The Atlantic: Black male inmates have a lower mortality rate than black men on the street

Mass incarceration overall hurts the health of Americans, leading to worse outcomes for the families and communities of men in prison, reported The Atlantic. The inmates themselves are at a very large risk of self-harm and violence immediately after their release. But a recent review of the impacts of incarceration on health published in The Lancet hints at a surprising upshot: Getting out of jail can be miserable, but going to jail can temporarily protect health—at least for some men.

For children and communities, the impacts of a parent’s incarceration are unequivocally bad, write study authors Christopher Wildeman of Cornell University and Emily Wang of Yale. Kids whose fathers go to jail are at increased risk of depression, anxiety, learning disabilities, and obesity, and they are more likely to do drugs later in life. Because criminal records dampen job opportunities, according to some studies people who live in neighborhoods with high levels of incarceration are more likely to experience asthma from dilapidated housing. These consequences are especially severe for children of color: Because black men are jailed disproportionately, a black child born in 1990 had a one-in-four chance of having their father imprisoned, Wildeman and Wong write.

But, paradoxically, going to prison can actually improve health—at least temporarily—for some inmates. Black male inmates, the authors write, have a lower mortality rate than similarly aged black men who aren’t in jail. The reason? 

The risk of death from violent accidents, overdoses on drugs or alcohol, and homicides is much lower in prison than it is in the neighborhoods where these men would be living otherwise. What’s more, before the Affordable Care Act was passed, many states made it all but impossible for low-income, childless men to obtain health care. Under the ACA, 32 states expanded Medicaid to cover all poor adults, but 19 have not. Because of that, Wildeman and Wang write, prison is the first time many incarcerated young men receive regular health care.

The drop in mortality “is just an indicator of how dangerous the environment for African-Americans is on the outside, rather than being a function of how good the medical care is that they’re receiving” in prison, Wildeman told me.

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GateHouse: The plight of children of incarcerated parents

Matthew T. Mangino
GateHouse News Service
October 18, 2013

This summer, “Sesame Street” added a new character to its lineup. The show introduced Alex, a child whose father is in prison. “Sesame Street” has taken on the issue of children of incarcerated parents as part of the online “Little Children, Big Challenges” series.

The pain portrayed by Alex is palpable. The millions of children in Alex’'s position are not only hurt by the absence of a parent, now those children face the prospect that their relationship with their incarcerated parent can be terminated, ended, wiped out legally and unequivocally. 

According to sociologist Bruce Western, about 2.7 million children across the country can relate to Alex’'s anxiety and uneasiness. Some estimate that 1 in 28 American children — 3.6 percent — have an incarcerated parent. Just 25 years ago, the number was 1 in 125.

The population of parents is following a trend similar to that of all incarcerated individuals. There are about 2.3 million people in jail or prison in this country. In 1980 there were about 502,000.

The percentage of women in prison is still significantly lower than men; however, the rate of growth of female inmates is much higher than men. Many of these women are mothers, and two-thirds of those women had been their children’'s primary caregiver prior to being incarcerated.

Parental incarceration can create a wide range of problems for children. Those problems include economic distress, anger, depression, shame and guilt. Children of incarcerated parents often suffer in the classroom as well.

The most profound effect, according to the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission, which studied the problem, may be the loss of a child’'s sense of stability and safety. “The parent is usually a staple of those for the child, so when that pillar of stability is removed, the child may feel his or her whole world has fallen apart; the trauma of abandonment and insecurity may last for a very long time.”

One area that officials have zeroed in on is the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). The seemingly well-intended ASFA provides specific, and very rigid, guidelines to reduce the number of children in foster care and increase the number of children placed in permanent homes. The law enacted in 1997 provides that courts are required to terminate parental rights after a child has been in foster care for 15 of the previous 22 months. This provision can have a devastating impact on children of incarcerated parents.

Pennsylvania, Oregon and Hawaii have organized task forces to study the plight of children of incarcerated parents and to recommend a course of action.

Some states have taken it a step further.

In 2007, the Virginia General Assembly required that a system be established to coordinate planning and service so children and their incarcerated parents can maintain their relationships.

In 2008, Tennessee passed a resolution urging the state Department of Corrections to examine the Children of Incarcerated Parents Bill of Rights and to incorporate appropriate principles to help the state address intergenerational crime.

This spring, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee signed the Children of Incarcerated Parents law. The law provides courts with discretion to delay the termination of parental rights if the parent'’s incarceration is a significant factor in the child'’s continued stay in foster care.

More states need to take action. The consequences of even a relatively short sentence should not lead to the permanent severance of family bonds. According to the Children of Incarcerated Parents Bill of Rights, “When this happens, children are forced to forfeit the most fundamental right of all — the right to remain part of their families.”

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly and George and the former district attorney for Lawrence County, Pa. You can read his blog at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter at @MatthewTMangino.

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Washington state protects rights of incarcerated parents

On May 8, 2013, Washington State governor Jay Inslee signed SHB1284, or the Children of Incarcerated Parents bill, into law. The law guides the courts' discretion to delay the termination of parental rights if the parent's incarceration or prior incarceration is a significant factor for the child's continued stay in the foster care system, reported Truth-out.org.

The Federal Adoption and Safe Families Act and Its Impact

In 1997, Congress passed the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act, stating that its intention was to address the number of children who seemed to linger in foster care and help these children find safe and permanent homes. However, the Act did not take into consideration the dramatic increase in incarceration, particularly for drug law violations. When ASFA was passed, only Nebraska and New Mexico excluded incarcerated parents from ASFA's time frame if the only reason to file for termination is because of parental incarceration.

ASFA's impact has been profound. Nationally, the number of children in foster care with living parents who have had their rights terminated increased from 60,000 in 1998 to 73,000 in 2000. A 2003 study found that termination proceedings involving incarcerated parents increased nationwide from 260 in 1997 to 909 in 2002. In contrast, in the five years preceding ASFA, the number of termination proceedings increased from 113 in 1992 to 142 in 1996.

In Washington State in 2013, according to the Children Defense Fund's statistics, the number of children in foster care in the state is 9,533. The number of children adopted from foster care is 1,583. The report does not state how many children are in foster care because of parental incarceration, how many are eligible for adoption or how many youth age out of foster care.

In 2009, the state's Children of Incarcerated Parents Advisory Committee recommended that the legislature consider a law to address ASFA's timeline. No such law was considered. Once the committee lost its funding, no further meetings were held to discuss the issue.

SHB1284, or the Children of Incarcerated Parents bill, guides the courts' discretion to delay the termination of parental rights if the parent's incarceration or prior incarceration is a significant factor for the child's continued stay in the foster care system. It does not absolve incarcerated parents from doing their utmost to participate in their children's lives.

Terminating parental rights does not ensure that foster children will be adopted into permanent homes. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that, at the end of 2011, more than 104,000 children in foster care were waiting for an adoptive family. The average age of a child awaiting adoption was eight years old and the average length of time was two years. Approximately 35% had been in foster care for over three years. The same report found that in 2011, only 50,516 foster children had been adopted - less than half the 109,456 who had been awaiting adoption the year before. And, in 2011, more than 26,000 youth aged out of foster care without a permanent family. The report did not distinguish between youth in foster care because of parental incarceration and those in care for other reasons.

To read more: http://truth-out.org/news/item/16312-new-law-gives-parents-behind-bars-in-washington-state-a-way-to-hold-onto-their-children

The Cautionary Instruction: One in 43 children has a parent incarcerated

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Ipso Facto
August 3, 2012

Last week, lawmakers on the House Democratic Policy Committee conducted a public hearing at the University of Pittsburgh to examine the plight of children with incarcerated parents.

In 2009, the House of Representatives passed Resolution 203 which required the Joint State Government Commission to complete a study on the effects of parental incarceration on children. The final report was issued in December 2011.

An estimated 810,000 inmates of the more than 1.5 million held in the nation's prisons in 2007 were parents of minor children, according to a report by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. One in 43 American children has a parent in prison.

The number of inmates who are parents has increased by 79 percent since 1991. The population of parents is following a trend similar to that of all incarcerated individuals. In 2007, 1.7 million minor children had a parent in prison, an 82 percent increase since 1991.  

Black and Hispanic children are more likely than white children to have a parent in prison. Among minor children in the United States, 6.7 percent of black children, 2.4 percent of Hispanic children, and 0.9 percent of white children have a parent in prison.

The percentage of women in prison is still significantly lower than men; however, the rate of growth of female inmates is much higher than men. Many of these women are mothers, and two-thirds of those women had been their children’s primary caregiver prior to being incarcerated.

Among fathers in state and federal prisons, more than 4 in 10 are black, about 3 in 10 are white, and about 2 in 10 are Hispanic. Among mothers, 48 percent are white, 28 percent are black, and 17 percent are Hispanic.

Parental incarceration can create a wide range of problems for children. Those problems include economic distress, anger, depression, shame and guilt. Children of incarcerated parents often suffer in the classroom as well.

The most profound effect, according to the Joint State Government Commission Report, may be the loss of a child’s sense of stability and safety. “The parent is usually a staple of those for the child, so when that pillar of stability is removed, the child may feel his or her whole world has fallen apart; the trauma of abandonment and insecurity may last for a very long time.”

The report makes a number of recommendations that address the arrest of parents, the judicial proceedings, corrections, re-entry and community supervision. The report also addressed the need to “Develop and expand community-based resources to help parents and other caregivers address children’s needs when their parents are arrested and incarcerated.” These resources would include keeping the children informed, providing emergency assistance, counseling and screening of caregivers.

Rep. Jake Wheatley (D-Allegheny) who co-chaired the hearing said in a press release, "Children of incarcerated parents are innocent victims of the situation, and we must do all we can to help them survive and ultimately thrive."

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