HOW DO INCARCERATED PARENTS EXPLAIN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM TO THEIR CHILDREN?: NARRATIVES OF STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY AND INDIVIDUAL AUTONOMY

Abstract

In the age of mass incarceration, over five million children have experienced parental incarceration. Children with incarcerated parents are more likely to experience criminal justice system contact, educational difficulties, behavioral problems, and health concerns, among other challenges. Using in-depth interview data from a pilot intervention study on enhanced contact between incarcerated parents and their children (ages 3-12), I examine how incarcerated parents understand and teach their children about their incarceration. I find that the majority of parents understand their incarceration and criminal justice involvement to be related to structural inequalities, such as poverty, addiction, and difficulties in school as youths. However, parents presented different narratives to their children about their incarceration. I find that most participating incarcerated parents explain their incarceration as due to behavioral actions in order to promote pro-social behavior amongst their children, often by encouraging them to follow the rules or warning them about the consequences of getting in trouble. Parents do not share the structural factors leading to their incarceration with their children, even if they acknowledge elsewhere in the interview that societal inequalities were major factors in their criminal justice system involvement. Yet despite downplaying the structural inequalities and even sometimes reassuring their children on the fairness of the justice system, several parents report that their children voice fear of the criminal justice system and law enforcement. Even when they are unsuccessful, incarcerated parents attempt to shelter and protect their children from the criminal justice system, and thus they invest in their identities as parents, which has important implications for reentry outcomes.