Parental Incarceration: Personal Accounts and Developmental Impact

Description

Parental Incarceration makes available personal stories by adults who have had the childhood experience of parental incarceration. These stories help readers better understand the complex circumstances that influence these children’s health and development, as well as their high risk for intergenerational crime and incarceration. Denise Johnston examines her own children’s experience of her incarceration within the context of what the research and her 30 years of practice with prisoners and their children has taught her, arguing that it is imperative to attempt to understand parental incarceration within a developmental framework. Megan Sullivan, a scholar in the Humanities, examines the effects of her father’s incarceration on her family, and underscores the importance of the reentry process for families. The number of arrested, jailed, and imprisoned persons in the United States has increased since 1960, most dramatically between 1985 and 2000. As the majority of these incarcerated persons are parents, the number of minor children with an incarcerated parent has increased alongside, peaking at an estimated 2.9 million in 2006. The impact of the experience of parental incarceration has garnered attention by researchers, but to date attention has been focused on the period when parents are actually in jail or prison. This work goes beyond that to examine the developmental impact of children’s experiences that extend long beyond that timeframe. A valuable resource for students in corrections, human services, social work, counseling, and related courses, as well as practitioners, program/agency administrators, policymakers, advocates, and others involved with families of the incarcerated, this book is testimony that the consequences of mass incarceration reach far beyond just the offender. Cover ......Page 1 Half Title ......Page 2 Title Page ......Page 4 Copyright Page ......Page 5 Dedication ......Page 6 Table of Contents ......Page 8 Foreword ......Page 10 Preface ......Page 12 Preface ......Page 22 Notes ......Page 29 Acknowledgments ......Page 32 Notes on Contributors ......Page 33 Contributor Biographies ......Page 35 1. Relationships ......Page 42 My Daddy by Betty......Page 61 My Guardian Angel by David Santiago......Page 62 The Unconditional Love by Manuel Reyes Williams......Page 64 Full Circle by Victoria Greene......Page 65 His Children’s Conviction by Danielle Chapman......Page 66 My Parents by Aliyah......Page 68 Blue by Larri Calhoun......Page 70 All Grown Up by Hollie Overton......Page 72 2. Safety and Protection ......Page 75 A Life of Crime by Marcus T. Rogers......Page 88 I Think About My Father All the Time by Miranda Longo......Page 89 I Wish Things Had Been Different by Moe-Moe Sullivan......Page 90 Life as an Unhealed Wound by Nate A. Lindell......Page 93 Betty Boop by Percy Levy......Page 98 The Chain by Jasmine......Page 101 Nothing Like My Dad by Aaron Godinez......Page 103 My Parents’ Incarceration by Mary......Page 104 3. Care and Guidance ......Page 106 Man of the Year by Pamela Hayes......Page 122 A Rocky Start by Willard C. Jimerson......Page 123 The Culture of Incarceration by Bruce Bennett......Page 124 My Mother’s Incarceration by Natalie Chaidez......Page 129 Life Without by Kris William Benson......Page 132 Everyone in My Family Has Been in Prison by Shadow......Page 135 About My Mother by Abel Hawkins......Page 136 In His Footsteps by Jeremy Mark Read......Page 138 This Indescribable Butterfly by Alisha Murdock......Page 141 4. The Experiences of Parental Arrest, Incarceration and Reentry ......Page 145 My Name is Tony Shavers by Tony Shavers, III......Page 164 The White Bridge by Carie Spicer......Page 167 That Place by Ifetayo Harvey......Page 169 Visiting Day by Vannette Thomson......Page 170 Dad in Prison by Shari Ostrow Scher......Page 172 My Family by Jessamyn Ramirez......Page 176 We Never Part by Bianca S. Bryant......Page 178 Fathers and Sons by Michael P. Carlin......Page 180 Reentry Story by Daniel Bowes......Page 185 Conclusions: What We Can Learn From Adults Who Experienced Parental Incarceration as Children ......Page 191 The Most Important Thing by Sharika Lockhart Young......Page 200 References ......Page 203 Index ......Page 216