Dressed in her Sunday best — pink ruffled sleeves and a rainbow tulle tutu — Crystal Martinez’s 4-year-old daughter proudly presents her with a multicolored bouquet of carefully crafted tissue paper flowers. With her 5-year-old son nestled on her lap, laughing in delight, Martinez holds out her arms and pulls the girl into a hug so tight that her glasses are knocked askew.
Martinez’s five children, including the three aged 13, 10 and 6, last month traveled for three hours from Chicago to visit her in Logan Correctional, Illinois’ largest state prison for women and transgender people, on the Reunification Ride. The donation-dependent initiative buses prisoners’ family members 180 miles from the city to Logan every month so they can spend time with their mothers and grandmothers.
Women held at Logan describe the Reunification Ride - one of the increasingly rare, under-funded programs designed to keep families together - as a crucial lifeline. Three hours later, the charter bus pulls up at the facility’s barbed wire gates in Lincoln, Illinois, with children peering from the windows. As families progress slowly through security, shouts of “Mommy!” and squeals of glee fill the prison gym made cheerful with handmade decorations.
About 58% of women in state or federal prisons are parents of minor children in the U.S. Black and Latina women experience greater incarceration rates than white women and are about as likely or more likely to be parents, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Gina Fedock, professor at the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice, researches the well-being of marginalized women, particularly those behind bars.“Most states don’t have such opportunities,” she said. “There’s a real lack of consistent resources, particularly these types of transportation programs.”
The impact of this kind of “ambiguous loss” of a parent can lead to increased risk of health issues, developmental delays, behavioral problems and issues with education, since kids moving in with a different caregiver often have to switch schools abruptly, according to the researcher.Maintaining the maternal bond can reduce “the traumatic effects of parental incarceration for those children and their families,” Fedock explained.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Sharing the sentence: Separation takes toll on incarcerated moms and their kidsTens of thousands fewer women were incarcerated in the U.S. between 2019 and 2020 due to COVID-19, but as prison populations creep back to pre-pandemic norms, more children are being separated from their mothers, putting them at greater risk of health and behavioral problems, and making them vulnerable to abuse and displacement.
Read more »
Sharing the sentence: Separation takes toll on incarcerated moms and their kidsTens of thousands fewer women were incarcerated in the U.S. between 2019 and 2020 due to COVID-19, but as prison populations creep back to pre-pandemic norms, more children are being separated from their mothers, putting them at greater risk of health and behavioral problems, and making them vulnerable to abuse and displacement
Read more »
Sharing the sentence: Separation takes toll on incarcerated moms and their kidsTens of thousands fewer women were incarcerated in the U.S. between 2019 and 2020 due to COVID-19, but as prison populations creep back to pre-pandemic norms, more children are being separated from their mothers, putting them at greater risk of health and behavioral problems, and making them vulnerable to abuse and displacement
Read more »
Sharing the sentence: Separation takes toll on incarcerated moms and their kidsTens of thousands fewer women were incarcerated in the U.S. between 2019 and 2020 due to COVID-19, but as prison populations creep back to pre-pandemic norms, more children are being separated from their mothers, putting them at greater risk of health and behavioral problems, and making them vulnerable to abuse and displacement. Black and Hispanic women are more likely to be imprisoned than their white counterparts and are disproportionately affected by family separation due to incarceration. Rare programs like the Reunification Ride, a donation-dependent initiative that buses prisoners’ family members from Chicago to Illinois' largest women's prison every month so they can spend time with their mothers and grandmothers, are a crucial lifeline for families, prisoners say.
Read more »
Sharing the sentence: Separation takes toll on incarcerated moms and their kidsTens of thousands fewer women were incarcerated in the U.S. between 2019 and 2020 due to COVID-19, but as prison populations creep back to pre-pandemic norms, more children are being separated from their mothers, putting them at greater risk of health and behavioral problems, and making them vulnerable to abuse and displacement.
Read more »
The Best Dressed Stars of the Week Slipped Into Summery SilhouettesThe summer season is officially creeping its way in, and Hollywood A-listers are beginning to dress the part. See the best looks of the week here:
Read more »