite the evidence of the
beneficial impacts of visitation, child protective services
workers, caregivers, and prisoners do not support visitation
because they perceive that visitation in the prison setting could
have negative effects on children. In addition, prisons are often
far away, making it difficult for caregivers to transport children
for visits. When visits do occur, standard visitation settings are
inappropriate for children, providing little opportunity for
meaningful parent-child interaction (Block and Potthast 2001).
Parent-child contact visitation
programs, also termed enhanced visitation programs, address the
need for extended physical contact between children and their
parents. Traditional visitation settings allow only a minimal
amount of physical contact, and are extremely restrictive for
children who are accustomed to intensive, repeated physical
interaction with their parents. In contrast, contact visitation
programs allow children and their parents to interact more closely
in child-oriented environments, which reduces the amount of stress
experienced by parents and children during visitation (Johnston
1995c).
Seeking to normalize interaction
between incarcerated parents and their children, several states
have developed enhanced visitation programs. These programs
provide more flexible visiting schedules, play areas with toys and
activities, and longer, more meaningful contact times (Block and
Potthast 2001). Such programs view visitation as a beneficial,
low-cost intervention that ameliorates the negative impacts of
separation, can play a key role in children's future development,
and may help reduce future antisocial behavior among prisoners'
children (Johnston 1995b).
Very little research has been done
on the impacts of enhanced visitation programs. One program that
has been evaluated is Girl Scouts Beyond Bars (GSBB), an enhanced
visitation program in which incarcerated mothers and their
daughters meet twice per month for structured troop activities and
one-on-one private conversation. An impact assessment of the
program found that compared to a control group, a higher
percentage (64 vs. 49 percent) of GSBB participant mothers
received visits from their daughters. GSBB mothers also averaged
more visits per year (11.6 vs. 6.1) (Block and Potthast 2001, p.
104). In interviews, caregivers indicated that they had observed
substantial positive impacts among the children in their care
since they began GSBB. These improvements consisted of better
communication and understanding between incarcerated mothers and
their daughters, a decrease in antisocial behavior at home and at
school, and higher self-esteem. The study concludes that child
welfare professionals should consider enhanced visitation programs
as a means to support parent-child relationships and reduce some
of the problems caused by incarceration.
Conclusion
Children can be negatively affected
by the incarceration of their parents, sometimes resulting in
long-term problems. There is limited evidence to indicate that
enhanced visitation programs can reduce the negative impacts of
parental incarceration on children. Frequent visitation in a
non-threatening environment can lead to improvements in
parent-child relationships, which can, in turn, lead to reductions
in anti-social behavior and increases in self-esteem among the
children of incarcerated parents.
Reference List
Block, Kathleen J., and Margaret J.
Potthast. 2001. Girl Scouts Beyond Bars: Facilitating Parent-Child
Contact in Correctional Settings. In Children with Parents in
Prison: Child Welfare Policy, Program, and Practice Issues,
ed. Cynthia Seymour and Creasie Finney Hairston, 93-110. New
Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Johnston, Denise. 1995a. Effects of
Parental Incarceration. In Children of Incarcerated Parents,
ed. Katherine Gabel and Denise Johnston, 59-88. New York:
Lexington Books.
Johnston, Denise. 1995b.
Parent-Child Visitation in the Jail or Prison. In Children of
Incarcerated Parents, ed. Katherine Gabel and Denise Johnston,
135-143. New York: Lexington Books.
Johnston, Denise. 1995c.
Intervention. In Children of Incarcerated Parents, ed.
Katherine Gabel and Denise Johnston, 199-236. New York: Lexington
Books.
Mumola, Christopher J. 2000. Bureau
of Justice Statistics Special Report: Incarcerated Parents and
Their Children. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice,
Office of Justice Programs. |
