Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality

Social Networks & Incarceration

Parenting while poor

Poverty impacts every level of the social network, especially the family. Myriad factors affect the lives of families living in poverty, making them more likely to suffer negative mental, emotional, physical, and financial consequences.

OBSTACLES OF POVERTY ON PARENTING

Mental & Physical Health

Economic hardship has “cascading effects” on mental health, parenting behavior, and the child’s well-being

Time &

Resources

Food insecurity, the need to work (sometimes multiple jobs), and limited funds prevents access to necessities

Strained social network

Living in a distressed neighborhood or in an abusive situation is inescapable without resources to leave

RISK FACTORS FOR DEPRESSION LINKED WITH POVERTY

1) Robbery 4) Humiliating/Entrapping events

2) Eviction 5) Illness

3) Compromised Physical Health 6) Loss of material resources

“Poverty is also associated with worse physical health; greater exposure to trauma, violence, and crime; and lower social status, each of which may affect mental health.

Mental illness in turn worsens economic outcomes for individuals. Studies show that randomized interventions to treat mental illnesses increase days worked. Depression and anxiety directly affect the way people think, by capturing their attention and distorting their memory. Such effects are likely to influence economic preferences and beliefs and thus distort important economic decisions made by individuals, such as how much to work, invest, and consume. Reduced concentration and greater fatigue reduce work productivity, and the social stigma of mental illness may further worsen labor-market outcomes. Mental illness appears to increase the likelihood of catastrophic health expenditures for individuals through its comorbidity with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. Mental illness may also hinder education and skill acquisition among youth and exacerbate gender inequalities through its disproportionate prevalence among women. Parental mental illness can also influence children’s cognitive development and educational attainment, transmitting mental illness and poverty across generations.”

(Ridley et al, “Poverty, depression, and anxiety: Causal evidence and mechanisms,” 2020.)

Source: Institute for Research on Poverty,“Poverty Fact Sheet: Unstable Jobs, Unstable Lives: Low-Wage Work in the United States,” 2019.

volatile money

“A recent study tracking 235 low and moderate-income households over the course of a year found that overall earnings become more volatile the closer a worker is to the poverty threshold, As shown in Figure 2, workers who make incomes below the poverty line report that over 70 percent of their monthly income changes unpredictably. For many workers, financial stability is just as important, if not more important, than increased earnings: 92 percent of study participants indicated that they would choose financial stability over moving up the income ladder, and a majority would give up up to one-fifth of their income in exchange for a stable schedule.”

PREOCCUPATION WITH SAFETY

overprotective?

“While more parents across income groups say they tend to be overprotective rather than give their children too much freedom, those with lower (50%) and middle (45%) incomes are more likely than those with upper incomes (40%) to describe themselves as overprotective.”

Or more at risk?

“Victimization rates for all types of personal crimes are significantly higher for individuals living in low-income households.”

Data is from 2008- but still an important and compelling compilation of data regarding the much higher likelihood of victimization of low-income families. The people now adults and rating how worried they are for their children's safety were the same people suffering these high rates of victimization in 2008 when the data was collected. Hence, these worries are less based in a neurotic parenting style and more in these parents' own experiences and knowledge of the likelihood of any of these events happening to their children.

Poverty, Incarceration, & the family

Poverty to incarceration:

the slippery slope

The systems that lead to incarceration frequently target low income populations and particularly marginalized communities. The majority of the incarcerated population would not be incarcerated if they simply had access to more financial resources.

Of incarcerated people come from low-income communities. 67% are minorities.

Or less was the median annual income of people before incarceration

Source: Tihanne Mar-Shall, “The Poverty to Prison Pipeline,” Law Journal for Social Justice, 2021.

NON-VIOLENT OFFENSES SHOW DISPROPORTIONATE REPRESENTATION

“The United States currently incarcerates 2.2 million people, nearly half of whom are non-violent drug offenders, accused people held pre-trial because they cannot afford their bail, and others who have been arrested for failure to pay debts or fines for minor infractions.”

PAYING FOR IMPRISONMENT

“Forty-three states require defendants to pay for their court-appointed lawyer, sometimes even when the accused is found not guilty. At least 41 states charge “room-and-board” for time in prison, and every state, excluding Washington, D.C., requires wearers of home monitoring devices to pay for their use. Failure to pay these fines—or rather, failure to comply with a court order—can result in imprisonment, despite the fact that imprisoning an individual for inability to pay has been ruled unconstitutional.”

Source: Hayes, Barnhorst, “Incarceration and Poverty in the United States,” American Action Forum, 2020.

LOW-INCOME POPULATIONS: THE SCAPEGOAT IN MODERN MUNICIPAL FISCAL PLANNING

“According to the Brennan Center, nearly every state has increased the use and amount of fees and fines since 2008, largely as a means of raising revenue. Another study from the Urban Institute shows how the share of charges as a source of state and local revenue has increased while sales taxes and property taxes have declined and income taxes have held relatively steady. Nearly half of local governments now receive more than 20 percent of their revenue through the imposition of fines and court costs.”

THE TRUTH ABOUT DRUG OFFENSES

"Of people in prison for drug offenses, nearly 80 percent in federal prison and 60 percent in state prisons are Black or Latino, despite historical data showing that, on average, Whites are just as, if not more, likely to use illicit drugs. Further, users are more likely to purchase drugs from someone of the same race. Thus, the population imprisoned for drug offenses should reflect roughly the racial composition of the general population—or even skew slightly more White—if people of all races were arrested, charged, prosecuted, and sentenced equally. The data show this is not the case.

Regarding marijuana specifically, Black use was 30 percent greater than Whites in 2010, but Black individuals were arrested 270 percent more often than Whites. Black offenders were also nearly twice as likely as White offenders to be charged by a federal prosecutor for an offense that carried a mandatory minimum sentence."

These individuals are much more likely to have grown up in poverty and neighborhoods with high unemployment:

“The likelihood that a boy from a family in the bottom 10 percent of the income distribution will end up in prison in his thirties is 20 times greater than that of a boy from a family in the top 10 percent.”

THE RACIAL BIAS IN SENTENCING

"According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, however, the sentence-gap is nearly twice that: Overall, Black males receive sentences 19.1 percent longer than similarly situated White males, on average. Further, Black males were 21.2 percent less likely than White males to receive a sentence shorter than what sentencing guidelines suggest or typically require."

Source: Hayes, Barnhorst, “Incarceration and Poverty in the United States,” American Action Forum, 2020.

The INCARCERATED PARENT

The rate of parenthood among those incarcerated is roughly the same as the rate in the general population: 50 percent to 75 percent of incarcerated individuals report having a minor child.

An estimated 50 to 75 percent of incarcerated individuals with a minor child comes out to around 1.1 million to 1.6 million incarcerated parents, disproportionately impacting families in marginalized communities.

IMPACTED GROUPS

“African-American children and Hispanic children were 7.5 times more likely and 2.3 times more likely, respectively, than white children to have an incarcerated parent. Also, 40 percent of all incarcerated parents were African-American fathers.”

Source: Kennedy, Mennick, & Allan “‘I took care of my kids,’: Mothering while Incarcerated”, Health and Justice, 2020.

The INCARCERATED MOTHER

Identity as a Mother still pivotal during incarceration, despite tendency to be viewed as separate from children after incarceration.

Frequently connected the reasons for crime to their children, contrary to stereotype of selfishness. The common sentiment that, when you are a mother, you do what you have to do to protect and take care of your children.

Trends:

Sense of loss of control
Sense of “doing the best that they can to protect their children”
Criminal activity tied to motherhood
Poverty and its impacts directly linked to incarceration
Retained strong sense of motherhood being central to identity while imprisoned

The INCARCERATED FATHER

“It is difficult for fathers to have meaningful contact with their children while in prison for a number of reasons including geographic distance from family members, transportation and financial barriers, the lack of child-friendly visiting contexts, harsh and disrespectful treatment by correctional officers, and, in general, the demanding nature of visitation for both children and parents.”

LOSS OF IDENTITY

“As one prisoner with five children asked, "How can you be a father while you're incarcerated?" Indeed, prison and the resultant loss of control relative to children was perceived as stripping a man of his fathering identity.”

Trends:

Often fraught relationship with fatherhood during prison, “on pause”
Relationship of masculinity, discipline, providing of resources connected to fatherhood
Criminal activity not mentioned as much as related to their role as a parent pre-incarceration
Desire to “start again” upon release

Source: Arditti, Smock, Parkman, Fathering, “"It's Been Hard to Be a Father": A Qualitative Exploration of Incarcerated Fatherhood,” Genderwatch, 2005.

children of the incarcerated

“Children with corrections-involved parents are at the highest risk of becoming involved in either the child welfare or criminal justice systems.”

INVOLVEMENT IN FOSTER CARE

“Children in foster care are much more likely than their peers to become involved in the criminal justice system. An estimated 25% of foster care children will become involved with the criminal system within two years of leaving care, and over half of youth in care experience an arrest, conviction, or overnight stay at a correctional facility by age seventeen. For children who have been moved through multiple placements, the risk is even higher, with one study indicating that over 90% of foster youth who move five or more times will end up in the juvenile justice system.”

The School-To-Prison Pipeline and the Sexual-Assault-to-Prison Pipeline overly target students in low-income, predominately nonwhite schools. Over-policing, deliberate interpretations of children as aggressive, and tendencies to treat students as older and more mature than they actually are lead to a slippery slope that reinforces the overrepresentation of marginalized communitied in prison.

MOTHER VS FATHER

“While 90% of children remain with their mother when their father is incarcerated, only 25% of children live with their father when their mother is incarcerated, though another 50% live with a grandmother. But even short-term temporary removals can have lasting effects on children.”

Source: Palcheck, Child Welfare and the Criminal System: Impact, Overlap, Potential Solutions,” Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, 2021.

BROADER EFFECTS ON CHILDREN

1) Antisocial Behavior

“The most common consequence of parental incarceration appears to fall under the umbrella of antisocial behavior, which describes any number of behaviors that go against social norms, including criminal acts and persistent dishonesty. One meta-analysis of 40 studies on children of incarcerated parents found that antisocial behaviors were present more consistently than any other factors, including mental health issues and drug use.”

2) Worsened Economic Well-Being

“The overwhelming majority of children with incarcerated parents have restricted economic resources available for their support. One study found that the family's income was 22 percent lower during the incarceration period and 15 percent lower after the parent's re-entry.” This was even more pronounced in the event of a mother’s incarceration, especially if the father did not live with the family.

3) Damaged Parent-Child Attachment

Complicated:

“If the parent is a strong support in the child's life, the interruption of the child-parent relationship will lead to or exacerbate many of the issues or risk factors already discussed. Conversely, in some cases a child might benefit from the removal of a parent who presented problems for the child.”

Other factors such as experiencing the parent’s arrest further complicate the relationship with the parent and the child’s trauma

Source: Martin, “Hidden Consequences: The Impact of Incarceration on Dependent Children,” National Institute of Justice Journal, 2017.

Webpage contributed by Margaret Ortwerth

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