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Incarcerated Parents and Their Children: Perspectives from the Smart Decarceration Social Work Grand Challenge

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Children of Incarcerated Parents

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Abstract

Over half of people incarcerated in state prisons and over three-fifths of people incarcerated in federal prisons were parents to minor children (Glaze & Maruschak, 2010). Families of incarcerated parents are negatively impacted and burdened by mass incarceration, increasing family instability, economic hardship, substance use, and mental health challenges. The staggering economic, social, and human costs to society resulting from mass incarceration call for research and evidence to inform “Smart Decarceration” policies and practices that reduce imprisonment, support well-being, and promote justice. Therefore, this chapter brings attention to the cross section of families and the Smart Decarceration Social Work Grand Challenge. In so doing, this chapter illustrates the need for “smart” policies and practices that meaningfully take these experiences and contexts into account and aim to reduce the criminal justice system’s reach while building community and social institutions’ supportive capacity. This chapter explores different types of family-focused programming that is available to incarcerated parents and their families and concludes with a discussion about Smart Decarceration efforts that inform and support the development of partnerships, programs, and policies fostering resiliency and improving outcomes for impacted families.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Pajarita Charles

  2. School of Social Work, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Amy Blank Wilson & Melissa Villodas

  3. Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Branden McLeod & Aaron Gottlieb

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  1. Pajarita Charles
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  2. Amy Blank Wilson
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  3. Branden McLeod
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  4. Aaron Gottlieb
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  5. Melissa Villodas
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Correspondence to Pajarita Charles .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Child Well-Being, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    Judy Krysik

  2. Department of Criminology Law and Society, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Nancy Rodriguez

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Charles, P., Wilson, A.B., McLeod, B., Gottlieb, A., Villodas, M. (2022). Incarcerated Parents and Their Children: Perspectives from the Smart Decarceration Social Work Grand Challenge. In: Krysik, J., Rodriguez, N. (eds) Children of Incarcerated Parents. Children of Incarcerated Parents: From Understanding to Impact. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84713-5_13

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