Every Door Closed: Barriers Facing Parents With Criminal Records

Over 10 million children in the United States "have parents who were imprisoned at some point in their children’s lives." In 2001, approximately 400,000 mothers and fathers will finish serving their prison or jail sentences and return home eager to rebuild their families and rebuild their lives.

As these parents struggle to make a fresh start, they will encounter a myriad of legal barriers that will make it extraordinarily difficult for them to succeed in caring for their children, finding work, getting safe housing, going to school, accessing public benefits, or even, for immigrants, staying in the same country as their children. This report examines some of the barriers that, singly and in combination, tear families apart, create unemployment and homelessness, and guarantee failure, thereby harming parents and children, families, and communities.

An individual experiencing any one of these problems is likely to find that it dominates his or her life. But an ex-offender might well confront several of these issues simultaneously. Sometimes these problems exacerbate each other. For instance, a parent who cannot find stable housing is unlikely to find or keep employment or reunify his or her family. An ex-offender without income because of ineligibility for public benefits and lack of employment is unlikely to find stable housing. Cumulatively, these civil consequences of a criminal record can be devastating and will continue to punish an ex-offender—and his or her family—long after his or her formal sentence has been served.

The report contains an introduction with background information on parents with criminal records, and chapters on employment, public benefits, housing, child welfare, student loans, and immigration. These chapters feature stories of exoffenders who have confronted these barriers, illustrating the inequities of these collateral consequences.

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