Associations and Predictors of Incarcerated African American Father's Relationship with Their Children (Report‪)‬

Typically, discussions about the effect of imprisonment upon incarcerated parents and their children involve women (Beckerman, 1994; Beckerman, 1998; Boudin, 1998). During a period when more attention was given to woman offenders, an increase in publications occurred in the scholarly literature about mothers in prisons (Baunach, 1985; LeFlore & Holston, 1989; Sametz, 1980). Then, the unanimous view of these writers was that men, in general, had no primary responsibility for children, and when men went to prison, they were unaffected by separation from their children (Baunach, 1985). Mothers, however, were said to suffer, and children were made to suffer when incarceration separated them (Baunach, 1985; LeFlore & Holston, 1989; Sametz, 1980). As a result, some prisons created nurseries and permitted children to stay with their incarcerated mothers, believing it would strengthen the parent-child bond (Modie, 1997). If fathers were studied, the purpose was to investigate the extent to which crimigenic fathers passed on their criminal tendencies to their children (Morris, 1967). Virtually dismissed were fatherhood issues of incarcerated men (Boswell, 2002; Browning, Miller, & Spruance, 2001). Despite the early view that male prisoners are uninvolved in their children's lives, a policy of neglecting the role of incarcerated fathers seems ill advised. For instance, in South Carolina, a jury in a capital case heard evidence to determine whether an upper-middle-class White defendant, who had been convicted of murdering his wife, would be sentenced to die or serve a life sentence without parole. Two of the mitigation witnesses were his young children. Both tearfully told the jury and judge that they needed their father and wanted him to live. They indicated that even in prison they could, as they grow up, seek their father's opinions about important decisions in their lives and receive support from him. Based on their emotional appeal, the jury sentenced their father to life imprisonment without parole (CourtTV, 1999).