Motherhood: Parent-Child Separation

Introduction

The United States has the highest incarceration rate of women in the world, “between 1980 and 2019, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 700%, rising from a total of 26,378 in 1980 to 222,455 in 2019” (Incarcerated Women and Girls, 2020, p. 1). While many more men are in prison than women, women are incarcerated now more than at any other point in U.S. history. This rapid, unprecedented growth is predicted to continue. This results from “more expansive law enforcement efforts, stiffer drug sentencing laws, and post-conviction barriers to reentry that uniquely affect women” (Incarcerated Women and Girls, 2020, p. 1). While there has been data collected about individuals who have been or are under some form of criminal justice system control, “very little is known about the approximately 10 million children in the U.S. who are under 18 and have had one or both incarcerated parents. Who are invisible to the larger society,” (Reed & Reed, 1997, p. 152). More than 60% of women in state prisons have a child under 18 (Incarcerated Women and Girls, 2020, p. 1). The national trend in women being incarcerated guarantees that children will continue to be adversely affected by policies enacted without considering the harm done to family systems. This report aims to examine what is presently known about motherhood and includes the child’s experience as their lives are disrupted. We begin by placing women’s increase in incarceration in its larger historical and political context and conclude with recommendations to address and alleviate the problems resulting from mother-child separation.