There's a simple way to understand how traumatized a young child feels when a parent is incarcerated, says Ann Adalist-Estrin, director of the National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated at Rutgers–Camden.
Imagine how it would feel to be held at gunpoint.
"The levels of toxic stress for families involved in the criminal justice system is huge," Adalist-Estrin asserts, and that trauma can lead to a domino effect of behavioral and mental health problems later in life.
Multiply that by 2.7 million children in the United States — one in 28 kids. Half are under age 10. Most affected families are invisible by choice, she says, silenced by stigma, shame and the judgment of their communities.
...Though the center is designed to advise policy makers and organizations, not families, it has enlisted the voices of children and their caregivers. In the next year, Adalist-Estrin hopes to create a youth advisory council and a South Jersey section on the center's website, offering local resources.
Rutgers center helps when parents in jail, kids in pain
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