Interconnection of Incerceration Dynamics and Family Well-Being

States Export Their Inmates as Prisons Fill - New York Times

So much of the activity that people involved in social serices and social justice efforts are involved in is talked about in terms of "issues." We work on this issue or that issue. But more often than not, so many of the issues are interconnected. The experience of priosoners, and as a result their families, is one of these such cases.

In discussing the challenge of being moved both frequently and great distances from their home towns, one of the prisoners was quoted in the article as saying, "You lose your family identity." This is one of many places that connect the issue of criminal justice and child and family well being in this country.

The relocation of prisoners across great distances tends to result in less frequent visits and even telephone contact with their families and children. It also tends to result in more frequent disruptions in their educational and other vocational pursuits as a part of the increasingly dwindling rehabilitation and training component of incarceration in this country. These dynamics directly affect the ability of prisoners to transition effectively back into their families and society-at-large upon release.

This article doesn't do the best job of covering these dynamics, but it does at least highlight some of the strain on priosners and their families.