Few things are more devastating to a child than being separated from a mother. Although incarceration is still a relatively rare cause of separation, single mothers are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. prison population. In the past decade, nearly 15,000 Illinois women served time in state prison, and these women were mothers to 35,000 children.

In one of the first studies of its kind, Harris School researchers Robert LaLonde and Susan George (A.M. ’00) are tracing the lives of these women and their children. George’s professional interest in attachment issues among high-risk youth was a natural springboard to the research project, Incarcerated Mothers and Their Children, which was originally funded through the Center for Human Potential and Public Policy, a research center at the Harris School. Before enrolling in the Harris School’s Child and Family Fellowship program, George, who has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Northwestern University, had been working with high-risk youth with attachment disorders, many of whom had failed in foster care.

“I’ve always been interested in children in most extreme circumstances,” she says, and children of mothers in prison clearly fit that description. Of the 10,000 women entering Cook County jail last year, 10% were either pregnant or gave birth in prison. Shortly after birth, the children may either be taken into custody by the Department of Children and Family Services or cared for by extended family members. Research currently underway hopes to shed light on the immediate childcare arrangements and long-term outcomes for these children.

“These women,” says George, “who are already in dire shape, are just supposed to walk back into this child’s life a year or more later? That started us asking, What’s going on with prison policy?” And from that, the Incarcerated Mothers project arose. The researchers are employing a unique state-level administrative data set made available by the Illinois Department of Corrections and through collaboration with the University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall Center for Children. Initial findings show that women entering Illinois prisons are some of the most disadvantaged women in the state.

• 63% are high school drop-outs;
• 60% report substance abuse problems;
• Most women are in their 30s with three or four children;
• 85% are single mothers;
• They are more likely to suffer a mental illness than other women; and
• The majority are victims of domestic abuse.

Most women in the study are in prison for minor offenses, often serving a year or less, although recidivism is high. Possession or trafficking in small amounts of illegal substances, shoplifting, writing bad checks, and using stolen credit cards predominate. Whether the state should invest more in programs to improve the outcomes for these women is widely debated. At a cost of $65,000 to arrest and incarcerate a woman for a year, George asks, “if we could rehabilitate a mother for $40,000 and make her a good parent, wouldn’t the costs be justified?” Funding for the project is provided by the Russell Sage Foundation, the Chicago Community Trust, and the Open Society Institute. The project’s first report was released in March 2003.

For more information, visit the project website.

Barbara Ray

Note: This article contains corrections not included in the original publication.