What Happens to Children of Incarcerated Parents?

Beyond Bars: The National Crisis of Parental Incarceration and Its Impact on Families and Children of Incarcerated Parents

Introduction

In the United States, incarceration is often treated as an individual consequence. But when a parent is incarcerated, the effects ripple outward — shaping children’s emotional development, family stability, and long-term well-being. This article examines what research shows about those impacts, with particular attention to children, caregivers, and the unique consequences of incarcerating mothers.

Parental incarceration is a deeply impactful and often overlooked issue in the U.S., with far-reaching consequences for children of incarcerated parents and families. As we delve into this complex topic, we’ll explore the statistics, stories, and policy implications surrounding parental incarceration, aiming to ignite conversations and drive meaningful policy changes toward alternatives to incarceration. Parental incarceration remains one of the most significant yet under-addressed drivers of childhood trauma in the United States.

The Impact on Children

Imagine being a child whose primary parent is suddenly taken away and incarcerated. Children of incarcerated parents have stories and experiences that vividly illustrate the emotional turmoil and the unique challenges they face. What little parenting that can take place occurs mainly through letters, phone calls, and, if lucky, an occasional visit. Children of incarcerated parents miss having their parent as part of their daily lives as well as the special times in their lives, including birthdays and holidays. This separation erodes the connection between parent and child. The disruption is especially profound when separation occurs during critical stages of attachment and emotional development.

Parental incarceration is not just a legal event. For children, it often lands as a sudden rupture—a parent disappears from daily life, routines collapse, and the child is left to hold unanswered questions they may feel unsafe asking out loud. The loss is complicated by the fact that incarceration is stigmatized; many children learn quickly that this is something to hide, which can deepen feelings of shame, aloneness, and “being different.” Research consistently links parental incarceration to increased risks of anxiety, depression, behavioral challenges, and school disruption, especially when the separation is abrupt or paired with instability in caregiving, housing, and income.

Parental incarceration affects millions of children in the United States and is widely recognized as an adverse childhood experience — a type of trauma that can shape development, emotional well-being, behavior, and long-term life course outcomes.

Across the nation, an estimated 5.1 million children have experienced the absence of a parent due to incarceration, facing disruptions in their lives, emotional distress, and economic hardships.

Prevalence

Over 5 million U.S. children have had a parent in jail or prison at some point in their lives, roughly 1 in 14 children nationwide.
Accounting for parents who were incarcerated in the more distant past, estimates suggest that as many as 8 million minor children — roughly 11% of all U.S. children — have experienced parental incarceration.
Children of incarcerated parents are disproportionately Black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged.

This widespread disruption isn’t just a statistic — it is a profound rupture in children’s daily lives and attachments.

Emotional and Psychological Toll

Parental imprisonment is linked with multiple mental health challenges, consistent with what clinicians recognize as trauma responses:

Children of incarcerated parents experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, and stress-related symptomscompared to their peers.
Children with incarcerated parents are more than three times as likely to exhibit behavioral problems or depression as similar children without a parent in jail or prison.
Compared with children who experience parental death or divorce, those with incarcerated parents often show higher rates of ADHD, learning disabilities, and developmental delays.

Researchers note that shame, stigma, and social isolation commonly accompany these experiences, undermining children’s sense of belonging and self-worth within school and community environments.

Because parental incarceration often removes a key attachment figure, it can disturb secure emotional bonds that are foundational to healthy development.

Behavioral and Developmental Consequences

Parental incarceration is not only emotionally disruptive — it can reverberate into school performance, peer relationships, and behavior:

Children of incarcerated parents are more likely to struggle in school, including lower educational attainment, behavioral problems, and increased risk of suspension and absenteeism.
Behavioral challenges documented in research include aggression, anxiety, emotional difficulties, and internalizing (e.g., withdrawal) and externalizing (e.g., acting out) problems.
Parental incarceration is associated with increased risk for antisocial behavior and later substance use, placing children at elevated risk for involvement with the justice system themselves.

These outcomes are not inevitable, but they are statistically more likely among children exposed to the trauma of separation.

Long-Term Health and Life Challenges

Trauma in childhood isn’t transient — it affects long-term physical and mental health:

Childhood exposure to a parent’s incarceration is associated with increased risk of mental and physical health problems into adulthood, including depression and post-traumatic stress.
Parental incarceration is recognized as an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) — a category of trauma that correlates with higher lifetime risk for chronic disease, mental health disorders, and substance use.

The removal of a parent often coincides with economic instability, residential disruptions, changes in caregiving, and chronic stress, compounding the trauma and making daily life more precarious for children.

Stigma, Shame, and Social Exclusion

Children don’t just lose daily contact with a parent — they often experience:

Stigma at school and in community settings, leading to social isolation and damaged peer relationships.
A sense of otherness that can feel as painful as the loss itself, often without public language or acknowledgment to make sense of it.
A society that deems all of those imprisoned as, “bad,” undermining the uniqueness and circumstances of individual cases and overlooking the human impact that blanket-statements have on dependent children affected by parental incarceration, leading to a sense of shame and aloneness.

This emotional landscape — loneliness, embarrassment, unanswered questions — is a core part of the lived experience of parental incarceration.

When the Incarcerated Parent is the Mother, the Impact Intensifies

In many families, mothers are the primary caregiver. When mothers are incarcerated, children are more likely to experience caregiver changes, housing moves, and foster care involvement—not because the mother was “less important,” but because she was often the logistical and emotional center of the home. This is happening at scale because the U.S. incarcerates women at levels unmatched by most of the world.

• The number of incarcerated women has increased over 600% since 1980, reaching 186,244 women in 2023 (prisons and jails).
• A comprehensive snapshot estimates about 190,600 women and girls incarcerated across prisons, jails, juvenile facilities, immigration detention, etc.
• Globally, the U.S. is a major outlier: it represents about 4% of the world’s women but holds about one-quarter of incarcerated women worldwide, and every U.S. state incarcerates women at a rate higher than most democratic nations.

That “women’s incarceration” statistic is not abstract—because when women are jailed or imprisoned, children lose the person most likely to have been their daily attachment figure, the person who knows their schedules, their fears, their health needs, their bedtime rituals.

Gendered Nature of Incarceration and Parenting

The mass incarceration of mothers often has a disproportionate impact on families, as they are frequently the primary caregivers; therefore, when mothers are incarcerated, their children are less likely to have another stable parent at home. The struggles faced by incarcerated mothers who are separated from their children lead to increased risks of child placement in foster care and termination of parental rights. Since 1980, the number of incarcerated women has risen exponentially, from 28,240 to 210,595 in 2015. In 2020, nearly 1,000,000 women were arrested . Disproportionately, 75% of incarcerated women are mothers in their childbearing years, and the majority are mothers. Additionally, each year, nearly 58,000 pregnant women are incarcerated.

Challenges to Children and Incarcerated Mothers

The consequences for children whose mothers are incarcerated can be severe, both in the short term and long term. Research indicates that these children face an increased risk of insecure attachment and developmental delays. Moreover, a growing body of evidence highlights the negative impact of maternal incarceration on children’s social, emotional, educational, and cognitive development. Apart from these developmental risks, children of incarcerated parents also encounter other adverse experiences during childhood and are more likely to end up incarcerated themselves as adults.

The Effects of Incarceration on Pregnant Mothers and Their Babies

Furthermore, pregnant individuals who experience incarceration undergo a range of challenges. These challenges include separation from their families, inconsistent access to quality medical and mental health services, and uncertainty about their and their newborns’ future within the custodial environment. Although institutions of incarceration are obligated to provide healthcare access as per constitutional mandates, there are no standardized healthcare protocols or oversight mechanisms that ensure consistent care across different facilities. Consequently, the healthcare pregnant individuals receive while incarcerated varies significantly between jails, prisons, states, and even within the same facilities.

Pregnant individuals in custody have faced numerous injustices, including the lack of dignity experienced by giving birth in carceral setting, placement in solitary confinement, neglect when in need of urgent medical attention and other inconsistencies in pregnancy care, continuous shackling throughout pregnancy and childbirth, restrictions on providing breastmilk to their babies, and separation from their infants shortly after delivery. A study encompassing 22 state prison systems and all federal prisons revealed nearly 800 births within a year, with only 15% of postpartum individuals breastfeeding. These practices persist despite growing medical consensus that they pose serious risks to both maternal and infant health. These outcomes are not accidental; they reflect systemic failures to account for caregiving, pregnancy, and child development within punitive legal frameworks.

Babies, Lactation, and Early Maternal Separation: A Preventable Trauma

For infants and very young children, separation from a primary caregiver is not experienced as “time.” It’s experienced as loss of safety. Early attachment disruptions can shape stress regulation, sleep, emotional development, and bonding—especially when the separation happens right at birth or during the first year of life.

The U.S. incarcerates pregnant people, and many give birth while in custody:
• In 2023, state and federal prison systems reported 727 pregnancy outcomes, including 665 live births (91% of outcomes reported).
• The same federal report found that prison systems reported accommodations for pumping breastmilk in 78% of jurisdictions, but that is still very different from supporting real mother–infant bonding.
• Only 10 states and the federal Bureau of Prisons reported operating residential nursery units where mothers and infants co-reside—and on December 31, 2023, only 86 women were participating nationwide.
• Oversight bodies note that 4–5% of women report being pregnant at the time of incarceration (with gaps in comprehensive national demographic/outcome tracking historically).

This is where the “collateral consequences” become visceral: a mother may be lactating, healing postpartum, and psychologically raw—while her baby is being separated during the very window when bonding is most biologically “expected.”

Other Methods across Nations

There are justice systems that explicitly acknowledge that separating mothers and babies has serious consequences—and they build structures to reduce it.

For example, in the United Kingdom, women who give birth in prison can apply to keep their baby with them in a Mother and Baby Unit for up to 18 months.

At the international standard-setting level, the United Nations United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures urge countries to use non-custodial measures where appropriate for women—especially given caregiving roles and the unique harms of incarceration for women and families.

This doesn’t mean “no accountability.” It means recognizing that when the state incarcerates a mother, it often punishes a baby and a child too—by severing attachment, destabilizing caregiving, and amplifying poverty and trauma.

Legislative Efforts and Advocacy and Emerging Models

Despite these challenges, there are rays of hope in legislative efforts and advocacy initiatives. The Primary Caretakers bill, championed by organizations like Families for Justice as Healing, seeks to provide alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders who are primary caregivers. Similar initiatives in states like Texas, Oklahoma, Washington, and Tennessee are paving the way for policy changes that prioritize family reunification and support for defendants as well as children of incarcerated parents.

In Texas, Lauren Johnson’s story sheds light on the impact of incarceration on caregivers and the push for legislative changes like HR 1389, which aims to expand diversion programs for primary caregivers facing non-violent charges. Similarly, D’Marria Monday’s advocacy in Oklahoma for HB 2019 underscores the need for broader eligibility criteria for parenting alternatives beyond non-violent offenses.

Washington State’s innovative Parenting Sentencing Alternative illustrates a proactive approach to keeping families together, emphasizing community-based sentences and family bonding initiatives for incarcerated parents. However, challenges remain in extending these programs to parents with violent convictions, as seen in Minna’s story of missed opportunities due to eligibility restrictions.

National Advocacy and Empowerment

Beyond individual state efforts, national advocacy groups like Free Hearts in Tennessee have successfully pushed for legislative changes, such as the Primary Caregiver Act, which provides alternatives to prison sentences for primary caregivers convicted of non-violent offenses. These initiatives empower formerly incarcerated individuals to advocate for systemic reforms that prioritize family unity and support.

The Road Ahead

As we reflect on these stories and statistics, it’s clear that parental incarceration is not just a personal or familial issue but a national crisis with far-reaching societal impacts. It’s imperative to continue conversations, amplify voices, and advocate for policies that prioritize family preservation, community-based alternatives to incarceration, and support systems for children and caregivers affected by parental imprisonment.

What the Evidence Shows

In addition to personal narratives, data and research play a crucial role in understanding the full scope of the impact of parental incarceration. Studies have shown that children with incarcerated parents are more likely to experience mental health issues, academic challenges, and economic hardships. Furthermore, the intergenerational cycle of incarceration underscores the need for preventive measures and intervention programs.

What Works

One of the key pillars of addressing parental incarceration is the promotion of community-based solutions. Programs that offer support to children of incarcerated parents, caregivers, and families affected by incarceration can mitigate the negative consequences and promote resilience. Mentoring programs, counseling services, educational support, and economic empowerment initiatives are essential components of a holistic approach.

Policy Recommendations

Based on the stories, data, and research presented, several policy recommendations can drive positive change in addressing parental incarceration:

Expand alternatives to incarceration for primary caregivers, including probationary sentences, diversion programs, community service options, and rehabilitative services.
Implement trauma-informed care and mental health support for affected families and children of incarcerated parents.
Provide resources and funding for community-based organizations that offer support services to children and caregivers.
Advocate for sentencing reforms that prioritize rehabilitation, family reunification, and the best interests of the child.
Invest in education and employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals to reduce recidivism and support family stability.

Why This Matters

Parental incarceration is not just a disruption of routine; it is a multi-layered trauma that intersects with mental health, relationships, education, economic security, and identity development.

Children affected by parental incarceration carry invisible burdens into adulthood:

fear (Will my caregiver disappear too?)
shame (I can’t tell anyone why my parent is gone.)
identity confusion (Is this my fault? Am I destined for this?)
grief without rituals (There’s no funeral, no public support—just absence.)

And while resilience is real—and many children thrive with stable caregivers and support—systems should not rely on resilience as a substitute for prevention.

Understanding this impact deeply — beyond statistics — is essential for:

families seeking context for their own experiences,
policymakers designing child-centered justice reforms,
courts considering the collateral consequences of sentencing and incarceration,
communities advocating for supports that reach beyond punishment.

Advocacy means naming what’s happening and insisting on better options: alternatives to incarceration for primary caregivers where public safety allows, expanded residential nursery programs, consistent lactation support, and policies that treat infant–caregiver bonding as a serious health and developmental priority—not a privilege. When systems reduce unnecessary separation, they reduce trauma—while still holding adults accountable.

Parental incarceration leaves a lasting impact on children, families, and communities across the nation. By highlighting stories, sharing data, advocating for policy changes, and promoting community-based solutions, we can work towards a more just and compassionate approach to addressing the challenges of parental incarceration. Together, we can build a future where families are supported, children are nurtured, and alternatives to incarceration are prioritized in our justice system, fostering resilience and breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma. A justice system that ignores the needs of children and caregivers does not protect society — it perpetuates harm.

Understanding the effects of parental incarceration on children is not about assigning blame. It is about recognizing that legal decisions reverberate beyond courtrooms and correctional facilities — into homes, classrooms, and childhoods. Systems that acknowledge these realities are better positioned to reduce harm, support families, and make more humane choices wherever possible.

Resources

National Resource Centers and Resource Hubs

National Resource Center on Children & Families of the Incarcerated (NRCCFI) — Largest U.S. organization focused specifically on children and families impacted by incarceration. Offers fact sheets, research, a program directory, and trainings for service providers and families.
Youth.gov — Children of Incarcerated Parents (COIP) — U.S. government web portal with guides, tip sheets, and tools for caregivers, educators, and youth workers.

Support Organizations (National)

Project Avary — National nonprofit creating supportive community, mentorship, and peer connection for children with incarcerated parents to build resilience and leadership.
We Got Us Now — Nonpartisan national organization led by and for children and young adults with incarcerated parents; engages, educates, and empowers affected youth.
Prison Families Alliance (PFA) — Supports families and youth affected by incarceration with peer support meetings, workshops, and education programs.
National Mentoring Resource Center – COIP Mentoring — Highlights mentoring programs for youth affected by parental incarceration, showing the value of supportive adult relationships.
The Osborne Association — Family Support and Reentry Services

Educational Resources and Books

Prison Fellowship – Resources for Children of Prisoners — Lists books and age-appropriate reading that help children understand and process parental incarceration, including titles for ages 3+ and tools for caregivers.
Sesame Workshop – Incarceration Resources — Provides free bilingual, child-friendly educational resources, including stories and tips to support children dealing with a loved one’s incarceration.
No More Victims — Academic and Life Support for Youth with Incarcerated Parents

Practical Guides and Toolkits

Youth.gov COIP Tools & Guides — Rich collection of downloadable family guides including how to navigate arrest, detention, incarceration, and reentry stages; communication support; and stress management tips.
Parental Incarceration Resource Guide (CICMN) — A comprehensive set of resources for caregivers including communication, visitation support, and financial/social services.

Additional Research and System Context