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More than one million children nationally have a parent in prison, and prisons make family visits difficult \u2014 even though family contact helps inmates cope behind bars and reduces their recidivism rates, according to a new analysis<\/a> by the Prison Policy Initiative.<\/p>\n The childhood trauma that results from a parent\u2019s incarceration can echo through a child\u2019s life, increasing the child\u2019s odds of getting involved in the criminal justice system themselves and lost to foster or institutional care, the watchdog group warned.<\/p>\n Using federal data released in 2020, researchers found that almost half of people incarcerated in state prisons have children, and about 19% of those 1.25 million children are 4 or younger. Mothers are disproportionately impacted, partly because women are likelier to lead a single-parent household and be living with their children before their imprisonment, the group found.<\/p>\n The analysis didn\u2019t provide state snapshots, but a 2016 report<\/a>\u00a0by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found about 65,000 children in New Jersey had an incarcerated parent.<\/p>\n \u201cPrisons fail entire families \u2014 and society more broadly \u2014 by separating millions of children from their parents, and by enforcing harmful policies that perpetuate cycles of poverty and disadvantage,\u201d wrote Leah Wang, the initiative\u2019s research analyst who authored the analysis.<\/p>\n Prisons should make\u00a0visitation<\/a> for families easier and ensure parents are incarcerated close to home, Wang wrote.<\/p>\n New Jersey\u00a0has made some progress on that.<\/p>\n In 2020, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law<\/a> intended to help incarcerated parents maintain stronger ties with their families and protect pregnant inmates. It requires corrections officials to place incarcerated parents in prisons close to home and provide parenting classes and trauma-informed care for inmates. It also prohibits solitary confinement for pregnant inmates.<\/p>\n But Bonnie Kerness, coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee\u2019s prison watch program, said prison operations are so opaque it\u2019s hard to know how well the 2020 law is being carried out.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce legislation gets passed, who\u2019s minding the store?\u201d she said. \u201cEven with that legislation, it\u2019s focused on the parents. What about the children? What about getting the children transportation for visits?\u201d<\/p>\n Protecting the children of incarcerated parents requires rethinking punishment, Kerness said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to think very carefully about the parents we imprison, and is imprisonment necessary for that particular crime and that particular parent? Is there an alternative?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \n