Opinion: Incarcerated families must be considered in new child welfare policy

October 30, 2024—A new federal bill to improve the child welfare system in the U.S. is a step in the right direction, but doesn’t go far enough to protect families impacted by incarceration, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Bethany Kotlar.

Kotlar is a 2024 Harvard Chan School graduate, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and founder of the nonprofit Motherhood Beyond Bars. She co-authored an Oct. 17 opinion piece in The Hill explaining why and how legislation can better serve incarcerated mothers and their children.

“When fathers go to prison, mothers usually continue to care for their children. But when mothers are incarcerated, children are five times more likely to enter foster care. Even when mothers find a family member to care for their children, the child welfare system is often quick to remove them,” wrote Kotlar and co-author Vanessa Garrett, program director of Motherhood Behind Bars. Research conducted by Kotlar and the nonprofit found “intense distrust of child welfare authorities” among incarcerated mothers and those caring for their children.

According to Kotlar and Garrett, this uniquely vulnerable population is unlikely to benefit from recently proposed legislation—the Protecting America’s Children by Strengthening Families Act—that would allocate welfare funds toward short-term support for housing, transportation, food, and other essentials for impoverished families. “In theory, the provisions in the new bipartisan bill could help caregivers meet those babies’ needs,” wrote the co-authors. “Yet we found that caregivers in our study were reluctant to involve child welfare services in any way, even to seek help, for fear of losing custody.”

A stronger social safety net is needed to provide support to these families before child welfare steps in, wrote Kotlar and Garrett.

Read the op-ed: Child welfare system reforms shouldn’t leave incarcerated mothers behind

Learn more

When women give birth while in prison, how do their children fare? (Harvard Chan School news)

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