When a child loses a parent due to death or is separated as a result of divorce or military deployment, the child receives a level of sympathy and understanding from the community. When a parent is away serving time in prison the child does not receive the same level of compassion and empathy from members of society.

Over 2 million children in the United States experience the detrimental economic, social and emotional effects of a parent’s incarceration. They often experience the trauma of multiple changes in caregivers, separation from siblings and inconsistent living arrangements.

Studies have shown that parental arrest and confinement often lead to stress, trauma, shame and separation anxiety which may be compounded by existing poverty, violence, substance abuse and high crime communities.  Many children of incarcerated parents are angry and lash out at others, leading to disruptions in school and confrontations with law enforcement and authority figures.

In the United States, 54% of incarcerated men and women are parents with minor children, including more than 120,000 mothers and 1.1 million fathers.

Children with parents who are incarcerated are an invisible population.  While there are more than 105,000 minor children with a parent in the New York State jail and prison systems, there is no information collected on them in a systematic fashion and there are no public policies or government agencies in place to address their needs, neither the police, nor the criminal court system routinely inquires at the time of arrest or at sentencing whether a prisoner has children. Very few social service or community organizations focus specific attention on this large, high needs population.

In Bedford-Stuyvesant, children of incarcerated parents share the challenges and risk factors faced by the larger population of their community, however, these young people are subject to unique stressors and are at greater risk of repeating the cycle of destructive behavior.  Traditional after-school programs that offer tutoring, well chaperoned trips and recreational activities often miss the underlying cause of the barriers to success in the lives of children with incarcerated parents.  Young people who have lost a parent to prison are dealing with a profound degree of shame, anxiety and sense of powerlessness that is more compounded by the inability to share their feelings or discuss their secret.