Nearly three million children under the age of 18 have a parent in jail or prison

By Scotty Reid

There are those who try to minimize the impact of modern slavery/mass incarceration on people in the United States but the fact is, modern 21st Century Slavery & Human Trafficking affects more than just the often cited 2.5 million incarcerated statistic.

According to the Urban Institute, “nearly three million children under the age of 18 have a parent in jail or prison, and millions more have experienced their parents being arrested. Due to their parent’s criminal justice involvement, a growing body of research indicates that these children often experience trauma, family disruption, and the loss of their primary caregiver, which can lead to financial hardship, residential instability, and an array of emotional and behavioral problems.

In response, several community-based organizations and government agencies across the country have implemented programs and practices aimed at reducing this trauma and mitigating the potentially harmful outcomes associated with parental criminal justice involvement.”

It seems to this abolitionist the best way to reducing these harms to children would be to end slavery, for real this time.