Corrections_Today_March_April_2023_Vol.85_No.2

when compared to children who are not able to maintain contact. 27 Unfortunately, maintaining contact with an incarcerated loved one is challenging. Only two out of three state prisoners report at least monthly contact with their children, whether that contact be by mail, phone, or visitation; over half (54%) of state incarcerated mothers do not receive any child visits. 28 Visitation areas, which are not child friendly, can be stressful places for children. Correctional-based policies may only allow non-contact visitation and/or visitation through a plexiglass divider preventing the child from any

These children may undergo issues such as depression, social exclusion, family instability, anxiety, substance use, early criminality, conduct disorder, antisocial be havior, poor educational attainment, educational under performance, school failure, mental health issues, limited future income, physical ailments and unhealthy intimate relationships. Children of incarcerated parents may also be more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anger, aggression, isolating and self harming behaviors. 32 There are already so many

social, emotional and cogni tive changes in adolescence which can lead to mental health issues but adolescents with an incarcerated parent are found to be at higher risk for men tal health problems, such as anxiety, intrusive thoughts and somatization. 33 Incarcerated parents report their children experience a multitude of emo tional responses following their arrest such as abandonment, resentment and anger. 34 Such problems can present more acutely in early adulthood and continue far into late adulthood. For example, men who have an incarcerated parent as a child are more likely to have anxiety

physical contact with their incarcerated parent. ‘Touch” is an important part of demon strating affection and a child may be frustrated or sad dened by not being allowed to engage with their parent. In one research study, the authors found children who visited jails where plexiglass visita tion was the only option, often led to children exhibiting more externalizing behaviors; the more frequent such visits, the more frequent these behav iors. 29 Others found a positive relationship between the frequency of the child’s visits and the quality of the parent child interactions, helping to

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mitigate depression and loneliness, but it is unclear if these are contact or non-contact visits. 30 Even limited contact appears to be better than no contact. In one study, incar cerated parents were videotaped while reading a story; once completed, the video was sent to their child. 31 The increased communication appeared to improve the overall child-parent relationship. Behavioral issues A parent’s incarceration can serve as a significant turning point in a child’s life. Children can suffer tre mendously when a parent is incarcerated; it is a grave disruption to the parent-child bond. Essentially, children are also punished in this process and become the col lateral consequence of a crime they did not commit.

and depression as an adult. 35 It is important to remember many risk factors (i.e., substance abuse, untreated mental health issues, domestic violence, abuse, neglect, poverty, etc.) may have been present in the child’s home prior to the parent’s incarcera tion, which are subsequently exacerbated by the parent’s arrest. One study found jailed parents often experience homelessness and housing instability in the year prior to their incarceration; the more housing instability in a child’s life, the higher the likelihood for internalizing and externalizing behaviors. 36 Not all children of incarcerated parents will experience behavioral issues. In a latent pro file analysis study of 1,088 children, Kremer et al., (2020) found that a large majority (61%) of the children they studied were well-adjusted, but the remaining children →

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