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The Pros And Cons Of Incarceration

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The Other Side of Incarceration Corrected by Cody Akerson
Within the last decade, the United States has seen a dramatic rise in incarceration rates. Though the crimes do vary, the United States is now known for holding the highest number or prisoners compared to many different countries throughout the world. With a higher crime rate comes higher conviction rates, which in turn means more prisoners. Though mass incarceration rates is usually a hot topic of discussion, there is an underlying problem with these high numbers of prisoners that is often left not talked about. Many of these prisoners are parents. Parents are supposed to protect and provide for their child, and show them the difference between right and wrong. So what happens when a parent fails to do that and ends up in trouble themselves? Discussing the statistics of parental incarceration and effects that it has on a child can help a person to better understand how to prevent the cycle from repeating itself. Imagine being told as a child that your parent has done something wrong, and will have to go away for a long time. A parent is going to jail, and the child is the one left to face the world without them while they serve their time. According to Youth with Incarcerated Parents, there has been an dramatic increase in parental incarceration from 1986 to 1997. Approximately 600,000 children …show more content…

Dealing with the social stigma of having a parent in prison is an added stressor on these kids. When a child’s parent is gone for a military deployment, for example, their parent is hailed a hero and the child is looked at as tough. When a child’s parent is incarcerated, their parent is now looked at as a menace to society, and the child looked at as damaged. Dealing with these stigmas only increases a chance for further negative responses and consequences from the

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Granting children, the right to visit their incarcerated mothers is a contentious topic with both sides having strong claims and counterclaims. Terrance Bogans does an outstanding job in his essay, “Being Mommy Behind Bars: The Psychological Benefits of Child Visitation with Incarcerated Mothers” addressing why children should be allowed to visit their incarcerated mothers, citing many reasons and using many argumentative components. Bogans has an explicit thesis in the conclusion “Child visitation must be increased in order to alleviate the psychological strains that take place during incarceration” (15). Bogans uses this clearly stated thesis to tell his main point and to address his opposition. The author’s purpose is to convince readers that children and incarcerated mothers have a right to see each other and no one should stop that.

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Summary Lynn S. Urban and Barb Burton conducted a case-study (2015) investigating the effect of parenting training on incarcerated women within a three year period. Studies showed that there was a negative impact on children if their parents were incarcerated, so a case study was done to increase the connection between parent and child. The goal of the case study was to stop the cycle of incarceration and bad parenting habits or styles within families. The program was conducted at the Chillicothe Correctional Center with the member of the PATCH program.

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Furthermore, these families who took custody of toddler and teenagers also had a hard time guiding them on the bus, train, and taxis. Trips to the Correctional Facility was a burden for families, causing them not too visit whomever was incarcerated. For the women who are incarcerated families can be a source of support when serving their term in prison. For example, piper describes when families went to visit in prison women were extremely happy to have seen all of them (Kerman, 2011). Having the support from family can help and motivate the individual while in

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For example, children with incarcerated fathers have a higher chance of growing up in poverty, are more likely to grow up without a father, and are often stigmatized, all of which can limit their future labor market opportunities in the legal sector and increase the likelihood that they, like their fathers before them, will engage in criminal activity (Wildeman 2009). Thus, creating a never-ending, vicious

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Video Discussion 5 The United States grapples with a troubling reality: it incarcerates more children than any other developed country. Despite comprising only 4% of the global population, the US accounts for a staggering 22% of the world's prison population. These statistics paint a grim picture of a justice system in need of reform, particularly concerning its treatment of juvenile offenders. Though he came out a changed man, Jeff Wallace's journey through the juvenile justice system shows how much change is needed within the system.

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From healthcare to personal safety, inmates are suffering illnesses, abuse, excessive sentences, and maltreatment at an astronomical rate. There has been a vast debate on the issue. There are many arguments for lesser prison sentences and better prison conditions. Mass Incarceration on Trial, A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America, written by Jonathan Simon, illustrates how our nation has become far removed from treating prisoners as human beings who deserving dignity and our nation has failed to properly address this grossly flawed prison system; particularly California. We as a society know very little about mass incarceration and the atrocities that happen behind the concrete walls of the numerous prisons in

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INTRODUCTION The United States incarcerates a greater percentage of the population than any country in the world (CBS, 2012). According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 2.3 million adults were incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and county jails in 2013. There are an additional 820,000 people on parole and 3.8 million people on probation (Wagner & Rabuy, 2016) Jail and prison differ primarily in regards to the length of stay for inmates.

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McBride, Elizabeth Cincotta, Solomon, Amy L. Familites Left Behind, The Hidden Cost of Incarceration and Reentry. http://www.urban.org/publications/310882.html . Accessed May 1, 2014 American Psychological Association. Webpage. Washington, DC 04 01 2014 http://www.apa.org/topics/parenting/ Alex D Thio, Jim D Taylor, Martin D Schwartz.

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children have a parent in jail. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area alone, 72,000 children have lost a parent due to incarceration (Amachi, 2016). Due to the fact that the size of the problem is growing “and its tendency to impact already vulnerable children signals a need to clarify both the unique needs and challenges shared by these children as well as the individual qualities and circumstances that mediate the effect of parental incarceration” (La Vinge, Davies, & Brazzell, 2008, p. 2). Unfortunately, children who suffer from having an incarcerated parent are too often invisible to policy makers and social service organizations. Nature and Scope of Concern

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Introduction: In the United States today, state and federal prisons house over 1.5 million prisoners. Families of incarcerated individuals share in their time of confinement, including their children, who become indirect victims of crime. Approximately 1.7 million children under eighteen in the U.S. have at least one parent behind bars, constituting 2.3 percent of the 74 million minor children (Russell-Brown, 2015). Numerous children encounter the challenging reality of having a parent behind bars.

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Children of incarcerated parents may face a number of challenging circumstances. They may have experienced trauma related to their parent’s arrest or experiences leading up to it. Children of incarcerated parents may also be more likely to have faced other adverse childhood experiences, including witnessing violence in their household or exposure to drug and alcohol abuse. (Children of Incarcerated parents, 1). Analyzing data from 2011-12 National Survey of Children’s Health, a representative sample of children seventeen and younger, and the study found higher rates of attention deficits, behavioral problems, speech and language delays, and other developmental delays in children of the incarcerated.

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The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.

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An incarcerated parent family could also be a blended family or single parent family unit. The risks associated with both styles of families were previously discussed. Adding an incarcerated parent to the variables and the percentages of delinquency rises exponentially. More than 2.7 million children in the U.S. have an incarcerated parent, roughly about 1 in 28 children. About half of the youth with an incarcerated parent are under ten years of age (Church, et al., 2009, pg. 6).

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However, besides the factors that have contributed to the growing rates in prisons, it is equally as important to note how mass incarceration has affected the communities of those incarcerated. Clear (2008) discusses various effects inflicted on ones community once they are incarcerated and mentions “These destructive effects are felt in the lives of children, as well as in family functioning, mental and physical health, labor markets, and the economic and political infrastructures of these places. (Clear, P.102). In other words, it affects the community largely in the sense that those children do poorly in their education and could even end up on the same path. As for family functioning, incarceration can affect the family dynamic because loss of income, and the socioeconomic view of the community could decrease even more due to the fear of further crime and as a result, it will be a challenge to obtain a decent living.

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Children need to feel secure and loved and need supervision and guidance. If a parent cannot be present to care for and look after their children, it can cause the child to feel afraid and they may act out or behave in ways that they would not if the parent were living with them. Several studies have found that a significant number of children of incarcerated parents struggle with a variety of childhood problems that have long term implications for adult adjustment (Kjellstrand, 2012). Even if children visit parents in while they are incarcerated, the physical and emotional distance can become a strain on their relationship. I think more should be done to encourage courts to take families into consideration in sentencing and correctional facilities should have better resources for incarcerated parents to maintain healthy relationships with their children.

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