Parental Incarceration, Child Homelessness, and the Invisible Consequences of Mass Imprisonment

Although the share of the homeless population composed of African Americans and children has grown since at least the early 1980s, the causes of these changes remain poorly understood. This article implicates mass imprisonment in at least the second of these shifts by considering the effects of parental incarceration on child homelessness using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. These are the only data that simultaneously represent a contemporary cohort of the urban children most at risk of homelessness, establish appropriate time-order between parental incarceration and child homelessness, and control for prior housing, which is vital given the imprisonment-homelessness nexus. Results show strong effects of recent but not distal parental incarceration on the risk of child homelessness. They also show that effects are concentrated among African American children. Taken together, results suggest that mass imprisonment exacerbates marginalization among disadvantaged children, thereby contributing to a system of stratification in which the children of the prison boom become virtually invisible.Fragile families, child homelessness, family structure, family stability, imprisonment, African Americans

Imprisonment and (Inequality in) Population Health

This article extends research on the consequences of mass imprisonment and the factors shaping population health and health inequities by considering the effects of the imprisonment rate on population health and black-white inequality in population health using state-level panel data from the United States (1980-2004). My results imply that increases in the imprisonment rate harm population health, though the effects on the infant mortality rate and female life expectancy are more consistent than are the effects on male life expectancy. My results also imply that these health effects are concentrated among blacks, implicating mass imprisonment in the persistence of black-white inequities in population health. The effects, moreover, are substantial. According to my estimates, if the American imprisonment rate had remained at its 1980 level, black life expectancy at birth would have been 0.8 years longer in 2004, and black-white inequality in the infant mortality rate would have been 23 percent smaller. My results also indicate, however, that increases in the imprisonment rate are associated with decreases in the mortality rates of young black men. Although imprisonment’s long-term effects on health and health inequities are mostly negative, imprisonment may, in the short-run, have some health benefits for young black men

The past, present, and future of the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect

This presentation discusses the past, present, and future of the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect

Punishment, Inequality, and the Future of Mass Incarceration

This is the published version

State-level variation in the imprisonment-mortality relationship, 2001−2010

Background: Most research on the imprisonment-mortality relationship has focused exclusively on non-Hispanic black males and non-Hispanic white males at the national level in the United States. Objective: To document variation in this relationship across states by race/ethnicity and sex. Methods: We estimate the crude and age-specific mortality rates of state prisoners and of the general population in 7−9 states. We also present the resulting standardized mortality ratios (SMRs). Results: The results provide support for four key conclusions. First, although there is substantial cross-state variability in the mortality rates of male and female state prisoners, there is far more cross-state variability in the mortality rates of males and females in the general population. Second, the mortality advantage of male prisoners over males in the general population was larger than the mortality advantage of female prisoners over females in the general population. Third, relative to same-race and same-sex peers in the general population, black males experienced the largest mortality advantage across all of the states considered, and this advantage was often quite substantial. Finally, Hispanic female state prisoners in New York were the one group at a significant mortality disadvantage relative to the general population, although because of the small number of Hispanic female state prisoners who died over this period (20), further research testing the robustness of this finding to different time periods and places is sorely needed. Conclusions: Although mortality disparities among prisoners are smaller than those found in the general population, research should consider how conditions of confinement affect the mortality of prisoners

Targeting DNA2 Overcomes Metabolic Reprogramming in Multiple Myeloma

DNA damage resistance is a major barrier to effective DNA-damaging therapy in multiple myeloma (MM). To discover mechanisms through which MM cells overcome DNA damage, we investigate how MM cells become resistant to antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapy targeting Interleukin enhancer binding factor 2 (ILF2), a DNA damage regulator that is overexpressed in 70% of MM patients whose disease has progressed after standard therapies have failed. Here, we show that MM cells undergo adaptive metabolic rewiring to restore energy balance and promote survival in response to DNA damage activation. Using a CRISPR/Cas9 screening strategy, we identify the mitochondrial DNA repair protein DNA2, whose loss of function suppresses MM cells\u27 ability to overcome ILF2 ASO-induced DNA damage, as being essential to counteracting oxidative DNA damage. Our study reveals a mechanism of vulnerability of MM cells that have an increased demand for mitochondrial metabolism upon DNA damage activation

Prisoners’ Families’ Research: Developments, Debates and Directions

After many years of relative obscurity, research on prisoners’ families has gained significant momentum. It has expanded from case-oriented descriptive analyses of family experiences to longitudinal studies of child and family development and even macro analyses of the effects on communities in societies of mass incarceration. Now the field engages multi-disciplinary and international interest although it arguably still remains on the periphery of mainstream criminological, psychological and sociological research agendas. This chapter discusses developments in prisoners’ families’ research and its positioning in academia and practice. It does not aim to provide an all-encompassing review of the literature rather it will offer some reflections on how and why the field has developed as it has and on its future directions. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first discusses reasons for the historically small body of research on prisoners’ families and for the growth in research interest over the past two decades. The second analyses patterns and shifts in the focus of research studies and considers how the field has been shaped by intersecting disciplinary interests of psychology, sociology, criminology and socio-legal studies. The final part reflects on substantive and ethical issues that are likely to shape the direction of prisoners’ families’ research in the future