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"In Prisoners? Wake, a Tide of Troubled Kids"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headine of this effective article in the New York Times, which discusses some social science research starting to document some of the long-term consequences and lurking costs of mass incarceration.  Here are excerpts: The chances of seeing a parent go to prison have never been greater, especially for poor black Americans, and new research is documenting the long-term harm to the children they leave behind.  Recent studies indicate that having an incarcerated parent doubles the chance that a child will be at least temporarily homeless and measurably increases the likelihood of physically aggressive behavior, social isolation, depression and problems in school ? all portending dimmer prospects in adulthood. ?Parental imprisonment has emerged as a novel, and distinctly American, childhood risk that is concentrated among black children and children of low-education parents,? said Christopher Wildeman, a sociologist at the University of Michigan who is studying what some now call the ?incarceration generation...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 05, 2009 (boomark / email).