Roundtable: The Extended Impacts of Intersecting Carceral Systems on Families

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract/Description

Previous research has examined the political, economic, and social impact of mass incarceration on detained individuals and those sentenced to community supervision. However, there has been less research on how the broader carceral state – a nexus of punitive institutions, policies, practices across systems – impacts families. As a result, the over 113 million people in the United States who have ever had an immediate family member confined from full participation in public life remain a largely invisible population whose policy and service needs are underexamined.

This roundtable addresses this conceptual and empirical gap through research spanning the intersections of the public education, mental health, child welfare, juvenile legal, and adult criminal legal systems. The five panelists draw on multiple methods including phenomenological, narrative, case study, and quantitative approaches to: 1) conceptualize the impact of the carceral state as occurring at the level of the family system rather than the individual level; 2) provide important insights on how policy, practice, and programs within the carceral state shape families’ experiences of life and citizenship; and 3) interrogate the ways policy shifts and larger structural transformations could better serve families and provide the conditions necessary for them to flourish.

Sub Unit

• Area XIV. Roundtables

Chair

• Noor Toraif, University of Pennsylvania

Discussants

• Samantha Guz, The University of Chicago

• Durrell Washington, The University of Chicago

• Luke Muentner, RTI International

• Brianna J. Suslovic, University of Chicago