Top

Gepubliceerd in:

23-08-2022 | Original Paper

Felons Need Not Apply: The Tough-on-crime Era’s Felony Welfare Benefits Ban and its Impact on Families with a Formerly Incarcerated Parent

Auteurs: Amy A. Morgan, Jacob Kosi-Huber, Tatjana M. Farley, Eman Tadros, Allison M. Bell

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Child and Family Studies | Uitgave 2/2023

Abstract

Although incarceration rates have begun to decline, the collateral consequences of mass incarceration persist, especially for families and communities of color. Following incarceration, families often face relationship, social, and financial challenges. Yet, social welfare benefits that can support families experiencing poverty frequently exclude people with felony convictions. One such social welfare policy—the focus of this paper—is the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which bars people with felony drug convictions from accessing social welfare benefits. With 60% of incarcerated parents having felony drug convictions, this policy precludes almost 200,000 families from accessing welfare benefits and disproportionately impacts single mothers and people of color. In this paper, we analyze PRWORA as it relates to social welfare and family inequity in the era of mass incarceration. Guided by an intersectionality framework, we address the following aims: (1) demonstrate how PRWORA may act as a form of institutional racism embedded within mass incarceration; and (2) analyze the impact of PRWORA’s felony welfare benefits ban on families impacted by incarceration. We conclude with recommendations for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working toward better outcomes for the formerly incarcerated.

vorige artikel A Model of Transformational Learning for Early Childhood Community-based Workers: Sajag Training for Responsive Caregiving

volgende artikel Examining Parental Monitoring, Neighborhood Peer Anti-social Behavior, and Neighborhood Social Cohesion and Control as a Pathway to Adolescent Substance Use

This paper is conceptual and has no funding, IRB, or informed consent information to declare.

Arditti, J. A. (2012). Parental incarceration and the family. NYU Press.

Armstrong, A. C. (2019). The missing link: Jail and prison conditions in criminal justice reform. Louisiana Law Review, 80(1), 1–36.

Beatty, L. G. & Snell, T. L. (2021). Special Report Profile of Prison Inmates, 2016. U.S. Department of Justice. https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/ppi16.pdf.

Berger, L. M., & Carlson, M. J. (2020). Family policy and complex contemporary families: A decade in review and implications for the next decade of research and policy practice. Journal of Marriage and Family, 82(1), 478–507. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12650.CrossRef

Bertalanffy, L. V. (1968). General systems theory: Foundations, development. G. Braziller.

Betcher, K. A. P. (2009). Revisiting the personal responsibility and work opportunity reconciliation act and calling for equality: Problematic moral regulations and the changing legal standards of LGBT families in a new Obama administration. Women's Rts. L. Rep, 31, 104–114.

Bialik, J. (2011). Surviving the early years of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 38(1), 163–182.

Bogenschneider, K. (2002). Family policy matters: How policymaking affects families and what professionals can do. Lawrence Erlbaum Associated, Inc., Publishers.

Bogenschneider, K., Little, O., Ooms, T., Benning, S., & Cadigan, K. (2012). The family impact handbook: How to view policy and practice through the family impact lens. The Family Impact Institute.

Bowleg, L. (2008). When black + lesbian + woman ≠ black lesbian woman: The methodolocial challenges of qualitative and quantitative intersectionality research. Sex Roles, 59, 312–325. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9400-z.CrossRef

Buck, P. D. (2021). Centering prisons: Reframing analysis of the state, relations of power and resistance. American Anthropologist. Advanced online copy. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13616.

Burch, M. (2021). Scripting the conviction: Power and resistance in the management of criminal stigma. American Anthropologist. Advanced online copy. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13613.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (2001). Economic news release. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://stats.bls.gov/news.release/famee.t05.htm.

Burton, O. (2021). Captivity, Kinship, and Black Masculine Care Work under Domestic Warfare. American Anthropologist, 123(3), 621–632. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13619.CrossRef

Campbell, M. L. (2015). Intersectionality, policy-oriented research and the social relations of knowing. Gender, Work & Organization, 23(3), 248–260. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12083.CrossRef

Carson A. E. (2020, October). Prisoners in 2019. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?tid=11.

Cherlin, A. J. (2021). Public and private families: An introduction. McGraw Hill.

Clear, T. R. (2007). Imprisoning communities: How mass incarceration makes disadvantaged neighborhoods worse. Oxford University Press.

Clear, T. R., & Frost, N. A. (2013). The punishment imperative: The rise and failure of mass incarceration in America. NYU Press.

Collins, P. H. (1991). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.

Congressional Budget Office (CBO). (1999). Testimony on CBO’s Spending Projections for the TANF and Federal Child Care Programs. CBO.

Congressional Budget Office (CBO). (2016). Improving Employment Outcomes of TANF Recipients Act report together with dissenting views (to accompany H.R. 2952). CBO.

Crenshaw, K. W. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989, 139–167.

Crenshaw, K. W. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039.CrossRef

Crenshaw, K. W. (1993). Demarginalizing the interaction of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and anti-racist politics. In D. Weisberg, (Ed.), Feminist legal theory: Foundations (pp. 383–411). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Curtis, M. G., Ellis, E. M., Ann, S., Dai, Y., & Bermudez, J. M. (2020). Intersectionality within family sciences and family therapy journals from 2010 to 2020. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 12, 510–528. https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12399.CrossRef

Danziger, S. (2011). Proceedings from the Joint Conference WZB/Hertie School of Governance: Anti-poverty programs in a global perspective: Lessons from rich and poor countries. Welfare Policy in the U.S.: Lessons from the 1996 Welfare Reform and the Great Recession. Berlin, Germany.

Dumont, D. M., Brockmann, B., Dickman, S., Alexander, N., & Rich, J. D. (2012). Public health and the epidemic of incarceration. Annual Review of Public Health, 33, 325–339. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031811-124614.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Ehrenreich, B. (2003). A step back to the workhouse? NYU Press.

Ferree, M. M. (2010). Filling the glass: Gender perspectives on families. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 420–439. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00711.x.CrossRef

Few-Demo, A. L. (2014). Intersectionality as the “New” Critical Approach in Feminist Family Studies: Evolving Racial/Ethnic Feminisms and Critical Race Theories. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 6(2), 169–183. https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12039.CrossRef

Finney, N., Tadros, E., Pfeiffer, S., & Owens, D. (2020). Clinical implications for multi-racial individuals. American Journal of Family Therapy, 48(3), 271–282. https://doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2019.1709581.CrossRef

First Step Act of 2018 (FSA). S. 756, Pub. L. 115–391.

Garland, D. (2001). The meaning of mass imprisonment. Punishment & Society, 3(1), 5–7. https://doi.org/10.1177/14624740122228203.CrossRef

Ghandnoosh, N. G. (2015). Black Lives Matter: Eliminating racial inequity in the criminal justice system. The Sentencing Project. https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/black-lives-matter-eliminating-racial-inequity-in-the-criminal-justice-system/.

Glaze, L. E., & Maruschak, L. M. (2010). Parents in prison and their minor children. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report (NCJ 222984). U.S. Department of Justice; Office of Justice Programs: Washington, DC.

Godsoe, C. (1998). The ban on welfare for felony drug offenders: Giving a new meaning to “life sentence”. Berkeley Women’s Law Journal, 13, 257–267. https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38G44HQ0W.CrossRef

Grinstead, O., Faigeles, B., Bancroft, C., & Zack, B. (2001). The financial cost of maintaining relationships with incarcerated African American men: a survey of women prison visitors. Journal of African American Studies, 6, 59–69.CrossRef

Hirsch, A. E. (2000). Welfare reform and women with felony drug convictions: Research results and policy recommendations. Journal of Poverty Law and Policy, 587.

Ho, C. (2015). Welfare-to-work reform and intergenerational support: Grandmothers’ response to the 1996 PRWORA. Journal of Marriage and Family, 77, 407–423. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12172.CrossRef

Hollie, B. D., & Coolhart, D. (2020). “A Larger System is Placing People in this Predicament”: A Qualitative Exploration of Living Amongst Urban Violence and the Impact on Mental Health and Relationships in the Black Community. Contemporary Family Therapy: An International Journal, 1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-020-09546-6.

Jacoby, J. E., & Kozie-Peak, B. (1997). The benefits of social support for mentally ill offenders: Prison-to-community transitions. Behavioral Sciences & The Law, 15, 483–501.CrossRef

Kenney, K. R., Kenney, M. E., Alvarado, S. B., Baden, A. L., Brew, L., Chen-Hayes, S., & Singh, A. A. (2015). Competencies for counseling the multiracial population. Multi- racial/ethnic Counseling Concerns (MRECC) Interest Network of the American Counseling Association.

King, R. S., Mauer, M., & Huling, T. (2004). An analysis of the economics of prison siting in rural communities. Criminology & Public Policy, 3, 453–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9133.2004.tb00054.x.CrossRef

Lichter, D. T., & Jayakody, R. (2012). Welfare reform: How do we measure success. Annual Review of Sociology, 28, 117–141. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.28.110601.140845.CrossRef

Loprest, P. (1999). Families who left welfare: Who are they and how are they doing? Discussion Paper No. 2., Assessing the New Federalism. Urban Institute.

Loprest, P. (2001). How are families that left welfare doing? A comparison of early and recent welfare leavers. Series B, No. B-36, New Federalism. Urban Institute.

Loprest, P. J. (2012). How has the TANF caseload changed over time? U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children & Families Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation. http://webarchive.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412565-How-Has-the-TANF-Caseload-Changed-Over-Time.pdf.

Lynch, J. P., & Sabol, W. J. (2004). Assessing the effects of mass incarceration on informal social control in communities. Criminology & Public Policy, 3, 267–294. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9133.2004.tb00042.x.CrossRef

Mauer, M., & McCalmont, V. (2013). A lifetime of punishment: The impact of the felony drug ban on welfare benefits. Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project. https://sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/A-Lifetime-of-Punishment.pdf.

McKay, T., Comfort, M., Lindquist, C., & Bir, A. (2019). Holding on: Family and fatherhood during incarceration and reentry. UC Press.

Moore, K., Stuewig, J., & Tangney, J. (2013). Jail inmates’ perceived and anticipated stigma: Implications for post-release functioning. Self and Identity, 12(5), 527–547. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2012.702425.CrossRefPubMed

Morgan, A. A., Arditti, J. A., Dennison, S., & Frederiksen, S. (2021). Against the odds: A structural equation analysis of family resilience processes during paternal incarceration. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111592.

Morrell, A. (2021). Policing the carceral state: Prisons and panic in an upstate new york prison town. Transforming Anthropology, 26(1), 50–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/traa.12118.CrossRef

Nice, J. (2007). Promoting marriage experimentation: a class act? Journal of Law & Policy, 24, 31–46.

O’Connor, A. (2000). Poverty research and policy for the post-welfare era. Annual Review Sociology, 26, 547–562. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.547.CrossRef

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), H.R. 3734, Pub. L. 104–193.

Pimpare, S. (2012). Welfare reform at 15 and the state of policy analysis. Social Work, 58(1), 53–62. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/sws057.CrossRef

Poehlmann, J., Dallaire, D., Loper, A. B., & Shear, L. D. (2010). Children’s contact with their incarcerated parents: Research findings and recommendations. American Psychologist, 65(6), 575–598. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020279.CrossRefPubMed

Rand, P., & Miller, R. J. (2021). Big Brains: Why life after incarceration is just another prison, with Reuben Jonathan Miller (Ep. 65). UChicago News. https://news.uchicago.edu/big-brains-podcast-why-life-after-incarceration-just-another-prison.

Rodgers, H. (2003). Welfare reform: Making work really work. The Policy Studies Journal, 31(1), 89–100. https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-0072.00005.CrossRef

Rossetto, K. R., & Tollison, A. C. (2017). Feminist agency, sexual scripts, and sexual violence: Developing a model for postgendered family communication. Family Relations, 66, 61–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12232.CrossRef

Schauss, E., Steinruck, R. E., & Brown, M. H. (2017). Mindfulness and free association for multicultural Competence: A Model for Clinical Group Supervision. Journal of Counselor Practice, 8(2), 102–119. https://doi.org/10.22229/xpw610283.CrossRef

Sentencing Project (2008). Reducing racial disparity in the criminal justice system. Washington, DC. http://www.sentencingproject.org.

Sentencing Project (2017). Fact sheet: Trends in U.S. corrections. The Sentencing Project. https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Trends-in-US-Corrections.pdf.

Sentencing Project. (2020). Fact sheet: Incarcerated women and girls. The sentencing project. https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Incarcerated-Women-and-Girls.pdf.

Sentencing Project. (2021). Fact sheet: Trends in U.S. corrections. The Sentencing Project. https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/trends-in-u-s-corrections/.

Stone, D. (1997). Policy paradox: The art of political decision making. W. W. Norton & Co.

Tadros, E. & Owens, D. (2020). Clinical implications for culturally informed counseling with incarcerated individuals. American Journal of Family Therapy, 49(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2020.1813659.

Tadros, E. (2021). The Tadros theory of change with incarcerated populations. American Journal of Family Therapy, online first publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2021.1929560.

Tervalon, M., & Murray-García, J. (1998). Cultural humility versus cultural competence: a critical distinction in defining physician training outcomes in multicultural education. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 9(2), 117–125.CrossRefPubMed

Toldson, E. A. (2020). Transdisciplinary convergence to accelerate strategies to mitigate institutional racism in criminal justice education and health systems (Editor’s Commentary). The Journal of Negro Education, 89(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.89.1.0001.CrossRef

Turney, K. (2017). The unequal consequences of mass incarceration for children. Demography, 54(1), 361–389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-016-0543-1.CrossRefPubMed

Turney, K., & Halpern-Meekin, S. (2020). Parental relationship churning and adolescent well-being: Examining instability within families. Journal of Marriage and Family, 82(3), 965–980. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12665.CrossRef

Tyler, E. T., & Brockmann, B. (2017). Returning Home: Incarceration, Reentry, Stigma and the Perpetuation of Racial and Socioeconomic Health Inequity. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 45(4), 545–557. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073110517750595.CrossRef

United States Department of Health & Human Services. (2001). 12 years of child maltreatment. Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children’s Bureau. Washington, DC. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cb/cm01.pdf.

Wallace, D., Fahmy, C., Cotton, L., Jimmons, C., McKay, R., Stoffer, S., & Syed, S. (2014). Examining the Role of Familial Support During Prison and After Release on Post-Incarceration Mental Health. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 60(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624x14548023.CrossRefPubMed

Wang, E. A., Zhu, G. A., Evans, L., Carroll-Scott, A., Desai, R., & Fiellin, L. E. (2013). A pilot study examining food insecurity and HIV risk behaviors among individuals recently released from prison. AIDS Education & Prevention, 25(2), 112–123. https://doi.org/10.1521/aeap.2013.25.2.112.CrossRef

Weaver, R., & Hackman, R. (2009). A new era for legal immigrants?: Rethinking Title IV of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Journal of Policy Practice, 8(1), 54–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/15588740802282490.CrossRef

Zedlewski, S., Clark, S., Meier, E., Watson, K. (1996). Potential effects of congressional welfare reform legislation on family incomes. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.

Ziliak, J. P., Figlio, D. N., David, E. E., & Connolly, L. S. (2000). Accounting for the decline in AFDC caseloads: welfare reform or the economy? Journal of Human Resources, 35, 570–586. https://doi.org/10.2307/146393.CrossRef

Titel: Felons Need Not Apply: The Tough-on-crime Era’s Felony Welfare Benefits Ban and its Impact on Families with a Formerly Incarcerated Parent
Auteurs: Amy A. Morgan
Jacob Kosi-Huber
Tatjana M. Farley
Eman Tadros
Allison M. Bell
Publicatiedatum: 23-08-2022
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Child and Family Studies / Uitgave 2/2023
Print ISSN: 1062-1024
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-2843
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02400-3

Andere artikelen Uitgave 2/2023

Outcomes From an Online Pilot Mindfulness Based Intervention with Adolescents: A Comparison by Categories of Risk

Original Paper

Relationship Quality and Mental Health Implications for Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Longitudinal Study

Original Paper

Targeting Parental Accommodation in Anxiety: An Open Trial of the Coping Cat Accommodation Reduction Intervention

Original Paper

A Model of Transformational Learning for Early Childhood Community-based Workers: Sajag Training for Responsive Caregiving

Open Access
Original Paper

The Effects of a School-based Resilience Intervention for Youth with Socioemotional Difficulties

Original Paper

Mental Health Trajectories of Latinx Female Caregivers and Young Children During COVID-19: A Longitudinal Analysis

Original Paper