The second edition of this handbook examines family life, health, and educational issues that often arise for the millions of children in the United States whose parents are in prison or jail. It details how these youth are more likely to exhibit behavior problems such as aggression, substance abuse, learning difficulties, mental health concerns, and physical health issues. It also examines resilience and how children and families thrive even in the face of multiple challenges related to parental incarceration. Chapters integrate diverse; interdisciplinary; and rapidly expanding literature and synthesizes rigorous scholarship to address the needs of children from multiple perspectives, including child welfare; education; health care; mental health; law enforcement; corrections; and law. The handbook concludes with a chapter that explores new directions in research, policy, and practice to improve the life chances of children with incarcerated parents. Topics featured in this handbook include: Findings from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. How parental incarceration contributes to racial and ethnic disparities and inequality. Parent-child visits when parents are incarcerated in prison or jail. Approaches to empowering incarcerated parents of color and their families. International advances for incarcerated parents and their children. The second edition of the Handbook on Children with Incarcerated Parents is an essential reference for researchers, professors, clinicians/practitioners, and graduate students across developmental psychology, criminology, sociology, law, psychiatry, social work, public health, human development, and family studies. "This important new volume provides a cutting-edge update of research on the impact of incarceration on family life. The book will be an essential reference for researchers and practitioners working at the intersections of criminal justice, poverty, and child development." Bruce Western, Ph.D., Columbia University "The comprehensive, interdisciplinary focus of this handbook brilliantly showcases the latest research, interventions, programs, and policies relevant to the well-being of children with incarcerated parents. This edition is a 'must-read' for students, researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers alike who are dedicated to promoting the health and resilience of children affected by parental incarceration." Leslie Leve, Ph.D., University of Oregon

This Brief focuses on children with incarcerated mothers, a growing and vulnerable population. It presents five empirical studies, along with an introduction and summary chapter. The five empirical chapters examine new qualitative and quantitative data on: Typical occurrences when pregnant women give birth during incarceration in contrast with the benefits of a prison doula program for mothers and newborns. A mother's criminal justice involvement for substance abuse crimes and its effects on children's protective services involvement and foster care placement. How children cope with separation from their mothers because of their incarceration and how that separation continues to affect children's lives following family reunification. Differences in recidivism trajectories between mothers and nonmothers during the 10 years following release from incarceration. Alternatives to incarceration for women in residential drug treatment and how community supervision mandates can affect, contribute to, or extend mother-child separation. The final chapter integrates the information from the empirical studies and summarizes implications for policy and practice. Children with Incarcerated Mothers is an essential resource for policy makers and related professionals, graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, and sociology.

The second edition of this handbook examines family life, health, and educational issues that often arise for the millions of children in the United States whose parents are in prison or jail. It details how these youth are more likely to exhibit behavior problems such as aggression, substance abuse, learning difficulties, mental health concerns, and physical health issues. It also examines resilience and how children and families thrive even in the face of multiple challenges related to parental incarceration. Chapters integrate diverse; interdisciplinary; and rapidly expanding literature and synthesizes rigorous scholarship to address the needs of children from multiple perspectives, including child welfare; education; health care; mental health; law enforcement; corrections; and law. The handbook concludes with a chapter that explores new directions in research, policy, and practice to improve the life chances of children with incarcerated parents. Topics featured in this handbook include: Findings from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. How parental incarceration contributes to racial and ethnic disparities and inequality. Parent-child visits when parents are incarcerated in prison or jail. Approaches to empowering incarcerated parents of color and their families. International advances for incarcerated parents and their children. The second edition of the Handbook on Children with Incarcerated Parents is an essential reference for researchers, professors, clinicians/practitioners, and graduate students across developmental psychology, criminology, sociology, law, psychiatry, social work, public health, human development, and family studies. "This important new volume provides a cutting-edge update of research on the impact of incarceration on family life. The book will be an essential reference for researchers and practitioners working at the intersections of criminal justice, poverty, and child development." Bruce Western, Ph.D., Columbia University "The comprehensive, interdisciplinary focus of this handbook brilliantly showcases the latest research, interventions, programs, and policies relevant to the well-being of children with incarcerated parents. This edition is a 'must-read' for students, researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers alike who are dedicated to promoting the health and resilience of children affected by parental incarceration." Leslie Leve, Ph.D., University of Oregon

This Brief explores the potential effects of parent-child contact during incarceration on child and adult relationships, well-being, and parenting as well as corrections-related issues, such as institutional behavior and recidivism. It presents a literature review on what is currently known about parent-child contact during parental incarceration in addition to several empirical studies, followed by a summary, commentary, and briefing report. The empirical studies focus on contact in both jail and prison settings. Because jails in the United States handle more admissions per year than prisons - and studies of jailed parents and their children are not common in the literature - two of the three studies presented focus on jails. Following the empirical studies, a summary that includes recommendations for policy and intervention is presented, along with a commentary that explores what researchers need to do to make effective policy recommendations. This Brief is an essential resource for policy makers and related professionals, graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, and sociology.