Mid-November saw a group of six teenagers gather together at New York Law School to educate members of the audience on how unbendable rules and bureaucratic nonsense have affected the lives of children whose parents are incarcerated.
Prisons are generally built in areas far from the communities that inmates come from. Young children can only visit a parent if a relative or social service agency takes them. Too often, for most families, the cost of visiting is prohibitive. Even if a car is available, the price of gas and food on the hours long trip can make a visit a rare occurrence. But visiting a parent and strengthening what ever bond is between parent and child is what children need, according to the panel. Collect phone calls from parents in prison to their children can cost hundreds of dollars a month.
The importance of visiting a parent was just one of the topics discussed. Many prisoners had children when they were very young. Until recently, a young person entering the criminal justice system was never asked if he or she had children, and therefore were not sent to the prison closest to their home. Knowing if a prisoner has children would also allow the corrections department to work with inmates to develop parenting skills.
The New York City Department of Parole is looking into rules that might actually be harmful to children of parolees. The department’s Commissioner, Vincent Schiraldi, claimed that because children are forbidden to attend parole meetings they are often left home as parolees can not pay for childcare. Schiraldi is looking into a way to change the rule so that children don’t have to be left unattended. Humanizing parolees is a goal of Schiraldi and his department.
The children on the panel spoke about the stigma placed on them because their parents are incarcerated. Eliminating the stigma of being incarcerated, and of being a child of an incarcerated parent was the thing the panel wished the most for. Hoping that the audience would see their parents as people rather than criminals, the panelists spoke of the hardships their parents faced as young people. Physical and sexual abuse is not uncommon in the backgrounds of prisoners. A lack of education is also a factor in the lives of those behind bars. It can be humiliating to have a parent in prison, but the panel wanted those in the criminal justice field to know that despite their obvious flaws their parents were loved. That message obviously reached Commissioner Schiraldi who mulled that after meeting these children, it will be harder to automatically send someone to prison.
Source: Epoch Times
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