Relative Captivity: The Family Crisis

As the Rutgers study says, "Incarceration is a crisis for family members as well." The situation in this report from Georgia is typical elsewhere:

"The importance of relationships between inmates and their loved ones cannot be overstated. Things don’t always go the way they should in prison, and family and friends can see to it that their loved one receives proper medical care, is safe from harm, and is treated with basic human dignity.

Also, when inmates are able to count on contact with their loved ones, the prison becomes safer and healthier. Families and friends hold inmates accountable for their behavior while in prison, encouraging them to serve their time peacefully and in accordance with prison rules. In addition, support from loved ones motivates inmates to use whatever tools for self improvement (such as vocational training or GED classes) are offered by the prison.

The relationships between inmates and their loved ones are important not only while a person is in prison, but also after release. An inmate who doesn’t have a network of family and friends to return to after getting out of prison has a much more difficult time doing well in the free world. The lack of programs which help formerly incarcerated citizens re-enter society makes the problem worse. The results can be very bad, not only for individuals, but also for the community at large."

But---

"Families who have tried to remain involved with their imprisoned loved ones have encountered a variety of barriers that they have felt helpless to change. For example, when families come to visit their loved ones, they have often endured disrespectful, rude and humiliating treatment by corrections officers. When families try to express concern for the health and safety of their imprisoned loved ones, the GDC [Georgia Department of Corrections] staff have often been unresponsive or uninterested. When families or friends have had important questions about the Standard Operating Procedures at their loved one’s facility, they found it hard to get reasonable answers from the GDC. When families and friends of inmates attempted to bring their grievances to the staff’s attention, they were frequently ignored."

The problems include very simple ones, like telephone calls:

"Prisoners, however, cannot receive phone calls and in many states cannot choose which phone service to use. They must make a collect call using the service contracted for by the prison. If a prisoner tries to talk to family members once a week in Pennsylvania for just 15 minutes to stay in touch with his children or so that a sick parent knows her incarcerated daughter still cares, their families will be paying over $834 a year to stay in touch.

Why do so many state departments of correction, county jailers, and even juvenile detention facilities so often charge exorbitant fees for telephone services to their captive audiences? Research done in 2004 by the Associated Press showed that California counties earned on average about half of the more than $303 million from collect calls made by prisoners over a five-year period. So at the end of the day, prisoner’s families, most of which are poor, are paying a hidden tax to maintain the prisons."

Families endure consequences outside prison as well. A report on assessing risk factors for familes begins:

"Most members of the families of prisoners experience multiple risks, beyond the initial incarceration of a parent or loved one. The children often endure poverty, substandard educational environments, violent neighborhoods, inadequate parenting or care and various forms of institutional and interpersonal racism. Studies show that the accumulation of these risks creates cycles of failure, which can lead to poor work and school performance and cause a loss of self-respect. "