Children of incarcerated mothers must also pay toll of their parent’s crimes as separation puts them at risk

The children of women who are incarcerated in the U.S. don't get to see their mothers very frequently. Certain prisons allocate days for mothers to spend time with their children.

Martinez’ five children, including the three aged 13, 10 and 6, last month traveled for three hours from Chicago to visit her in Logan Correctional, Illinois’ largest state prison for women and transgender people, on the Reunification Ride. The donation-dependent initiative buses prisoners' family members 180 miles from the city to Logan every month so they can spend time with their mothers and grandmothers.

The number of incarcerated women in the United States dropped by tens of thousands because of COVID-19. But as the criminal justice system returns to business as usual and prison populations creep back to pre-pandemic norms, more children are being separated from their mothers, putting them at greater risk of health and behavioral problems and making them vulnerable to abuse and displacement.

Black and Hispanic women are more likely to be imprisoned than white women and are affected disproportionately by family separation due to incarceration.