Open AccessParenting and Incarceration: Perspectives on Father-Child Involvement during Reentry from Prison
Author(s) -
Pajarita Charles,
Luke Muentner,
Jean Kjellstrand
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the social service review/social service review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1537-5404
pISSN - 0037-7961
DOI - 10.1086/703446
Subject(s) - prison , psychology , reentry , psychological resilience , criminology , developmental psychology , social psychology , neuroscience
Large numbers of the more than 2 million people incarcerated in the United States are fathers who, upon exiting prison, return to their families and communities. Nevertheless, fathers' experiences of parenting from prison, their reentry process as a parent, and their involvement with their children after prison is not well understood. This qualitative study examines the experiences of 19 fathers recently released from prison to understand how incarceration shapes parenting and facilitates or presents barriers to father-child relationships. Our findings indicate that, despite the substantial challenges to parenting from prison, fathers remain deeply committed. Fathers identify individuals and systems that promote or hinder father-child involvement. The voices of the fathers help demonstrate that, despite personal and contextual challenges, their resilience and perseverance to parent motivates them to "perfect" themselves as fathers. These perspectives can inform the design and implementation of services to promote father-child involvement among fathers returning from prison.