Briefly explain the problems associated with mothers who are incarcerated.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. Drug and alcohol use within a women's prison can be a function of the anger and depression many inmates experience due to being separated from their children. An estimated 147,000 American children have a mother in state prison, and the problem is much more pronounced for African American and Latino children than for white children. Given the scarcity of women's correctional facilities, inmates are often housed at great distances from their children. One study found that almost two-thirds of women in federal prison are more than five hundred miles from their homes. Further research indicates that an inmate who serves her sentence more than fifty miles from her residence is much less likely to receive phone calls or personal visits from family members. For most inmates and their families, the costs of "staying in touch" are too high. This kind of separation can have serious consequences for the children of inmates. When a father goes to prison, his children are likely to live with their mother. When a mother is incarcerated, however, her children are likely to live with other relatives or, in about 11 percent of the cases, be sent to foster care. Only nine states provide facilities where inmates and their infant children can live together, and in these facilities nursery privileges generally end once the child is eighteen months old.