How Incarceration Affects Prisoners' Families and Children
This paper examines the wide-ranging consequences of incarceration on the families of prisoners in the United States, with particular attention to partners and children. Drawing on research in criminology and social policy, the paper addresses financial hardships stemming from lost income, increased childcare costs, and the expenses of maintaining contact with incarcerated loved ones. It also explores psychological impacts, including shame, stigma, and the absence of emotional support. Special attention is given to children, whose risks of infant mortality, homelessness, and behavioral problems increase significantly when a parent is incarcerated. The paper concludes that these converging disadvantages create a potential generational cycle of incarceration, underscoring the need for more robust family support systems.
- Introduction: The Scope of Family Impact: Scale of U.S. incarceration and family impact
- Financial Hardships Facing Partners and Families: Lost income, childcare costs, and visitation expenses
- Psychological Consequences for Family Members: Shame, stigma, and loss of emotional support
- Effects on Children: Health, Behavior, and Development: Infant mortality, aggression, and developmental harm
- Racial Disparities in Incarceration's Family Consequences: Homelessness and inequality gaps by race
- The Generational Cycle of Disadvantage: Compounding risks and future incarceration patterns
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What makes this paper effective
- Uses specific quantitative data — such as the 47–49% increase in infant mortality and the 138–140% increase in homelessness risk for Black families — to ground abstract claims in measurable evidence.
- Presents a multi-dimensional argument that moves from financial to psychological to developmental impacts, showing how these factors interact and compound one another.
- Acknowledges complexity by noting exceptions, such as incarceration offering relief from domestic violence or reduced homelessness risk for white families, before returning to the dominant negative pattern.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper effectively uses convergence argumentation — showing how multiple independent risk factors (financial stress, psychological harm, developmental setbacks) combine to produce a "domino effect" that perpetuates inequality across generations. This technique strengthens the overall claim without overstating any single finding.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with national incarceration statistics to establish scale, then narrows progressively: from partners, to children, to specific subgroups (Black families, incarcerated mothers). It closes by synthesizing the individual harms into a macro-level argument about generational disadvantage. The Works Cited section follows MLA format with a mix of books and journal articles.
Introduction: The Scope of Family Impact
There can be little doubt that incarceration impacts not only the prisoner but also their family. With more than 1 million women and 6 million men within the correctional system in the United States (Clarke and Adashi 923), an exponentially large number of family members are affected. Those most impacted are immediate family members — partners, children, and parents — as well as the wider communities in which these families live (Braman 5). This paper reviews the problems faced by prisoners' families, focusing on the partners and children of those incarcerated.
Financial Hardships Facing Partners and Families
The impact on partners can be far-reaching, especially for those who formed their relationship before any incarceration occurred. These impacts are both tangible and psychological. First, the incarceration of a partner may create significant financial hardship, often due to the loss of income — particularly where the prisoner was the primary wage earner. When one considers that the majority of those incarcerated come from socially disadvantaged backgrounds (Pettit 8), and that approximately a third of male prisoners and up to half of female prisoners were living with children prior to incarceration (Liebling and Maruna 443), a troubling picture emerges: social inequality and disadvantage may not only be maintained, but actively exacerbated by the loss of a wage (Wakefield and Wilderman 134).
Financial pressure is felt across most affected families and extends beyond the potential loss of wages. Increased costs are also commonly incurred. In families with children, additional pressures arise as a parent and caregiver is removed from the home, a role that may need to be filled by others (Comfort 445; Hairston 44). Family and friends may help, but paid childcare may also be required. Visiting prisoners and maintaining contact further add to costs that are already difficult for households with tight budgets (Comfort 171).
Psychological Consequences for Family Members
Family members also suffer significant psychological consequences. The sudden change in family structure creates increased stress, and in most cases there will be feelings of shame and the associated social stigma (Braman 8). This appears to be true for all types of prisoner families, with the exception of cases where incarceration stems from political conflict (Comfort 136). Psychological impacts may include not only the initial shock of the arrest and exposure to the justice system, but also the enduring pressures that shape the subsequent lives of family members (Braman 5).
These difficulties are compounded by the loss of the prisoner's support. Unable to provide either a mental or physical presence, the incarcerated individual cannot offer the emotional and practical support their family needs (Comfort 184). It may also be argued that incarceration can present some positive outcomes in particular circumstances — for example, women who suffered violence at the hands of their partners may be freed from that abuse (Comfort 162). However, such cases are typically accompanied by the same negative, life-shaping consequences experienced by other families.
Effects on Children: Health, Behavior, and Development
The life-altering changes brought about by a parent's incarceration result in wide-ranging disadvantages for children, many of whom already faced above-average risks to their health and wellbeing. Incarceration intensifies a number of these risks, particularly for children with incarcerated parents (Wakefield and Wilderman 137). These risks include elevated rates of infant mortality and increased levels of homelessness (Wakefield and Wilderman 139). Specifically, infant mortality increases by 47% to 49% when a parent is incarcerated.
General mental health and behavioral issues are also more prevalent among this population (Wakefield and Wilderman 137). Research indicates that children with an incarcerated parent exhibit increased internalizing behavior by between 5% and 6% (Wakefield and Wilderman 137), while externalizing behavioral problems increase by between 4% and 6% (Wakefield and Wilderman 138). For boys with an incarcerated parent, aggression levels are significantly elevated — between three and six times the normal level, ranging from 18% to 33% (Wakefield and Wilderman 138).
These factors create specific challenges in terms of parenting, as no parent in prison will be fully equipped to address their children's needs at a time when those children are struggling to adjust to the situation (Hairston 45). The situation may be further complicated by the involvement of other family members who may be unwilling to accept the circumstances, withholding information from children in the mistaken belief that they are acting in the children's best interests (Hairston 48).
For mothers of infants, additional difficulties arise even when the mother is permitted to keep her baby in custody. Even when there are no concerns about information being withheld, problems persist. For example, the lack of privacy required to facilitate mother–child bonding — due to the close supervision of incarcerated settings — has the potential for very long-term impacts on the parent–child relationship. This harms not only the prisoner but also the emotional development of the child (Clarke and Adashi 924).
Works Cited
Braman, D. Doing Time on the Outside. University of Michigan Press, 2007.
Clarke, J. G., and E. Y. Adashi. "Perinatal Care for Incarcerated Patients." JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association 305.9 (2011): 923–929.
Comfort, M. Doing Time Together: Love and Family in the Shadow of the Prison. University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Hairston, C. F. "Prisoners and Families: Parenting Issues During Incarceration." From Prison to Home Conference, 2002.
Liebling, A., and S. Maruna. The Effects of Imprisonment. Routledge, 2013.
Pettit, B. "Incarceration & Social Inequality." Daedalus 139.3 (2010): 8–19.
Wakefield, S., and C. Wilderman. Children of the Prison Boom: Mass Incarceration and the Future of American Inequality. Oxford University Press, 2014.
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