Mass Incarceration and Children

¶ … Alone in the World -- Neil Bernstein The book is both a reflection of the damage done and a future roadmap. The author has employed several convincing aspects of narration in expressing her criticism of the policies that govern crime and the management of those convicted of various offences. Policies such as sentencing, arrest, foster care, legacy, visiting and re-entry are cast in the exploration.

Accounts from her interviews with children whose parents are incarcerated help us to not only see the suffering and trauma that such children go through, but also help us to see the lacunae in the system. the police took away Ricky's mother rather quickly, Leaving Ricky alone to fend for his younger brother who was an infant. Ricky had to take up adult responsibilities. He, a child too, cooked and took care of his infant brother for two weeks. Neighbours got concerned and called in Child Protection Services.

In another case, Antonia, 5 years old saw her mom picked up by the police, handcuffed and locked in the back of a police patrol car for a prostitution offence. She stayed with her brother aged 10 years for a whole week before their mother returned (Goldstein, 2004). According to human rights activists on the international front, incarceration of parents remains the greatest threat to the well-being of children in the U.S. (The Osborne Association, 2010).

The threat adds to the many negative effects that children encounter apart from the already delimiting poverty, unemployment of their parents, unreliable housing, and the violence they witness as their parents are sent to prison (Drucker 2011). The confluence of risk factors only helps to compound the likelihood of the children developing undesirable behavioral traits as they grow. It is clear that the incarceration only exacerbates the suffering such children already face.

These are the potential conditions to entice children to all manner of deviant habits and behavior including drug abuse and other antisocial tendencies (Feig, 2016). It is traumatic for children to watch their parent being arrested at gunpoint, handcuffed and pushed violently into a police truck. This is a common trend in poor communities in the USA. Such practice could be corrected by an officer taking the children to another room in the house and asking the parent if there is anyone to take care of them.

The action by the police as it stands now, fuels mistrust towards the police and the law by these children. Indeed, an officer reminds the author that when children see the police as enemies, it does not help either police or public safety (Goldstein, 2004). Bernstein has employed the use of well documented evidence and statistics to argue that prisoners and their children's well-being would be best attained with regular visits by the family, drug treatment and training classes in parenting.

the current practice of throwing parents into prison and stage-managing communications between such parents and their children by phone or through a glass wall, or even other common measures such as taking children to foster parents proves to be counter-productive. The prevailing practice seems to satisfy the common thirst for retribution but looking at Bernstein's proposals, it is apparent that they offer lower recidivism rates among the prisoners and reduce the probability of the children following the fault-ridden practices of their parents (Bernstein, 2005).

Some people believe that those convicted do not deserve privileges or fair treatment. However, experience shows that when the system shuts down all means by which a convicted person can seek to correct the wrongs in their lives, it leads to a dead-end and higher recidivism rates.

Children commonly celebrate when their parents are released from prison; however, they are soon confronted with the harsh realities of the parent's inability to get gainful employment, struggling with life and other challenges because of the stigma of the criminal past that has been effectively strengthened by the system. The outstanding problems such as untreated addictions do not help the situation either. These situations are fertile grounds for embarrassing everyone involved.

The consequence is the eventual return to crime by the parents and a higher chance of the children following suit (Goldstein, 2004). According to Bernstein, the collateral losses that result through incarceration of parents can be avoided through identification of malleable factors linked to outcomes for children and working on intervention to stop the risk trajectories associated with the process (Moore 1995). For example, it has been demonstrated that 50% of arrests occur at home when the children are watching (Drucker 2011).

It has further been shown that in 30% of such arrest occasions, weapons are drawn (Bernstein 2005). Bernstein seeks to offer solutions by presenting practical examples of working models each step of the way. New York is a case in point. The prisoners there face a notoriously long sentence because of the harsh and mandatory Rockefeller sentencing laws. DTAP program targets difficult cases. It offers participants the option of a deferred sentence if they agree to spend between 15 to 24 months in a residential treatment plan.

Columbia University did an evaluation of the program for five years. The results suggested that participants in the program were 87% unlikely to return to incarceration centers as opposed to those who served their term with no treatment at all. The DTAP program offers financial advantages, too. It has been cited that the savings on cost compared to the standard imprisonment charges and the recidivism cost amount to 26 million dollars since the program commenced in 1990 (Bernstein, 2005).

Several states have employed a range of approaches to reduce the suffering that children face because of the incarceration of their parents. Oregon has embarked on a program that encourages family bonds as a way of improving prospects for both children and parents and as a way of helping them to avoid conflict with the law and its enforcers. California has also embarked on a program that allows minor-offence convicts to move into prison with up to two children for a year. This negates the foster parents option (Goldstein, 2004).

It has been demonstrated that all the innovative programs mentioned are far more cost-effective compared to incarceration. They are also more successful in reducing recidivism. They are still only model programs though. America, apparently gives less regard to family values. It has done little to encourage rehabilitation and, it seems, would rather see many of its citizens incarcerated. Dorothy was framed and fixed by her boyfriend's friends because they wanted an easy way to reduce their mandatory sentence. It worked.

Dorothy was handed an unjust sentence of close to 20 years while her framers' sentences were reduced to 5; even though they are the ones that actually ran the drug ring. Dorothy served for 6 years before she received a reprieve from President Clinton when he commuted her sentence in 2000. She earned reasonably from her nurse technician job before she was imprisoned. It is reported that.