![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.gif)
The United States has the highest youth incarceration rate in the world, with nearly 50,000 youth incarcerated in youth prisons, jails, adult facilities, detention centers, and secure homes on any given day. This figure not only represents the nearly 50,000 young people displaced from their communities but the 50,000 families, whether biological or chosen, that are directly impacted by the juvenile legal system. We know incarceration negatively affects family life. Prior studies show that children with incarcerated parents experience challenges that include low educational attainment (Turney, 2017), mental and behavioral health issues (Haskins & Turney, 2018), and an increased likelihood of being incarcerated themselves (Davis et al., 2022). We know less about the effects of youth incarceration on their siblings. This is a striking oversight when we consider that young people and their siblings, just like the adults who raise them, are a central part of a family system.
Methods
This narrative study explores the impact of youth incarceration on 30 Black siblings around the country. In the study participants discuss their relationship with their siblings and other family members at three different time points: before their siblings’ incarceration, during their siblings’ incarceration; and after their sibling's release. I will also ask these siblings who they go to for support and what support they believe was needed during and after their sibling’s incarceration.
Results
Three important findings emerged from my study. First, family ties begin to sever for families as soon as, at arrest. Participants expressed resentment towards their siblings because of their incarceration and members of their families for their failure to support their loved ones while incarcerated. Support services are scarce to assist families who have an incarcerated loved one and help them prepare for when their loved one is released. Participants stated that their siblings would receive certain services to assist during reentry, but more support is needed to help rebuild relationships with families and also assist families with being able to support a relative who spent time incarcerated—and lastly, having a loved one who was incarcerated brought on strain, including financial strain, often leading to feelings of depression and substance use not only in siblings but parents as well.
Conclusion and Implications
These findings reveal several practice and policy implications, including 1) a need for services designed for families of incarcerated youth to help maintain connections with families while a young person is incarcerated; 2) a need for services to help families prepare for when a relative is released; 3) a need for a more robust continuum of care to help prevent the development of mental health and substance use issues in families of incarcerated young people; and finally these findings 4) expose how youth incarceration as a whole has severe consequences in terms of the potential harm and costs on broader society as a whole. Not only are families harmed, but the costs associated with health care needs and substance use treatment, especially for marginalized individuals, can reproduce already existing inequalities in society.