How Courts & Jails Separate Families

Family separation is an everyday occurrence in this country. While many are familiar with separations that happen at the border, the fact is the government separates families in every city, county, and state in the U.S. through incarceration. In fact, approximately 4.5 million children in this country have been separated from a parent by incarceration at some point in their lives. That is more children than there are people in Los Angeles. Currently, 2.6 million children have an incarcerated parent, more kids than the population of Chicago or Houston.


Heartbreakingly, many of these families will be further separated by the “child welfare”, or family policing system, often permanently. 70% of parents whose kids are taken and put in foster care are never accused of hurting their kids but are separated because of poverty or incarceration. In fact, parents who have had their children placed in foster care solely because they are incarcerated are more likely to have their parental rights terminated than parents who have been accused of physically hurting their child.

Who is most impacted?

Black and Native Families

Black and Native people are overpoliced and overrepresented in prisons and jails in the U.S. On average, Black people are imprisoned at six times and Native people at four times the rate of white people. This disparity deeply impacts Black and Native children. For example, 6% of all children in the U.S. have had a parent incarcerated at some point in their lives. For Black and Native children, the percentage rises to 10% and 18% respectively.

Mothers

Incarcerated women are more likely to be parents to children under the age 18 than men. In fact, four of five jailed women are mothers. With fewer supports to fall back on, incarcerated mothers are five times more likely to have their children taken and placed in foster care than fathers. Incarcerated mothers are also more likely to lose their rights as a parent, also known as the civil death penalty, a permanent separation of their family. 

How incarceration harms families

Family separation by incarceration hurts relationships among the whole family. Separating kids from their parents results in bad outcomes including declining health, increased poverty, and weaker family relationships.

– S.L., seventeen year old girl whose dad is jailed in Genesee County

Impact on Children

For children, having a parent incarcerated can be as stressful and traumatic as abuse, domestic violence, and divorce, with potentially long-term impacts to children’s health. The trauma associated with having an incarcerated parent, including separation and lack of social support, increases the likelihood of mental health issues in children. Parental incarceration has also been found to increase depression, anxiety, aggression, and attention problems. Additionally, jailing parents hurts a child’s education and development, worsening school performance.

Impact on Parents

Incarcerated parents suffer when they are separated from their children, families, and social support. Incarcerated parents of young children report elevated rates of depression and thought problems, including self-harming behaviors and hallucinations. Rates of mental health symptoms are 3 to 5 times higher in jailed parents than the general population. A growing number of family advocates are recognizing that putting kids in foster care is “the most devastating possible collateral consequence of a criminal conviction.”

“We were separated while A.B. was still breastfeeding, and I was terrified that A.B. would forget who I was because I was away for so long…When we were first separated, A.B. went from breastfeeding to being fed from a bottle and she barely ate for over two weeks. She would cry herself to sleep.” 

– Brya, a mom who was jailed in Genesee County

The impacts of family separation through incarceration can be felt not only within the impacted family, but also in the family’s community. Children with incarcerated parents are significantly less likely to live in neighborhoods that are able to be supportive of families, and their parents are more likely to report feeling unsafe in their communities and less likely to feel they have friends who can help with their children. Children with fathers in prison, particularly Black children, are at greater risk for homelessness. In fact, research suggests that the rate of mass incarceration in the Black community has contributed to significant increases of child homelessness.

The negative effects of family incarceration are not limited to the immediate family of an incarcerated parent; incarceration impacts families for generations. In state prison populations, where most incarcerated adults are located, many parents report experiencing disadvantage in their own childhoods.

Beyond the immediate family

How do jail visitation policies compound family separation?

Family contact is important in helping incarcerated people cope with their situation and can reduce recidivism. Children used to be able to visit their parents in jail. Then, private telecom corporations and numerous local governments conspired to ban visitation, forcing families to choose between losing all contact with each other or paying for expensive video and phone calls. In exchange, sheriffs and county jails make hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in kickbacks. 

People in jails and prisons are already separated from their families, and the elimination of visits with their loved ones is an added cruelty. It can cost close to $9 for a 15-minute phone call to talk to an incarcerated loved one in the U.S. Video calls are even more expensive. While calls are no substitute for actual visitation, they are incredibly lucrative. In 2022, private companies made $1.2 billion from phone and video calls.

Families of incarcerated people experience incredible financial burdens already. Nationally, 1 in 3 families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt to pay for phone and video calls. In fact, incarcerated people and their families spend more than $2.9 billion a year on costs associated with incarceration like phone calls and commissary. When fathers are incarcerated, family income can drop by an average of 22%. Nearly 65% of families with an incarcerated member reported not being able to meet basic needs, and a third reported going into debt to communicate with their incarcerated family member.