Book review: Parental Incarceration and the Family: Psychological and Social Effects of Imprisonment on Children, Parents and Caregivers
| Author | Angela M Collins |
| Published date | 01 September 2016 |
| Date | 01 September 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895816655025 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book reviews 515
References
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Joyce A Arditti, Parental Incarceration and the Family: Psychological and Social Effects of
Imprisonment on Children, Parents and Caregivers, NYU Press: New York, 2012; 258 pp.:
9780814705124, $70.00 (pbk)
Reviewed by: Angela M Collins, Sam Houston State University, USA
Joyce Arditti’s book Parental Incarceration and the Family: Psychological and Social
Effects of Imprisonment on Children, Parents and Caregivers takes a family perspective
to the topic of parental incarceration (PI). She discusses how previous research focuses
on one component of the family (e.g. the children, the caregiver) without taking into
account the family unit. The goal of the book is twofold. First, to describe PI, with a
focus on inmates, their children, and other family members from a micro perspective.
Second, to create an understanding of the mass incarceration of parents from a macro
perspective, including intended and unintended consequences of mass incarceration on
the families of inmates and what that means for society.
Throughout the book, Arditti uses a framework that combines two theoretical paradigms:
ecological theory and developmental contexts. This allows her to discuss the family of an
incarcerated parent in terms of the processes family members go through in developing
themselves during the time of the incarceration and reentry, along with understanding the
context in which the incarceration took place. The development of the self during incarcera-
tion is referred to as prisonization; prisoners have to make changes to who they are as a
person. It is a process of adaptation based on the environment of prison (the environment is
seen as context to the process). Prisonization can affect an incarcerated parent once he or she
returns home because they may be fundamentally different than before the incarceration.
Four processes/contexts are described in the second chapter that are running themes
throughout the book. Demographic and structural characteristics, cumulative disadvan-
tage, institutional practices, and sociopolitical factors all play a role in the experiences
and consequences for families touched by PI. Many of the families described are minori-
ties, particularly African-American. These families often have poor social and economic
backgrounds, which can cause strain on the family. Institutional practices of prisons
themselves tend to keep families apart and sociopolitical factors influence reentry out-
comes in terms of disenfranchisement and stigma, which can impact the entire family.
For example, the stigma of being incarcerated can keep the parent from gaining employ-
ment and can put children at risk for psychological problems, particularly boys. Together,
these processes/contexts describe how difficult PI is for a family.
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