As the criminal justice system returns to business as usual following the COVID-19 pandemic and prison populations creep back to pre-pandemic norms, more children are being separated from their mothers.
Myla Martinez, 6-year-old, enthusiastically greets her mother Crystal Martinez as she and her four younger siblings spend time her with her during a special visit at Logan Correctional Center, Saturday, May 20, 2023, in Lincoln, Illinois.
Black and Hispanic women are more likely to be imprisoned than white women and are affected disproportionately by family separation due to incarceration. 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.
Although women are far less likely to be imprisoned than men, their incarceration can have outsized effects on families, Mansfield said. She has witnessed children reuniting with their incarcerated mothers after months or years apart who “immediately disclose that they’re being abused or that they’re facing a challenge at school.”
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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.
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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.
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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 kidsDressed 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.
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