Yesterday I attended the event “Criminal (In)justice: How Mass Incarceration Disrupts Families and Communities.”  I learned so much in this hour and realized just how many major problems there are with the criminal justice system.  I was especially excited about this event because I attended a couple lectures about mass incarceration last year and found them to be incredibly eye-opening and important.  Furthermore, my professor who taught Intro to Sociology last semester, Professor Haskins, was a speaker yesterday, so I was excited to hear her talk about this.

The effects of mass incarceration go beyond the individual but extend to their family and community as well.  Professor Haskins mentioned that 1 in 10 kids in America have experienced parental incarceration, yet this statistic is not the same for all socioeconomic and racial groups.  Kids with incarcerated parents are especially affected in multiple ways, such as potentially hurting their performance or involvement in school.  I was surprised to realize that child support payments often remain the same for someone when they are incarcerated, even though they now are under-employed or unemployed.  This has caused a huge build-up of child support debt that cannot be paid which in turn harms people’s families and children.  Another thing that was discussed in the event was the importance of rehabilitation and the role that family plays in it.  One speaker told a story about a man who was afraid to leave prison once his time was served because he had spent most of his life there and he had no family or support on the outside.  This was especially heartbreaking and illuminates real flaws in the system that must be addressed.