Parental Incarceration Is a Silent American Epidemic More Common Than Childhood Asthma

Prison visiting rooms are horrible places to bond with parents — no outside items allowed, including family photos, birthday gifts or homemade meals. I have spent weekends at my father’s prison instead of play dates, sports or academic competitions since I was nine. The experience left no visible scars but created indelible marks. Our family lost health insurance and savings accounts. My cholesterol skyrocketed as I pillaged food deserts for cheap sustenance. Social isolation intensified as friends and family ghosted us. Unlike the kindness and compassion I observed children receiving when a parent served in the military or faced severe illness, shame and stigma were my daily bread.

Parental incarceration is the waste product of mass incarceration. It rips families apart, disproportionately hurts people in poverty, and costs taxpayers over $260 billion annually. While crime rates have remained relatively flat since the 1980s, America’s incarcerated population has increased by 500 percent. The U.S. is home to 25 percent of world prisoners, even though it comprises only 5 percent of the global population. Half of American prisoners are parents to children under 18, and a quintile is parents to minors under four. While parental incarceration affects one in 14 American children, most kids hide (or are unaware of) their parent’s imprisonment. It is a “silent American epidemic” more common than childhood asthma (5.3 million vs. 5.1 million). The American Academy of Pediatrics labels it an “adverse childhood experience” associated with negative health and well-being consequences.

It’s time we do more to help the collateral victims of mass imprisonment. Sound strategies related to the incarceration of parents can simultaneously promote family stability and reduce society’s burden. In California, the Google spinoff Recidiviz Inc. is developing methods for reducing prison overcrowding through technological solutions that offer early release to individuals unlikely to reoffend. In New York, legislators pass bills like “Proximity” and “The Bail Elimination Act” to keep incarcerated parents closer to home. These efforts serve justice and children with incarcerated parents.

In the future, we must stop seeing prison as the only choice for nonviolent crimes, pretrial detention or technical parole violations. Too often, criminal sentences prioritize punishment and incapacitation over deterrence and rehabilitation, with no thought given to the social network effects destroying families. More funding is needed to address these issues through academic research and nonprofit programming. Sentencing alternatives should be prioritized in the absence of confounding factors. Home confinement options, which were successfully implemented during the pandemic to remove elderly prisoners from overcrowded facilities, could be expanded to parents with minors. We must act before America is better known for its incarceration policies than individual liberties. The children of incarcerated parents can bear the silence no longer.