Sara Wakefield is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University.
Christopher Wildeman is Associate Professor of Sociology at Yale University.

• Acknowledgements


• 1. Introduction


• 2. The Social Patterning of Parental Imprisonment


• 3. Before and After Imprisonment


• 4. Paternal Incarceration and Mental Health and Behavioral Problems


• 5. Paternal Incarceration and Infant Mortality


• 6. Parental Incarceration and Child Homelessness


• 7. Mass Imprisonment and Childhood Inequality


• 8. Conclusion


• Methodological Appendix


• Notes


• References


• Index

Children of the Prison Boom describes the devastating effects of America's experiment in mass incarceration for a generation of vulnerable children. Wakefield and Wildeman find that parental imprisonment leads to increased mental health and behavioral problems, infant mortality, and child homelessness which translate into large-scale increases in racial inequality.