Care arrangements for children exposed to maternal incarceration: Evidence from Wisconsin

This study examines care arrangements for children before, during, and after maternal incarceration.

Family systems theory suggests that maternal incarceration may drastically alter family life for marginalized children, but little is known about how children's care arrangements change during and after maternal incarceration versus other forms of criminal legal system (CLS) involvement.

Leveraging longitudinal linked administrative data on 14,704 children whose biological mothers encountered the CLS in early and middle childhood, we use linear probability models and difference-in-difference analysis to examine how maternal incarceration shapes placement in foster care, adoption or guardianship, and other informal relative care.

Among children with maternal CLS contact, children with upcoming maternal incarceration had higher probabilities of foster care, adoption or guardianship, and informal relative care than those without upcoming maternal incarceration. Maternal incarceration was associated with a 2 percentage point increase in both foster care placement and informal nonparental care within the 6 months following onset; adoption and guardianship arrangements increase by nearly 2 percentage points within three years. Associations were largely driven by children whose mothers were incarcerated immediately upon the onset of CLS involvement or entering carceral spells longer than 6 months.

Maternal incarceration has both immediate and long-term implications for children's family environments.