Ordinary Families ~ no more
Another perspective on incarceration from the inside out
Incarceration impacts everybody in society. Someone that is incarcerated today is surely someone’ relative e.g. father, mother, sister, brother, nephew, niece or son / daughter. The mass incarceration rates in America has more than tripled and although some states are seeing reductions in their prison populations, others continue to advocate for more stricter sentencing laws and lack of support for those laws already on the books that seek a “tough on crime” attitude and outright attack on the drug abuse in this country. It also continues to illustrate a disproportional ratio of affecting minorities, the poor as it appears to be waging a class war with those socioeconomically disadvantaged.
Incarceration impacts every family either directly or indirectly. It also continues to dealing with the social and emotional aspect of incarceration there are other factors to consider as families are disrupted and broken into pieces. The eventual demise of a family is based on their inability to sustain incarceration costs for their loved ones and depending on contributions from other family members, it is only a matter of time before financial support and social assistance is withdrawn or eliminated as their own budges are strained beyond repair if they continue to offer the incarcerated more resources they can afford.
The matter is complicated, emotional and impractical. The consequences are harsh and the family unit is disrupted. The contact is regulated and in some places costs are imposed to visit or make phone calls at expensive rates or fees. The family’s privacy has been invaded, and the once soundness of being independent has turned into a need for public assistance. This strains both family and social relationships creating another victim depending on state assistance for their children and remaining family members impacted by the fractured family circle.
Without going into the social or emotional side of this matter, the law doesn’t care how the family copes with their incarcerated relative. It don’t care about the anger, the lack of support for the children, divorces or financial ruin and turns their backs on this matter very effectively by targeting them as “criminals” along the way based on their relationship or willingness to help those incarcerated. This splinters them from their other family members, their neighbors and their friends creating a solitary situation that adds to the depression and desponded manner the family has to cope with the problem. Abandoned by the very system that was created to protect them, they ultimately feel the anger and frustration that no matter what they do, it is never enough to help their cause to ensure their children, their incarcerated relatives are taken care of properly.
Therefore, no longer an ordinary family, they are stigmatized and stereotyped into ‘bad people’ with bad behaviors in our society standards.
Surely you can see the domino effect here. Once incarcerated, the chances of being re-incarcerated are tripled in most states. Children who were abandoned and neglected are prime targets for incarceration at a later stage of their lives. They suffer in fragmented circles of confusion and disruption creating poor educational opportunities, a high risk for the development of disruptive behavioral models and emotional issues related to anger, loss, humiliation and other stressors that create a negative atmosphere for those needing to heal. Even with having both parents at home, children are showing these signs of distress as you can imagine how the absence or the withdrawal (separation) creates even more stress and anxiety within the family circle.
Source:
http://works.bepress.com/kimberly_alderman/6/
http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=kimberly_alderman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNVk2qjR8AQ
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