Mother’s Day – When Seeing Your Mother Means A Trip To Prison

Mother’s Day is probably the saddest day of the year for the children of incarcerated mothers.

 

“Mother’s Day is a celebration of motherhood and the influence that mothers have on society. But for too many American children — including those I filmed for this project — the holiday serves as a bitter reminder that their mothers are locked behind bars.”

“More than five million children in the United States have a parent who has been incarcerated. That breaks down to one in 14 children; for black children, it’s one in 9. That’s partly because we are incarcerating women at much higher rates than before. Women in jail are the fastest growing correctional population in the country; their numbers increased by 14 times between 1970 and 2014. Most of those women are poor, African-American or Latino, and have substance abuse problems. And about 80 percent have children.”

 

An important component of our planned ChIPs Mentoring & Circles of Support program will be to rebuild and maintain close parental relationships between our mentees and their incarcerated parents.

 

 

 

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