By Barbara Bloom and David Steinhart

In I978,The National council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) published a study entitledWhy Punish the Children? The study JL offered a comprehensive and critical view of the nation's treatment of children whose mothers were incarcerated in the nation's jails and prisons. It documented a neglected and forgotten class of young people whose lives were disrupted and often damaged by the experience of isolation from their imprisoned mothers. Recommendations presented in the study were intended to focus attention on these children and their needs. The present work is a reassessment of the study published in I978. The need for a current appraisal is sharpened by the fact that the incarceration rate for female offenders has skyrocketed in recent years. This has spurred unwelcome growth of the invisible class of infants, children and teenagers who find themselves without a mother at home. While new legions of children are growing up separated from their mothers, government agencies appear more powerless than ever to attend to the needs of the children, their mothers and their caregivers. Now more than ever, we must renew our concern and define our commitment to these children. This report offers an appraisal of their needs and a current agenda for reform.

San Francisco: National Council on Crime and Delinquency, 1993. 86p.