The Impact of ‘Mass Incarceration

Black & Brown Children

By William J. Booker, As Published by: Chicago Defender, June 22, 2016

This Father’s Day, over two million American children may not have an opportunity to celebrate Father’s Day with their fathers because they are in prison.  It’s a sad fact, that the United States has the largest prison population in the world. There are over 2.3 million people in prisons throughout the United States, and though the United States represents less than 5 percent of the world’s population, it houses an astounding 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Since 1981, the increase in prison population has surged the number of children of incarcerated parents by 80 percent. 

There are now 2.7 million minor children (under age 18) with a parent behind bars (The Pew Charitable Trusts). The vast majority of these parents are African American and Latino fathers. In state prisons, 42% of fathers are African American.  1 in 9 African-American children (11.4 percent), 1 in 28 Hispanic children (3.5 percent) and 1 in 57 White children (1.8 percent) has an incarcerated parent (John Jay Center for Criminal Justice). 

Mass incarceration cripples families and communities, perpetuates poverty, recreates conditions for crime, waste trillions of taxpayers’ dollars, and has underlying racial bias implications. The tremendous increase in the prison population has changed much of the debates on just about every social and economic issue you can think of from the war on drugs to parental rights. The battle between the rights of custodial parents and non-custodial parents, (particularly concerning incarcerated fathers) are a mute subject due to mandatory minimum sentencing.   

Moreover, indigent fathers, who are incarcerated, leave prison with an average of $20,000 in back debt, according to the Federal Agency for Child Support Enforcement, and 70 percent of all back child support is owed by men earning less than $10,000 a year, landing the majority of men of color back in prison--without being provided an attorney.

"Many incarcerated fathers have become trapped in a system that has failed to recognize that African Americans and Hispanics men earn less than white men, even when both have comparable incarceration and criminal offense records, making it almost impossible for them to pay back their child support." 

This modern day debtors prison system is destroying the relationship fathers have with their children and makes it difficult for fathers to reconnect with their children once they are finally released.  It is no doubt that people of color have been incarcerated disproportionately, but it’s children that hurt the most when their parents are behind bars and absent in their lives. Children of incarcerated parents often suffer from poor health, behavior problems, emotional difficulties and poverty. 

In light of this, courts and policymakers must understand and consider all of the challenges children of incarcerated parents face when making decisions about sentencing that affects the lives of millions of children, and legislators need to recognize how critical comprehensive criminal justice reform is to reducing state and federal prison populations. Reducing mandatory minimums, support for ‘Ban the Box’ bills, and state supported transportation for children to visit their incarcerated parent, are great efforts towards reform, but more needs to be done.  Funding is needed for programs and services that directly address issues that impact the day-to-day lives of children of incarcerated parents.

Fortunately, some states are starting to implement a wide array of reforms in their own prison systems to reduce incarceration rates and offer some optimism for incarcerated fathers which are being recognized as models for the entire nation. In Illinois for example, the Turner bill is being vote on sponsored by Rep. Arthur Turner, D-Chicago, if passed, the bill would wipe out arrest records for ex-offenders that don't end in a conviction — because charges are dismissed, or because a judge grants a conditional discharge, meaning no conviction is recorded if the defendant stays out of trouble for a specified period.

In New Jersey, voters and lawmakers gave judges more power to release low-risk defendants who can’t afford bail, letting them go home rather than sit in jail while they await trial. In Idaho, a new law created 24-hour crisis centers to help keep people with mental health issues from being locked up unnecessarily. Georgia and Louisiana established courts for military veterans accused of crimes, and Hawaii is funding programs to help reunify children with parents who are behind bars. 

These are just a few examples of criminal justice reform that states around the country have put in place over the last two years, according to a new report by the Vera Institute of Justice. 

"Mass incarceration has destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, but a prison sentence for a father shouldn’t result in a life sentence for a child." 

This Father’s Day, let’s hope that all incarcerated fathers can find a way to spend more time with their children--and less time in prison.

"The hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his children is one that no government can fill." -President Barack Obama

Repost from the Chicago Defender: 06/22/16
https://issuu.com/chidefender/docs/06222016_chicagodefender/6