David J. Schonfeld, M.D.

National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Ohio

“Children with incarcerated parents can feel confused, guilty and even responsible for their parent’s incarceration,” said child grief expert David Schonfeld, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician, director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement and professor of practice at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. “Our penal system is focused on both rehabilitating and punishing incarcerated individuals. The problem is if we don’t help them maintain connections with family, it makes it less likely they will return to a parenting role, and that punishes the child, too. This compounds the child’s feelings of guilt and responsibility.”

“These kids are experiencing enduring, insidious trauma while their parents are in prison,” he said. “They are often subjected to ridicule and bullying as a result of having an incarcerated parent. Kids don’t want to talk about it, people don’t know about it, and as a result, education folks aren’t always sensitive to the trauma. Most teachers haven’t had any training or information about how to understand these particular children, and more needs to be done for them.”