As many may have already known mass incarceration has been an issue for ages, and it’s only getting worse as time progresses. Consequently several issues arise, specifically the social and moral impact it has on African American families in the United States. Typically when one hears about the effects of mass incarceration it’s usually about who it affects directly (the prisoner) and not indirectly (the prisoner’s family). Many fail to recognise the toll mass incarceration continues to take on African American families in the U.S. The absence of father figures in the home is a common outcome of the incarceration of African American men in the U.S. This is the effect of systematic racism in the U.S.; this is the war on black men. 

The United States has been dominating incarceration rates nationwide since 2002 according to an article written by Tyjen Tsai and Paola Scommegna. There are many factors that contribute to the increasing incarceration rates in the U.S., but the war on drugs has a significant impact on the incarceration rates. The war on drugs began in the early 1970’s and it didn’t just affect African American people, but it also affected other minorities and poor people in the U.S. Richard Nixon and congress declared a war on drugs soon after the end of slavery and Reagan enforced it during his term. The end of slavery was a wonderful thing, but everything wasn’t peaches and cream. Many minorities, specifically African American men were thrown in jail for petty crimes such as theft, possession of drugs, etc. 

The outrageous incarceration rate is extremely problematic for African American families in the U.S. because of the void in the household. Men are typically the breadwinner and role model in the home, and that is lost when they’re incarcerated. Consequently as of 2016 2.7 million children in the U.S. have 1 or more parents incarcerated according to an article titled “The Drug War, Mass Incarceration and Race”. In a journal article by Dorothy E. Roberts “The Social and Moral Cost of Mass Incarceration in African American Communities” Roberts states that in 1999 2% of the nation’s children had a parent in prison that year, which was 1.5 million children. That’s about half of the children in the U.S. that have 1 or more parents in prison.

 Moreover it is proven that the loss of a parent in the household has psychological repercussions on children, which include, depression, anxiety, rage, liability, and trouble in school. In an article titled “The Fight for Black Men” Joshua DuBois addresses the hardships of a fatherless child. DuBois focuses on Joe who’s father was incarcerated at just when Joe was 13 years old. Without a father figure in the home to guide him, at the young age of 13 he turned to drugs along with his two cousins who also didn’t have their father around. At the age of 13 you would assume they would start off with the gateway drug marijuana, but not in this case. Joe and his cousins started off with heroin. He quickly became an adolescent junky at 13 and initial arrested the following year at14 years old. DuBois states:

“During his few extra days in jail, in the throes of heroin withdrawal that his young system wasn't handling well, Joe met a local kingpin who taught him how to be a more efficient junkie, and a more effective criminal. Or as Joe puts it now (in his always-impeccable phrasing): "This man created a pathway for me to negotiate the street environment in a way that I hadn't anticipated. It was the worst thing that could've happened to me."So in the span of a few years, Joe went from a stable household to a single-parent family. From a middle-school honor student to a street-corner addict. From the grandson of a businessman and great-great-great-grandson of slaves to the son of an absent father, and a future deadbeat dad himself. It was a jumble of inputs--bad parenting and bad policy, misguided culture and tragic history--resulting in one clear output: a woefully lost kid.

The war against young black men continues to take a toll on African American families and communities. The justice system is not built to serve justice to African American men in the U.S. The reentry rate of black men in the prison system is ridiculously high. Once they’re released from prison it is hard to make a living without any social and moral support. Programs that were developed to help prisoners that have been released were not always around them to reap the benefits. 

Furthermore the high rates of incarceration impacts the child on a personal level. Mass imprisonment, however impacts on a social level effecting social networks. In addition to the confinement of a father there is a loss of income, child care, as well as other expenses. This load of stress it typically left for the women to pick up. Once again women are left to do a “man's job”. They are left responsible for being the breadwinner, managing money, showing up for children, etc. 
