{"id":2852,"date":"2023-06-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gatebizglobal.com\/children-incarcerated-mothers-must-also-pay-toll-parents-crimes-separation-puts-them-risk\/"},"modified":"2023-06-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T00:00:00","slug":"children-incarcerated-mothers-must-also-pay-toll-parents-crimes-separation-puts-them-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gatebizglobal.com\/children-incarcerated-mothers-must-also-pay-toll-parents-crimes-separation-puts-them-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Children of incarcerated mothers must also pay toll of their parent\u2019s crimes as separation puts them at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dressed in her Sunday best \u2014 pink ruffled sleeves and a rainbow tulle tutu \u2014 Crystal Martinez\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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“I want you! I don\u2019t want the flowers,” Martinez says , smiling and holding her children close.<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019 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\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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The number of incarcerated women in the United States<\/a> dropped by tens of thousands because of COVID-19. But as the criminal justice system returns to business as usual and 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.<\/p>\n

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The kids and their caregivers meet at 7 a.m. at a South Side big box store parking lot, bleary-eyed but excited. Organizers hand out snacks, games, water and coloring supplies as they get on the road.<\/p>\n

PROSECUTORS NOW DOUBT IMPRISONED AUSTRALIAN MOTHER DELIBERATELY MURDERED HER 4 TODDLERS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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“We are seeing more and more families separated,” said Alexis Mansfield, Reunification Ride coordinator for the Women\u2019s Justice Institute.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019re being abused or that they\u2019re facing a challenge at school.”<\/p>\n

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