Children of Imprisoned Parents: A Guide to Holistic Caregiver and Child Well-Being

For too long, the adverse impacts of parental incarceration have remained in the shadows. This book and its companion workbook, Children of Imprisoned Parents: A Workbook for Holistic Caregiver and Child Well-Being (ISBN 978-1-4766-8717-9), illuminate the hidden challenges, helping caregivers to understand children’s stress-response systems and enabling them to recognize how anxiety and grief may manifest in a child’s daily behaviors.

How do you recover from the pain of telling children mistruths about parental arrest and imprisonment? How does parental incarceration affect child development and the body-brain connection? Are children of incarcerated parents prone to incarceration themselves? With sensitivity and clarity, the authors address a range of questions including such tough topics as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma, childhood suicide ideation, and grief and loss.

Readers will find evidence-based, trauma-informed interventions and practical tools to promote coping, emotional regulation, and stress reduction. Trauma-responsive and healing-centered approaches empower caregivers and their children to thrive in the face of daunting challenges.

Avon Hart-Johnson is a dedicated researcher, scholar, and advocate at the forefront of social justice initiatives. Her books and journal publications focus on the intersection of mass incarceration and its profound effects on children, families, and communities. She also leads national and international coalitions, driving discussions on social change, human rights, and reparative justice. Geoffrey Alan Johnson possesses a distinctive combination of experience in law enforcement, research, and non-profit leadership. He bridges the gap between the demand for practical strategies in public policy, juvenile justice reform, and the promotion of structural changes in social justice. He is the author of handbooks on family member incarceration and has created children’s books to help youth better grasp the related complexities.