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Children of incarcerated parents.
IntroductionMost of the over one million persons incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons on any given day and the millions more on probation or parole are parents. Although a considerable body of information has been collected about individuals who have been or are under some form of criminal justice system control, very little is known about their children, particularly those under the age of 18. There are approximately 10 million children in the U.S. who have had one or both parents incarcerated. These children and youth have little or no voice about who, in the absence of the parent who is the primary caregiver, will take care of them, or if they will be allowed to visit or communicate with the incarcerated parent. The children of parents involved in the criminal justice system have no voice because they are invisible to the larger society.
The national trend to use incarceration to punish even minor offenses guarantees that children will continue to be adversely affected by policies enacted with no consideration of the harm done to family systems. There are many complex and interrelated contributing factors: the intensification of politically motivated "get tough on crime" rhetoric and the "War on Drugs," public discourse about crime designed to instilled fear, the enactment of increasingly harsh sentencing laws such as "Three Strikes," and the ratings-driven media preoccupation with policing and arrests, leading to public support for a prison-building frenzy. The virtual disappearance of work, along with stores, transportation, and other components of a viable infrastructure, from many inner-city communities has resulted in a concentration of poverty that has devastated neighborhoods and marginalized residents, making them easy first to criminalize and then to dehumanize.
The original intent of this article was to examine what is presently known about the children of incarcerated parents. Its scope has been expanded to include the more realistic continuum of parental crime, arrest, incarceration, release, and recidivism that children experience and must contend with as their lives are disrupted, and sometimes shattered. We begin by placing present events into a larger historical and political context. Available information about the children of incarcerated parents is provided, followed by a discussion of caregivers, custody, and visitation issues. The next sections describe what is known about the impact on children of parental involvement in the criminal justice system, as well as observable intergenerational trends, and then look at how law enforcement and social service agencies regard and respond to children of arrested and incarcerated parents. We conclude with interventions that address and alleviate the problems resulting from parental involvement in the criminal justice system.
In 1990, the United States had the highest incarceration rate in the world, five times higher than France and Germany and over four times greater than Britain's rate (Foote, 1993). California has the dubious distinction of having the largest prison system in the country and the second largest in the world following China (Ibid.). One out of every eight U.S. prisoners is incarcerated in the Golden State. In less than 20 years, California's prison population has exploded by 631%, from 19,000 in 1977 to 139,000 in 1996; over 97,000 persons are presently on parole.(1) An additional 71,000 Californians were local jail inmates as of April 1996(2) and 400,000 former California jail inmates were on probation in 1995 (Criminal Justice Institute, 1994).
Changes in mandatory sentencing guidelines enacted during the mid-1970s have led to a significant shift in public policy favoring punishment over rehabilitation. Passage of the "Three Strikes"(3) legislation in the early 1990s has taken a decisive step in making the concept of rehabilitation historically obsolete.(4) To accommodate growing numbers of felons sentenced under the 1,000 new state laws specifying new offenses and increased sentences passed by the legislature (Foote, 1993), California has added 20 new prisons to its original 12 since the early 1980s (CDC, 1994). This represents the largest prison construction program in the U.S. To house the expected onslaught of new long-term prisoners sentenced under "Three Strikes," the proposed 1996-1997 California state budget calls for completing three new prisons, while other bills introduced in the 1996 Legislature authorize construction for up to nine new prisons.(5)
While the construction and filling up of new prisons give the impression that public safety is being enhanced, the truth is that increasing numbers of the prison population are nonviolent offenders. Driven in large part by the "War on Drugs," the percentage of violent offenders newly incarcerated in California prisons actually decreased from 39% in 1985 to 26% in 1990, while the percentage of drug offenders doubled from 17.6% to 35% in the same period (CDC, 1991). The most recent national survey of state prison inmates found that over 60% of inmates in 1991 had been previously incarcerated (USDJ, 1993).
Incarcerated Californians tend to be disproportionately young, low income, people of color, raised in single-parent families, with limited education, poor employment skills, and histories of substance abuse. In 1992, African Americans made up the largest segment of California prison inmates (33.5%), followed by Latinos (33.1%), whites (28.9%), and 5.5% from other racial and ethnic groups (CDC, 1995a).(6) According to a new study by the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice, nearly two out of every five (39%) young African American men in their twenties (in contrast to five percent of young white men) are presently under some form of criminal justice control in California, representing an increase from 33% in 1990 (Schiraldi et al., 1996).(7)
Women are among the fastest growing group of prisoners, their numbers having tripled nationally since 1980 (Bloom et al., 1994). The number of women incarcerated in California prisons increased nearly eight-fold from 1,100 in 1980 to 8,500 in 1995 (CDC, 1995b). Nationally, incarcerated women are more likely than men to be serving time for a drug offense and less likely to have been sentenced for a violent crime. About 60% of incarcerated women grew up in a single-parent household, and over 40% reported prior physical or sexual abuse (USDJ, 1994). Over half the women in California prisons are African American (35 %) and Latina (17%) (Bloom et al., 1994). Seven out of 10 women incarcerated in California are serving time for nonviolent drug and property crimes; in 1993, one-third were reimprisoned due to parole violations (Bloom, 1995).
The choice to use incarceration as the first line of defense against crime over other alternatives comes at no small price to Californians. During the prison building frenzy of the 1980s, the California Department of Corrections (CDC) expanded its $400 million 1983 budget to a multibillion dollar operation in 1995 to 1996 with 37,000 employees. This growth has come at the expense of other state programs, most notably health, education, and social services. The diversion of resources from health and human services to this most severe form of corrections will continue as "Three Strikes" is implemented.
For the children of parents under some form of correctional supervision - whether arrest, incarceration, parole, or probation - the social, psychological, and economic consequences of present policies will exact profound harm for years and generations to come.
Children of Parents Involved in the Criminal Justice System
The minor children of parents under some form of criminal justice system control are among the most at-risk, yet least visible, populations of children. Though rising incarceration rates suggest an increasing number of children who have lost one or both parents to incarceration, very little is known about this highly vulnerable population. A 1992 study by the California State Assembly Office of Research (Lawhorn, 1992) reported:
No precise count exists of the number of children in California who have incarcerated parents. Data on the number, ages, gender, location, or needs of children of incarcerated parents are not collected by the Department of Corrections, the Department of Social Services, or the Department of Education. These children are not recognized as a group by any state agency or department in California (emphasis added).
A study by the Virginia Commission on Youth (1992) yielded similar results. The Commission found no information about the number and conditions of children whose parents were incarcerated, or any statewide systems or service models in place to address the needs of children who are affected.
Most of the information known about children of people in the criminal justice system is obtained from surveys of incarcerated populations, the majority of whom - 78% of women and 64% of men - are parents (USDJ, 1994).
* A 1991 study of state prison inmates found that 67% of the women and 56% of the men surveyed were parents of over 826,000 children under 18 years of age (USDJ, 1993).
* A 1989 survey of 5,675 women incarcerated in 424 local jails showed that 68% had a child or children under 18 (USDJ, 1992).
* Six to nine percent of incarcerated women are pregnant when they enter prison (USDJ, 1994; Bloom and Steinhart, 1993), and about 15% have had a baby within the previous year (McCall et al., 1985).
* A 1991 National Council on Crime and Delinquency survey of mothers in jails and prisons in eight states and the District of Columbia found that 439 respondents had an average of 2.6 children each (Bloom and Steinhart, 1993).
Denise Johnston, M.D., with the Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents in Pasadena, California, estimates that nationally about five million children under the age of 18 have one or both parents under some form of criminal justice system supervision (arrest, incarceration, parole, or probation), out of which about 1.5 million have at least one parent who is incarcerated. An additional five million children have parents who are not now under such supervision, but have been in the past. All told, about 10 million children in the U.S. are affected by current or past parental involvement with the criminal justice system.(8) Peter Breen, executive director of Centerforce, a nonprofit agency dedicated to serving families of prison inmates, estimates that 350,000 children living in California have lost one or both parents to incarceration.(9)
Caregivers of Children of Incarcerated Parents
Children's lives are seriously disrupted when a parent is arrested and/or incarcerated. Families of incarcerated fathers are more likely to remain intact than those of incarcerated mothers. Of the approximately 1.5 million children of U.S. prisoners, about 1.2 million, or 87%, of children of male inmates are in the care of their biological mothers (USDJ, 1993), while only about 20%, or 29,000 children, of incarcerated mothers are in the care of their biological fathers (USDJ, 1993; American Correctional Association, 1990). This leaves over a quarter of a million children of incarcerated parents in the care of grandparents, other relatives, friends, or foster care.
The majority of incarcerated mothers of minor children were the primary caregivers for their children prior to confinement. Studies of prison and jail inmates have found that about 70% of female inmates with children under age 18 had lived with their children prior to incarceration, compared to about 50% of males (USDJ, 1993; 1992).
* A 1991 survey of mothers in jails and prisons in eight states and the District of Columbia found that 17% of children whose mothers were incarcerated were living with their fathers, nearly half (47%) with their grandparents, 22% with relatives or friends, and about 7% had been placed in foster care (Bloom and Steinhart, 1993).
* The 1989 national "Women in Jail" study reported that half the minor children of incarcerated women were living with their grandparents, 23.5% were in their father's care, and 27% were living with other relatives or friends. About eight percent were in foster or other institutional care (USDJ, 1992).
Custody Issues
In 1991, 10% of women and two percent of men incarcerated in state prisons reported that their children were in a foster home, children's agency, or institution (USDJ, 1993). Unlike most children who enter the child protective services system due to parental neglect or abuse, children of arrested or incarcerated parents become dependents of the juvenile court and are subsequently placed in foster care if no relative is available to provide care for them.(10)
The 1980 federal Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Reform Act (P.L. 96-272) mandates that children who are placed in foster care must either be returned to their parents or placed with long-term guardians within 12 to 18 months. If neither has occurred, parental rights can be terminated by the state. Although this legislation was meant to avoid multiple short-term placements that worsen the disruption for children, parents with sentences that exceed the allowable time may be unable to comply with reunification requirements before or after their release (Barry, 1995). Recognizing this circumstance, many states have held that positive actions on the part of incarcerated parents, such as maintaining contact with children and following reunification plans, can avert termination of parental rights.
However, incarcerated mothers whose children are in foster care must overcome numerous obstacles to maintain their parental rights (Ibid.). Children often go through multiple placements, making it difficult for mothers to keep up with their current whereabouts (Kampfner, 1995), a situation that is exacerbated when the social services caseworker does not maintain timely communication with the mother. Distance, lack of transportation, and limited economic resources on the part of the caregiver can become insurmountable barriers for regular or any visitation by children, and are further exacerbated when siblings are separated from each other. Inadequate family reunification services during incarceration, and inability to meet contact requirements and statutory schedules for reunification, put many incarcerated mothers at considerable risk of losing custody of their children (Johnston and Gabel, 1995).(11)
Incarcerated parents whose children are in foster care must rely on the caseworker appointed by social services to help them in the process of reunifying with their children. The caseworker needs to involve the parent in developing a reunification plan and help the parent meet the requirements of the plan. The caseworker also has a vital role in allowing visits by the children and notifying the incarcerated parent about child custody hearings. In practice, however, despite their mandated responsibility to provide assistance, in practice caseworkers may be opposed to the reunification of a parent and child (most often due to the mother's prior child welfare history and/or previous drug history) and thus not communicate with the parent or allow jail or prison visits for the children (Bloom, 1995).
In addition, the courts may be unwilling to permit parents to use incarceration as a reason for failure to provide necessary emotional and material support to their children. Several state appellate court cases have regarded a parent's incarceration to be an aspect of abandonment, and therefore, a reason to terminate parental rights (Muhar, 1991). At least 25 states, including California, have termination-of-parental-rights or adoption laws that specifically pertain to incarcerated parents (Bloom, 1995). Although no studies have systematically examined the extent of this issue, the Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents has found that involuntary termination of parental rights occurs disproportionately among women. About 25% of women offenders whose children participate in the Center's therapeutic programs lost their parental rights (Johnston, 1992). The National Black Child Development Institute (1989) found that from 12 to 18% of terminations of parental rights in African American families occur among incarcerated parents.
Smith (1995) identified several key factors that lead to termination of parental rights:
* Parental incarceration in facilities at very long distances from where the children live, lack of transportation, and limited financial resources of caregivers;
* Overall lack of prison programs and services to assist parents in developing and following a reunification plan;
* Lack of communication and coordination between foster care workers and corrections staff;
* Lack of joint counseling for parents and children to deal with problems and reactions related to the separation;
* Lack of adequate screening, training, and support for caregivers to support the parent-child bond and eventual reunification;
* Lack of legal counseling for incarcerated parents; and
* Systematically excluding incarcerated parents in decisions concerning placement of children, planning for reunification, and case reviews.
Maintaining close family ties during incarceration has been shown to result in decreased recidivism rates, improved mental health of inmates and other family members, increased likelihood of family reunification following release, and greater potential for parole success (Hairston, 1991; Schaefer, 1991). Nevertheless, many incarcerated parents have infrequent or no contact with their children.
The most recent survey of state prison inmates revealed that while most parents of minor children had some form of contact, 28% of mothers and 40% of fathers reported never having called or received a telephone call from their children,(12) 21% of mothers and 32% of fathers never sent or received any mail from their children, and fully 52% of mothers and 55% of fathers were never once visited by their children (USDJ, 1994).
Bloom and Steinhart (1993) found similarly disturbing trends in the frequency of visits from children during the mother's incarceration. Over half (54%) of the 439 mothers in that study reported that their children had never visited them in jail or prison. Seventeen percent were visited by their children once a month, 12% every four to six months, and seven percent once a year or less. Only 10% saw their children once or more a week. The distance from the child's residence to the correctional facility accounted for 43% of the reasons cited by mothers for having infrequent or no visits from their children. Fully 61.5% of the children lived over 100 miles from the mother's place of incarceration. Thirty percent lived 21 to 100 miles away and only nine percent lived within 20 miles of the correctional facility.
Hairston (1989) reported that nearly one-third of the incarcerated fathers she surveyed had not seen their children since entering prison and more than half had not seen their children in the six months prior to the survey. The main reasons given by inmates for the lack of visits were transportation, escort problems, and opposition by the child's mother - this last factor due to the large percentage of incarcerated fathers who report not having an active or ongoing relationship with the mothers of their children. One study of federal prisoners found that 87% of unvisited fathers chose to relinquish visits from their children out of shame, embarrassment, and feelings of overall powerlessness (Koban, 1983).
This trend is likely to continue, as has been seen in California, as new prisons are built in remote, rural areas, at long distances from the cities where children of incarcerated parents are most likely to live.
Impact on Children
The cycle of parental crime, arrest, incarceration, release, and recidivism is particularly devastating for children, but no study has as yet directly observed a large sample of these children. Instead, most of what is known is obtained from information provided by the children's incarcerated parents or caregivers. The few studies that have directly examined the children of offenders yield troubling results. Johnston (1995a) found that of the 56 children identified by their teachers as having the most severe behavioral and disciplinary problems at school, 80 to 90% had experienced parental crime, arrest, and incarceration, and 25% had a parent who was incarcerated at the time of the study.
Researchers have documented a variety of behavioral, psychological, and educational problems in children traumatized by the arrest, separation, incarceration, and absence of a parent. The process of forcibly separating children from their primary caregiver generally ignores the emotional needs of children, who feel vulnerable and frightened about losing their parent (Kampfner, 1995), and is further exacerbated for siblings who may have been separated from each other. Caregivers may not allow children to talk about their feelings or tell others about their parent's incarceration. Sometimes, children are not told the truth about where their parent really is (Bloom and Steinhart, 1993). Most children receive little or no emotional support to process their feelings of grief, loss, anger, anxiety, and fear.
Children respond in various ways, including sadness, withdrawal, low self-esteem, excessive crying, depression, diminished school performance, truancy, disciplinary problems, alcohol and other drug use, running away, and aggressive behavior (Sack et al., 1976; Fritsch and Burkhead, 1981; Johnston, 1995b). Many children, including very young ones, blame themselves for the parent's absence (Kiser, 1991). Seventy percent of the children of imprisoned mothers studied by Baunach (1985) were reported to have psychological or emotional problems. The depression, feelings of anger and fear, flashbacks, and "survivor" guilt reported in one study by children of women prisoners have been associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (Kampfner, 1995).
Johnston (1992) identified three characteristics found in most of the children of offenders with whom she has worked: (1) multiple parent-child separations (lack of family support), (2) inadequate quality of care (associated with poverty, multiple placements, etc.), and (3) the stress associated with enduring childhood trauma (experiencing repeated, in contrast to single or occasional, traumatic events).
The cycle of parental crime, arrest, incarceration, release, and recidivism seems to have a cumulative effect that increases as children grow older. According to Johnston (1995a):
* Parental incarceration in the first year of a child's life may prevent the development of parent-child bonding.
* The development of autonomy and initiative in children aged two to six may be compromised by the trauma of witnessing parental arrest and the loss of a parent due to incarceration. "The long-term effects of these experiences may be worse at this stage of childhood...because young children have the ability to perceive and remember traumatic events, but they cannot process or adjust to trauma without assistance..." (p. 74).
* Children ages seven to 10 may have a hard time achieving in school and getting along with others, precipitating aggressive behavior in reaction to experienced trauma.
* While some young adolescents aged 11 to 14 may overcome their parent's absence, poverty, stigma, and multiple placements, many children act out.
* The cumulative effects of parental involvement in the criminal justice system appear in 15 to 18 year olds. "Their experiences have left many with negative attitudes toward law enforcement and the criminal justice system. The parents of many have served multiple jail and/or prison sentences and will not reunify with them. A large but unknown proportion will engage in criminal activity..." (p. 82).
Intergenerational Trends
As each successive generation of children becomes absorbed into a social process that involves the criminalization of a growing underclass, involvement in the criminal justice system is increasingly becoming part of the family system for many low-income families, particularly in communities of color.
* A U.S. Department of Justice jail study (1992) found that 44% of women and 34.5% of males reported having a close family member who served time in jail or prison.
* Bloom et al. (1994) found that nearly 75% of women incarcerated in California prisons had family members who had been arrested and 63% reported having close relatives who had been incarcerated.
* The American Correctional Association (1990) reported that up to 50% of incarcerated juveniles have a parent who has been incarcerated.
According to the model for intergenerational crime and incarceration developed by the Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents, children exposed to enduring trauma (such as parent-child separation, sexual or physical abuse, or witness to violence) produce emotional responses (sadness, grief, anger) that lead, absent intervention, to reactive behavior (withdrawal, physical aggression, hyper-vigilance) and become fixed in patterns that help children to cope (fighting with peers, substance abuse, gang activity, promiscuity), ultimately leading to crime and incarceration (Johnston, 1995a).
The growing prison culture observed in many low-income, inner-city neighborhoods plays a big part in assimilating children into what is becoming an intergenerational norm. Anecdotal information provided by veteran prison guards(13) who recalled prisoners whose children and grandchildren have been - sometimes even simultaneously - incarcerated attests to the unraveling of already marginalized families. According to Schiraldi et al. (1996), "as one travels through many inner-city neighborhoods, the contemporary expressions and subculture are increasingly being borrowed from the prison yard, a tangible sign of the 'prisonization' of many communities of color." In other words, children whose parents or other close relatives have experienced criminal justice system involvement are environmentally socialized to follow in their footsteps,just as surely as their more affluent counterparts are prepared for higher education and professional careers.
Institutional Response to Children of Arrested/Incarcerated Parents
The complex problems resulting from increasing numbers of arrested and incarcerated parents who are the sole caregivers of young children suggest the need for coordinated, systemwide approaches. Yet, most law enforcement and child welfare agencies lack both awareness of the issues and the means to respond to children following the arrest and/or incarceration of their parents. This conclusion was reached by the American Bar Association (ABA) Center on Children and the Law (1994) from its national study examining how law enforcement and child welfare agencies address the needs of this group of children.
The ABA Children and the Law study found that overall, the agencies responsible for the emergency and long-term placement of children of arrestees lack specific policies, procedures, and interagency coordination:
* Law enforcement. The majority of jurisdictions interviewed have no specific policy that police officers follow for emergency child placement following parental arrest, and 43% rarely even ask an arrestee if they have minor children. Nearly half (49%) do not notify any other agency upon the arrest of a mother who is a sole caregiver and 54% are not required to coordinate efforts with notified agencies. Seventy-eight percent said the police are mandated to report the placement only if they suspect the child was abused or neglected.
* Child protective services. Only 20% of child protective services agencies interviewed had a specific policy on the placement of children of arrestees. Two-thirds reported having no formal team approach with local law enforcement with respect to children of arrestees, and 34% believed that the placement needs of children whose mothers were arrested are not being adequately met. Most child welfare agencies, already overwhelmed by increasing numbers of child abuse and neglect cases, lack the resources to meet the needs of children who are not in immediate danger of being abused. Many social worker respondents tended to regard the children of arrested parents as being less at risk than are children who are physically or sexually abused or neglected.
* Foster care. A stunning 97% of foster care system respondents reported not having a specific policy on foster care placement of children of arrestees.
Correctional facilities also lack critical information about inmates. According to the most recent Department of Justice inmate study, "official records are often incomplete, are not easily compared across jurisdictions, and lack crucial personal data" (USDJ, 1993:11). This is clear from survey data collected from Departments of Corrections throughout the country, which reveal an enormous lack of information about the needs of female inmates. Out of 43 responding states, 15 had no records on the number of women who were mothers and/or who had dependent children, and 32 had no knowledge about how many children would be living with their mothers upon release (Clement, 1993).
The multiple or recurrent traumatic events that affect children of parents involved in the criminal justice system are rarely addressed. These children typically live in poverty before, during, and after their parents' incarceration, reside in low-quality housing, and lack the means to visit their parents. Johnston (1995c) describes some models designed to address and alleviate the problems that result from parental involvement in the criminal justice system:
* Crisis nurseries for very young children, 0 to 6 years of age, are temporary residential care settings, designed to prevent children's exposure to acute trauma such as parental arrest, sudden homelessness, or domestic violence. One such program, the Bay Area Crisis Nursery in Concord, California, provides services for 400 children annually.
* Crisis intervention counseling for children following the arrest of a parent can reduce the immediate and long-term negative effects of that experience, as well as provide reliable information about the process in which the parent is involved and referral to sources of ongoing support for family members. No program of this kind currently exists in the U.S.
* Therapeutic interventions to help traumatized children master the effects of current and previous traumas and overcome future trauma by improving individual coping skills. The Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents provides community-based therapeutic services for young children of prisoners through its Early Therapeutic Intervention Project.
* Therapeutic visitation designed to help reduce the incidence of post-release domestic violence among families of formerly incarcerated parents, and thus reduce exposure of children of those families to that particular source of trauma. Project IMPACT (Importance of Parents and Children Together) has offered these services for the families of men imprisoned at New Mexico's Las Lunas Correctional Facility.
* Community-based mother-infant correctional programs to foster maternal bonding, provide a stable placement during infancy and early childhood, and increase the rate of family preservation. The model California Mother-Infant Care (MIC) Program is conducted by private agencies. MIC has seven sites throughout the state that allow pregnant and parenting women sentenced to relatively short terms of incarceration to live with their infants and/or young children up to six years old in community settings.
* Parent-child visitation programs held in child-oriented environments in the correctional facility to make visits with incarcerated parents a more positive experience for children. The Prison MATCH Program, started at the Federal Correctional Facility at Pleasanton in 1978 and later moved to the San Francisco County Jail, provides a child-friendly, enriched recreational setting for children to visit with their incarcerated parent for four hours once a week.
* Children's support groups that provide social support in a structured setting that is safe for children to express their concerns and to help dispel the sense of shame connected with parental incarceration. The Parents and Children Together (PACT) Program offers age-appropriate Support for Kids of Incarcerated Parents (SKIP) groups in the residential communities that surround Fort Worth Correctional Facility.
Public Policy
Although reported crime rates have remained fairly stable over the past few decades, public misperception that crime is on the rise has contributed to the development of new mandatory minimum sentencing laws that have led to the increase in incarceration. The sentences now given to nonviolent offenders convicted of property and drug-related offenses are at times harsher than those given to individuals convicted of violent crimes.
In addition, the prevailing focus on the isolated offender systematically disregards the needs and issues of families, making the profound impact children experience even more intense (Bloom, 1995). One result of these interrelated trends is the destruction of often fragile but viable family systems. Some researchers view these trends as an urgent wake-up call:
...if compulsive behaviors and criminal activity represent relatively resilient responses to life in poor, violent, chaotic families and neighborhoods, then our society is condemned to incarcerating an ever-increasing number of the people who live in these circumstances, unless we can help them to reduce the poverty, violence, and chaos in their lives (Johnston, 1995d: 314).
As the trend increases to address crime by building new prisons and jails at the expense of preventing crime through the funding of education, vocational training programs, drug treatment, health care, and other services, the need grows to explore ways of developing public policy that will prevent the destruction of vulnerable family systems (Smith, 1995; Bloom, 1995; ABA, 1994) by:
* Using alternative or creative sentencing instead of imprisonment for primary caregiver parents who were convicted of nonviolent offenses. Options could include restitution, community service, substance abuse treatment, counseling, vocational or educational training, and community-based residential sentencing programs in which parents and children stay together.
* Appropriating funds for parent-child visits whenever an incarcerated parent lived with a child prior to incarceration.
* Screening foster parents for their willingness and ability to be supportive of the parent-child relationship. Training and support services should be available to teach foster parents and the birth parent how to cooperatively co-parent the child. Counseling and support groups should be available for the foster parent(s), child, and birth parent(s).
* Providing high-quality services in prisons, including classes on parenting, family and juvenile law, counseling for survivors of childhood sexual abuse and domestic violence, and vocational and educational programs.
* Making available legal services and representation for incarcerated parents.
* Passing open adoption statutes that allow parents and children to have ongoing contact in the event adoption is used to obtain permanency placement for children whose parents have very long sentences.
* Developing law enforcement and child welfare policies and procedures to meet the needs of children of arrestees.
* Coordinating efforts between law enforcement and child welfare agencies to develop a collaborative, coordinated systemwide approach to meeting the needs of children of arrestees and incarcerated parents.
* Developing correctional practices that allow increased communication or contact between incarcerated parents and their children, including specialized services offered through partnerships between correctional facilities and community agencies, such as mother-infant and mother-child community corrections programs and extended contact visitation programs.
U.S. policymakers, legislators, and children's advocates know virtually nothing about the approximately 10 million children under the age of 18 whose parents are or have been under some type of criminal justice system control. Although this growing population of children has not yet been formally recognized, many are well known to their teachers as disciplinary problems, to social service caseworkers as foster care placements, to counselors as behavioral problems, and to law enforcement authorities. The increasingly serious behaviors of many of these children tend to be regarded out of context. They are seen as withdrawn or acting out or violent rather than as children reacting to the aggravated stress of multiple separations due to parental arrest, incarceration, and recidivism.
The often cyclical nature of parental involvement in the criminal justice system results in serious and sometimes permanent destabilization of family systems and subjects children to ongoing trauma. Many of these children will themselves follow in their parent's footsteps and repeat the process with their own children. Meanwhile, legislation mandating ever harsher sentencing requirements continues to be passed in a heavily polarized political environment that rhetorically labels those who support creative alternatives for nonviolent offenders as being "soft" on crime. Unchecked, present trends suggest that the increasing criminalization of today's underclass holds an extremely daunting portent for the future of American society.
Like the canaries that served as an early warning about poisoned air, the children of incarcerated parents alert us to the grave consequences resulting from a polluted political environment that sustains these larger trends. It is possible to check the course of present policy development and its intergenerational consequences, but for this we need to learn the lessons these children's lives can teach us. As a first step, the millions of children affected by incarceration need to be identified and acknowledged. Much more direct work with these children and their parents is needed to fully understand their circumstances and to develop meaningful responses. The public must be educated about the families and children who are caught in the "tough on crime" net along with the individual offender, and policymakers must be supported to seek less punitive, more pro-family, community-based alternatives for victimless and nonviolent crimes. Law enforcement, correctional facilities, child welfare service systems, schools, and other community-based agencies need to collaborate in developing coordinated responses to affected children and their families.
We especially acknowledge: The National Institute of Justice and National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), which provided the most recent national surveys of prison and jail inmates, including special reports prepared about incarcerated women, and the latest topical search on Inmates and Their Families (1996), which includes 30 of the most representative citations and abstracts on the subject; the 1992 Assembly Office of Research of the California Legislature for their report, Children of Incarcerated Parents, which provided promising research studies, including studies by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law and the Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California; the 1994 ABA Center on Children and the Law study for their report, Children on Hold: Improving the Response to Children Whose Parents Are Arrested and Incarcerated, which helped us understand how the law enforcement and child welfare service systems view and respond to children whose sole caregiver is arrested or incarcerated; Katherine Gabel and Denise Johnston, M.D., both of the Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents, for their report, Children of Incarcerated Parents (1995), and for state-of-the-art information on a broad range of issues related to children whose parents are or were under some form of criminal justice system control, including but not limited to incarceration; the National Center on Crime and Delinquency in San Francisco, for a copy of their much cited Why Punish the Children? A Reappraisal of the Children of Incarcerated Mothers in America, and for access to other relevant NCCD publications; Ellen Barry, J.D., director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in San Francisco, and some of her legal staff, whom we met and interviewed; and Peter Breen, executive director of Marin-based Centerforce, a nonprofit agency dedicated to providing services to families of prison inmates.
1. Per April 17, 1996, telephone conversation with Data Analysis Unit, Offender Information Services Branch, California Department of Corrections.
2. Per April 17, 1996, telephone conversation with Neil Zin, California Board of Corrections.
3. California's "Three Strikes and You're Out" legislation was enacted in 1994. This law sends a person with two violent or serious prior offenses to prison for 25 years to life when they are convicted of any third felony offense. It is estimated that in 1996 to 1997, one out of every eight offenders sent to prison by the courts will be committed under the Three Strikes law.
4. Two bills introduced in the 1996 California Legislature underscore the extremely punitive aspects of this shift. AB 2044 (Granlund) would require selected prison inmates to perform labor wearing leg irons in chain gang work groups, and SB 1616 (Leonard) would require state prison inmates to perform hard labor wearing leg irons, manually breaking rocks for no compensation.
5. For example, AB 3461 (Brulte) authorizes construction of nine prisons; AB 3116 (Brulte) authorizes construction of four medium/maximum security prisons; AB 3326 (Tucker) and AB 2437 (Poochigian) authorize the construction of one medium/maximum security prison each.
6. According to the 1990 Census, African Americans make up only 7% of California's population, Latinos 25.8%. and whites 57.2%.
7. Vast disparities are found in the arrest, conviction, and sentencing of people of color. The arrest rate for African Americans is four times higher than for whites (California Department of Justice, 1993). African Americans are charged under "Three Strikes" at 17 times the white rate in Los Angeles and 13 times the white rate in San Francisco (Schiraldi et al., 1996). One study showed that one-third of white first offenders had their charges reduced compared to one-quarter of Latinos and African Americans; white first offenders received rehabilitative placements in the community at twice the rate of Latinos and African Americans; Latinos were sentenced to prison for drug offenses at twice the rate for whites; and African Americans received prison sentences one-third more frequently than whites (Schmitt, 1991).
8. Per April 16, 1996, telephone conversation with Denise Johnston, M.D., Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents, Pacific Oaks College, Pasadena, California. Johnston (1995b) has also developed a formula to estimate the number of prisoners' children based on data collected from past studies, wherein 67% of incarcerated women have an average of 2.4 minor children each, and 56% of incarcerated men have an average of two children each.
9. Per telephone conversation with Peter Breen, Executive Director, Centerforce, headquartered at San Quentin, California (December 1995).
10. In California, about nine percent of reports investigated by county Child Protective Services involve "caretaker absence or incapacity," the category used for parents who are absent due to arrest, incarceration, hospitalization, or death (California Department of Social Services, 1994).
11. Pregnant women are also at risk for termination of parental rights when they give birth while incarcerated. Most correctional systems separate incarcerated mothers from their newborns within 24 to 48 hours after birth (Barry, 1995).
12. Communication with an incarcerated parent is limited by the ability of the child's caregiver to afford to pay for collect telephone calls from the parent.
13. Informal interviews conducted by Edward L. Reed with correctional officers at San Quentin State Prison since 1992.
ABA Center on Children and the Law 1994 Children on Hold: Improving the Response to Children Whose Parents Are Arrested and Incarcerated. Washington, D.C.: Center on Children and the Law.
Adalist-Estrin, A. 1986 "Parenting from Behind Bars." Family Resources Coalition Report 5,1:12-13.
American Correctional Association 1990 The Female Offender: What Does the Future Hold? Washington, D.C.: St. Mary's Press.
Barry, E. 1995 "Legal Issues for Prisoners with Children." K. Gabel and D. Johnston (eds.), Children of Incarcerated Parents. New York: Lexington Books: 147-166.
Baunach, P.J. 1985 Mothers in Prison. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books.
Bloom, B. 1995 "Public Policy and the Children of Incarcerated Parents." K. Gabel and D. Johnston (eds.), Children of Incarcerated Parents. New York: Lexington Books: 271-284.
Bloom, B., M.C. Lind, and B. Owen 1994 Women in California Prisons: Hidden Victims of the War on Drugs. San Francisco: Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.
Bloom, B. and D. Steinhart 1993 Why Punish the Children? A Reappraisal of the Children of Incarcerated Mothers in America. San Francisco: National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
California Department of Corrections (CDC) 1995a California Prisoners and Parolees 1992. Sacramento, CA: State of California.
1995b California Department of Corrections, Average Daily Prison Population, October 1994-September 1995. Data Analysis Unit, Offender Information Services Branch (October).
1994 Inside Corrections: Public Safety, Public Service. Sacramento, CA: State of California.
1991 California Prisoners and Parolees 1990. Sacramento, CA: State of California.
California Department of Justice 1993 California Criminal Justice Profile 1993, Statewide. Sacramento, California.
California Department of Social Services 1994 Preplacement Preventive Services for Children in California, Annual Statistical Report for Calendar Year 1994. Sacramento, California.
Clement, M.J. 1993 "Parenting in Prison: A National Survey of Programs for Incarcerated Women." Journal of Offender Rehabilitation 19,1-2: 89-100.
Criminal Justice Institute, Inc. 1994 1994 Corrections Yearbook: Probation and Parole, as cited in Schiraldi et al. (1996) referenced below.
Foote, C. 1993 The Prison Population Explosion: California's Rogue Elephant. San Francisco: Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.
Fritsch, T.A. and J.D. Burkhead 1981 "Behavioral Reactions of Children to Parental Absence Due to Imprisonment." Family Relations 30,1.
Hairston, C.F. 1995 "Fathers in Prison." K. Gabel and D. Johnston (eds.), Children of Incarcerated Parents. New York: Lexington Books: 31-40.
1991 "Family Ties During Imprisonment: Important to Whom and for What?" Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 18,1: 87-104.
1989 "Men in Prison: Family Characteristics and Family View." Journal of Offender Counseling, Services, and Rehabilitation 14,1: 23-30.
Johnston, D. 1995a "Effects of Parental Incarceration." K. Gabel and D. Johnston (eds.), Children of Incarcerated Parents. New York: Lexington Books.
1995b "Parent-Child Visitation in the Jail or Prison." K. Gabel and D. Johnston (eds.), Children of Incarcerated Parents. New York: Lexington Books: 135-143.
1995c "Intervention." K. Gabel and D. Johnston (eds.), Children of Incarcerated Parents. New York: Lexington Books: 199-236.
1995d "Conclusion." K. Gabel and D. Johnston (eds.), Children of Incarcerated Parents. New York: Lexington Books: 311-314.
1994 Caregivers of Prisoners' Children. Pasadena, CA: Pacific Oaks Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents.
1992 Children of Offenders. Pasadena, CA: Pacific Oaks Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents.
Johnston, D. and K. Gabel 1995 "Incarcerated Parents." K. Gabel and D. Johnston (eds.), Children of Incarcerated Parents. New York: Lexington Books: 3-20.
Kampfner, C.J. 1995 "Post-Traumatic Stress Reactions in Children of Imprisoned Mothers." K. Gabel and D. Johnston (eds.), Children of Incarcerated Parents. New York: Lexington Books: 89-100.
Kiser, G.C. 1991 "Female Inmates and Their Families." Federal Probation 55,3.
Koban, L. 1983 "Parents in Prison: A Comparative Analysis of the Effects of Incarceration on the Families of Men and Women." Research in Law, Deviance, and Social Control 5: 171-183.
Lawhorn, S. 1992 Children of Incarcerated Parents. A Report to the Legislature Pursuant to ACR 38 (Resolution Chapter 89, Statutes of 1991, Filante). Sacramento: Assembly Office of Research.
McCall, C., J. Casteel, and N.C. Shaw 1985 Pregnancy in Prison: A Needs Assessment of Prenatal Outcome in Three California Penal Institutions (Contract 84-84085). Sacramento: California Department of Health Services.
Muhar, G. 1991 "Incarceration and Termination of Parental Rights." Journal of Juvenile Law 12: 70-78.
National Black Child Development Institute 1989 Who Will Care When Parents Can't: A Study of Black Children in Foster Care. Washington, D.C.
Owen, B. and B. Bloom 1994 "Profiling the Needs of California's Female Prisoners." Paper presented at the Western Society of Criminology (February).
Sack, W.H., J. Seidler, and S. Thomas 1976 "The Children of Imprisoned Parents: A Psychosocial Exploration." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 46,4.
Schaefer, N.E. 1991 "Prison Visiting Policies and Practices." International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 35,3: 263-275.
Schiraldi, V., S. Kuyper, and S. Hewitt 1996 Young African Americans and the Criminal Justice System in California: Five Years Later. San Francisco: Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.
Schmitt, C.H. 1996 "Plea Bargaining Favors Whites as Blacks, Hispanics Pay Price." San Jose Mercury News (December 8, 1991, cited in Schiraldi et al.).
Smith, G. 1995 "Practical Considerations Regarding Termination of Incarcerated Parents' Rights." K. Gabel and D. Johnston (eds.), Children of Incarcerated Parents. New York: Lexington Books: 183-195.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 1992 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Washington, D.C.
U.S. Department of Justice (USDJ) 1994 Special Report, Women in Prison (Report No NCJ- 145321). Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics.
1993 Survey of State Prison Inmates (Report No. NCJ- 136949). Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics.
1992 Special Report, Women in Jail 1989. Washington, D.C.: Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Virginia Commission for Children and Youth 1992 Study of the Needs of Children Whose Parents Are Incarcerated. Richmond, VA: Commission for Children and Youth.
DIANE F. REED (421 30th Street, Richmond, CA 94804) has 17 years of experience in health policy analysis, technical assistance, program planning and development, and research and writing. She holds an MPH degree in Health Policy and Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.
EDWARD L. REED (421 30th Street, Richmond, CA 94804) has 30 years of experience in community organizing, program planning and development, training, and technical assistance for community-based organizations. He also provides wellness education classes to criminal justice clients.
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Title Annotation: | Children and the Environment |
Author: | Reed, Diane F.; Reed, Edward L. |
Publication: | Social Justice |
Date: | Sep 22, 1997 |
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Students report suspicious truck near schools
Rolling Hills Middle School Principal Debbie Bowers sent a message to parents Thursday, warning them that someone might attempt to lure their children to a vehicle
"After the start of school this morning, two students at Brooks Elementary reported to the office that they had seen a light colored truck in the area of Platt Circle and Arches Way as they walked to school," Bowers wrote."The passenger had motioned to the students to come to the truck, but the students ignored the passenger and reported the incident immediately to the school office upon their arrival."
El Dorado County Sheriff's Department is investigating the incident.
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WSG Trace Fork, L.P. v. LBCMT 2007-C3 Sterling Retail, LLC et al
Debtor: | WSG Trace Fork, L.P. |
Appellant: | WSG Trace Fork, L.P. |
Appellee: | LBCMT 2007-C3 Sterling Retail, LLC, LBCMT 2007-C3 Pleasant Retail Limited Partnership, LBCMT 2007-C3 RHL Blvd. Limited Partnership, LBCMT 2007-C3 Pecanland, LLC, LBCMT 2007-C3 Seminole Trail, LLC, LBCMT 2007-C3 Snellville Retail Limited Partnership and LBCMT 2007-C3 W. Broad Street, LLC |
Case Number: | 1:2013cv00257 |
Filed: | February 25, 2013 |
Court: | Virginia Eastern District Court |
Office: | Alexandria Office |
County: | Alexandria City |
Presiding Judge: | Anthony J Trenga |
Referring Judge: | Thomas Rawles Jones |
Nature of Suit: | Bankruptcy Appeal (801) |
Cause of Action: | 28:1334 Bankruptcy Appeal |
Jury Demanded By: | None |
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Look what comes first? Continent submergence or Malthusian catastrophe?
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Look what comes first? Continent submergence or Malthusian catastrophe?
I don't get this big deal over China's change in one child policy. All these exceptions for one child policy like minority groups, only child couples, etc. have been around since 2001. Heck, I even had classmates in china with 2 siblings!.
Are we gonna have new baby boom in China?
That's going to a big one which will long last effect to China and to the rest of the world.
For those who are interested.
China Demographics Profile 2013
Home > Factbook > Countries > China
Population 1,343,239,923 (July 2012 est.)
Age structure 0-14 years: 17.4% (male 125,528,983/female 107,668,285)
15-24 years: 16.1% (male 113,504,233/female 102,285,206)
25-54 years: 46.5% (male 319,710,444/female 305,378,723)
55-64 years: 10.9% (male 74,447,204/female 72,451,831)
65 years and over: 9.1% (male 58,677,903/female 63,587,111) (2012 est.)
The 15 to 54 age group ratio is 1.056 men to 1 woman or 1056 men to 1000 women.
The 55 and above age group is about 1 to 1.
I just hope this takes a little off the emphasis on having boys. The current oversupply of young men could easily become a problem for others as well as themselves.
China has always had an oversupply of men. China was polygynous up until the 1950's. The fact that China's elite always had multiple wives always meant that there weren't enough women to go around for all of the men so there was always an underclass of single men. It didn't seem to cause much problems in the past.
Well ok but it that really on the same scale? My understanding is that this is a cumulative imbalance in the tens of millions.
As of July 2012'
15-24 years: 16.1% (male 113,504,233/female 102,285,206)
25-54 years: 46.5% (male 319,710,444/female 305,378,723)
So the rate is about 1.056 men to 1.000 women or 1056 men to 1000 women. Just a bit higher than the average.
The 55 and above age group is almost equal.
Even though, as a smelly Indian, I shouldn't be questioning your figures, because India is just as bad.
The ratio of 1.056 is not a bit higher than your average, but alot higher. I think you are using ratio at birth, which is 1.05. But if you look at the CIA data, the average for that age group is 1.01, and if you look at 16-24 its even higher.
Mr. faked smelly Indian, Canadian, the data source IS from the CIA world factbook http://www.indexmundi.com/china/demographics_profile.html
If you perform the calculation of the 15 to 54 age group, the main age group who look for mates, you will get the ~ 1.056 ratio.
Canada at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
0-14 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-24 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
25-54 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
Btw, here are the figures for Canada.
I am not Canadian, I looked at Indonesia which is 25-54, and its 1.02. Similarly Philippines is also about 1.02. But for China its going to go up in the future, look at 15-24. age group.
Does no one anywhere in the media not wonder if maybe our population based pyramid scheme could be problematic in the not too distant future?
Yes there wouldn't be enough people to support people on retirement benefits. But clearly at some point the system has to break down since retirement benefits can't work with even a stable population.
I have never once seen the media address this question. Everyone apparently assumes we can just grow the population exponentially forever with no problems. How about all the benefits of a lower population? More community, more land, more opportunities for each person, cheaper food, cheaper scarce resources (for you hippies less co2).
It's a major blind spot and baffling.
Indeed it does seem like a relatively large blindspot, although I'd make the distinction that our *current* model of retirement can't work indefinitely. Of course to change the model, we will need health care and culture that helps and encourages people to be able to do more than just limp through their final decades.
On the other hand we may finally be reaching the level of automated output in the developed world that can support a minimal living for everyone, assuming(!) it does not all continue to flow to those that already have more than enough.
You are absolutely right. In fact it is a ponzi scheme, a giant one! And as you say: nobody talks about that. But what will we the consequences? In 2100 subsaharaafrika will have at leat 4 billion people. Then 20 billion in 2200. but ine day it will have to stop, and what then? The you someday have 20 billion old people in subsaharaafrica and not eniugh young peope to support them
You are absolutely right. In fact it is a ponzi scheme, a giant one! And as you say: nobody talks about that. But what will we the consequences? In 2100 subsaharaafrika will have at leat 4 billion people. Then 20 billion in 2200. but ine day it will have to stop, and what then? The you someday have 20 billion old people in subsaharaafrica and not eniugh young peope to support them
It's ultimately a question of whether over-population or an aging population is a bigger problem. The Economist obviously believe that the latter is a bigger problem. I believe the former is far worse.
Retirement age should not be a problem, even with a decreasing population, provided that you adjust it to life expectancy. As people live longer and healthier lives, it should not be too bad for them to keep working until their 70s or even 80s, unless they work in dangerous or physically demanding jobs or are having health problems. White-collar workers who remain healthy in their 70s should be allowed to stay in the workforce; those who have not been capable of saving for their old age should certainly be thankful for it. Several acquaintances of mine in their 70s and 80s who still work seem to agree on this. Small changes in the retirement age could do a lot to stop the negative financial consequences of an aging population or of a decreasing workforce.
You are so right. Even fairly rational publications like the economist don't seem to get this. I think there are some fairly obvious solutions to the problem however. Last time I checked, most of the worlds wealth belongs to the elderly. The rich elderly could pay for the able bodied elderly to take care of themselves and the not so able bodied elderly. If they don't feel like paying all of this upfront while they are alive they can pay after they are deceased. This would be of great benefit too for their offspring, as the Paris Hiltons and Prince Charleses of the world would have to find work, and no longer suffer the indignity of being unemployed scroungers. The biggest entrepreneurial wealth creators are self made, the best example being the entire population of China who inherited no actual wealth from the previous generations.
Yes. First address the inequities fostered upon those already in existence wherever in the World before you bring in more to suffer. Flashpoint has been reached and the "haves" are not about to change their ways in ensuring even those around have their next meal.
Fat chance the Communists will ever truly give up power, even in this one limited case. Even if they allow people to have as many children as they want they'll still demand a license or some other such kowtow...
Pity the young Chinese male. Even if he does manage to find a bride, he will need to support not only her, but her parents along with his own parents. Better start saving now!
Is poison 'that' expensive in China?
I hope China understands that the choice of having children ultimately falls on to Women and the more educated a Woman is, the more likely she is to not have children. Russia and Germany have tried and failed with these "pro-children" programs.
"the choice of having children ultimately falls on to Women"
That's feminist garbage. In a healthy culture, that choice is made- at the very least- jointly by the man and the woman. In China, their parents are also in on the choice. Something that commentators on China often forget is that even though a married couple in China might only want one child (and don't care if it is a boy or a girl), they receive immense pressure from their parents to have multiple children and provide them with grandsons. So the demand for children within a family in China is quite high (even if it is not overly high among the parents themselves), so if the one-child policy is weakened the Chinese parents will respond to their parents demand for a greater number of grandchildren.
The situation in Russia and Germany is completely different.
Is the situation really that different? All three countries are either developed or developing, a woman has a large opportunity in both nations to be well-educated and employed, Women who are able to obtain an education and have employment opportunities do not want as many children as women without, it a sociological fact that has been proven in every society regardless of race, culture or religion.
Even if the Husband, Grandparents and everyone else wants children, if the Woman doesn't want children in a heterosexual marriage then there will be no children. Culture may influence but it cannot force. China's population decline will be from the same source as every Western nation, modernization, the richer and more advanced your society is, the less children it will produce.
TL;DR China's situation is similar to Russia and Germany. It's not "Feminist Garbage" it's sociology.
I don't disagree that well-educated couples are likely to have less children; but that's not particularly relevant to China's immense rural population where women typically only have 9 years of education.
My objection is to your claim that it is "women who decide whether or not to have children". Yes, in an abstract sense there is truth in that. A woman could simply choose not to have sex; just as the man in the relationship could likewise simply choose not to. But that is an enormous simplification of the way the real world works. In Germany (and probably Russia as well), if a woman chooses not have children her choice is likely respected because German society respects individual autonomy and doesn't have a tradition of filial piety or ancestor worship. In China if a woman refuses to provide her husband with a child or her parents with a grandchild (and the parents will insist upon a grandchild for the sake of carrying on the bloodline), she will destroy her relationship with her family and be shunned. She's also likely to be shunned by her peers who will consider her a bad daughter and a bad wife. Setting aside the emotional consequences of this, this can also be economically catastrophic unless the woman is already independently wealthy. Survival in China (and even career advancement), like so many other places, depends largely on maintaining a network of relationships (particularly those based on kinship). If a person fails to fulfill her responsibility to her family she'll lose access to these relationships and her life prospects will be immensely diminished.
Putting this all together, most women in China (with places like Beijing and Shanghai being exceptions) have immense pressure to have multiple children. So the government provides counter-pressure through the one-child policy. If the government relaxes the one-child policy, women are more likely to respond to the pressure from their family and peers to have more children and the fertility rate will increase.
"Even if the Husband, Grandparents and everyone else wants children, if the Woman doesn't want children in a heterosexual marriage then there will be no children."
That's how it should be at lest.
Ideally that is something a couple discusses before marriage. If either wants a child and the other doesn't, it's bad. Neither should be pressured, correct?
With China having more boys than girls and with the addition of the one child policy, I really wonder what in the world the Chinese government is thinking. Even if the one/two child policy was aborted this moment the fertility levels would with high probability be very low now and in the future. China has become more modern, so one can't expect a higher fertility rate than ca 1.8 when there is little social security and more need for young people to study and so on.
Even with the most insane growth China will still drown in its old people before it gets rich enough to manage to care for them.
With the fact that statistically dictatorships is really useless at industries that need creativity and high knowledge, It is really is hard to understand how the Chinese government think it will get tax money from its old people when the only work then can do (thinking work, not physical work) will be hard to do in China due to its political system and its cultural ways.
Its really a shame the Chinese was so successful in making its current young generation think democracy is bad, because it will take two or more generations to change that mindset, and that is so long that the wave of old people will hit before the needed changes has happened.
The Chinese government seems to think it will succeed in making China a knowledge based economy without fast democratic reform, even when there is not a single case of this being done with a dictatorship in human history.
As an outsider it is like watch a slow moving train crash where all the passengers spend all their time convincing each other that all is fine. We will see if it is fine in 30 years time I guess.
Philippines is democracy. Do not see any creativity and wealth out of that place.
Renaissance originated in dark age without democracy.
Democracy is new religion now. Its followers have very blind faith in it. How is middle east democratic movement panning out?
As an Italian, I'd rather have decent government than pretty paintings, thank you.
So, for you, the art/ tech advancement seen in the last few hundred years has nothing to do with the fact we are relatively un-stratified as a world, correct?
honestly, as a Chinese youth i don't believe democracy is the elixir that will solve all the problems we currently have. In fact, every form of government has its shortcomings, so does democracy. but it doesn't mean that democracy is not good, on the contrary, i believe democracy is generally better than any other form of government. but the question is whether China does need democracy at this moment ? Are China and the people ready for a democracy? If democracy is introduced in China tomorrow, will its ideas be accepted by the general public and bear positive fruits or just bring chaos and aggravate the existing problems? I personally don't believe democracy will bring anything good to China if it is brought in here right now. Anyway, I think we should find suitable drug to treat our country's illness. Democracy might be good one, but it doesn't work for China, at least for now.
coyuzda, I agree that democracy, understood as majority rule, is not necessarily the one and only way to bring good government or to guarantee individual freedom. In some instances majority rule can even mean harsh oppression of a minority; see the situation in Sri Lanka or indeed the former John Crow laws in old Dixie.
Really important and urgent for development however is the rule of law, independent courts and equality before the law. Only if people are secure in their rights will they invest for the long term. Only if they can defend their rights against local bullies in the courts will they refrain from creating public disturbances. If people see the law as their friend they will also respect the law.
Maybe the current situation in China resembles a bit 18th century England at the time of the industrial revolution: Political rule by an aristocracy, combined with rapid economic development leading to the empowerment of commoners. In England at that time, the well-established rule of law made peaceful evolution possible, without revolutionary violence. In contrast, pre-revolutionary France was not ruled by law but by arbitrary powers of the King and his ministers; the result was violent revolution.
I am, therefore, very happy that the latest party plenum seems to have recognized the importance of rule of law; and I hope this theoretical insight will be followed by concrete steps!
Very well said. I agree completely. I would add on a free and FACTUAL media too and have full support of the central government. It is the only way to monitor corruption.
But it has to be factual. Any made up or manipulated news, determined by an independent media court, should face stiff penalties and fines. Complete close down of the outlet should be the last sentence for repeat offensives.
China sure need lots of suitable drugs to cure its illness outside of democracy.
China may change its one child policy driven by its dismal demographic scene. However with "princess syndrome" in Chinese women and progressively higher educated population which desists people from getting married (before having career, et all) let alone having big family, I don't think this policy change would actually dent demography of China.
Soon China would also be encouraging govt. sponsored cafe's and air advertisements to get young people to "meet" and have babies a-la its ideal controlled "democratic" Singapore.
Singapore is small enough with rich economy through which it may be able to attract migrants to tide over its falling birth rate but how in world is it going to work for a country as large as China?
I wonder if those cafes are what Japan needs to try...
A lot of people think that the tfr of japan is exceptional low, but this is actually not the case. The tfr of japan is as low as the tfr of germany - only difference in japan only japanese get children, in germany it us germans, arabs, turks, nigerians, etc. Etc
Why so many people ignore the fact that a half of Chinese families at least have two or more than two children in China.In fact,one child policy only take effect on government employees or state-owned enterprises's employees.Three or more children in rural areas are not aslo unusual.Offical data often underestimates millions of births with IDs annually who will get IDs in the future.
Insights into China's politics, business, society and culture. An allusion to Confucius, the name means "things gathered up" or "literary fragments"
The prime minister: An interview with David Cameron
The future of New York City: They are coming, but will you build it?
Democracy in America
Northern Ireland and Britain's election: Show him the money
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Wednesday, October 17, 2012
To Be Firm
Still wearing clothes, Kit? Well, since you're being so stubborn about a little partly-nude modeling (stop being shy!) I hope that we'll at least get to see many more topless scenes when Game of Thrones comes back on. Really, your fans are asking nicely.
Don't make us break out the whips.
(Unless you're into that and then you can totally call me. Meow!)
[photo 1 | photo 2]
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text: makleen's Wall User Forums User News Links Profile Home Recent Posted News Links Top 10 Most Haunted Castles in the MidwestPosted:4/8/2015 10:13:43 AMThe word "castle" brings to mind the powerful medieval battlements or stately manors of pre-modern Europe. Though no true castles exist in the American Midwest, castle-like buildings and mansions are scattered throughout the heartland. With their picturesque stone walls, towers, and turrets, these structures ignite visitors' imaginations. None would be complete, of course, without a horrifying or romantic tale. Mysterious Heartland has researched these locations all over the Midwest and has found several with spine-tingling ghost stories. Which will prove to be the most haunted of them all?Top 10 Most Haunted Insane Asylums in the MidwestPosted:3/23/2015 9:29:30 PMFrom desolate cottages choked with weeds, to towering Victorian Gothic edifices, to musty tunnels snaking under the lawn, the abandoned sanitariums, reformatories, and asylums of the past practically invite fantastic stories. When many of these old institutions were shut down or decommissioned in the 1980s, they were overtaken by former patients and inmates, amateur photographers, and teenagers looking for a thrill. These urban explorers brought back stories of strange sounds, moving shadows, and messages carved in the walls. Mysterious Heartland has found that many former asylums in the Heartland are believed to be infested with ghosts, but which are the most haunted of them all?Top 10 Most Haunted Colleges in the SouthwestPosted:3/9/2015 9:36:27 PMThe Southwestern United States is a vast region with diverse terrain ranging from desert to mountains and high plains. It is also one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse regions of the US. At Mysterious Heartland, we have found that such a rich cultural heritage also includes a rich tapestry of campus ghost lore. Most colleges in these Southwestern states have a ghost story or two, but which are the most haunted of them all?Minnesota's Top 10 Most Haunted PlacesPosted:2/16/2015 10:33:30 AMMinnesota's vast lakes, pine forests, and long, harsh winters have given rise to a rich tradition of folklore. As we at Mysterious Heartland have found, Minnesotans love a good ghost story as well, and many places are said to be haunted. Which will prove to be the scariest of them all?Top 10 Most Haunted Libraries in the MidwestPosted:12/15/2014 8:13:52 PMDeep in the dark shelves of a dusty archive, a purple glow materializes into the flickering image of an elderly librarian. One by one, her spectral hands pull the old books from the shelves. This isn't the opening of a movie, but a haunting scene reenacted at libraries all over the Heartland. At Mysterious Heartland, we have scoured the pages of books, websites, and newspapers to bring you some of the most compelling stories of dedicated librarians from the beyond. Which Midwestern library will prove to be the most haunted of them all?Iowa's Top 10 Most Haunted PlacesPosted:12/8/2014 7:53:28 PMThe heart of the Corn Belt, Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River to the west. It has the odd distinction of being both the safest state in the U.S. and the inspiration for a Slipknot album. The Hawkeye State, however, is also known for its share of haunted and legendary places, including the infamous Villisca Axe Murder House. But which are the most compelling? http://mysteriousheartland.com/2014/12/08/iowas-top-10-most-haunted-places/Top 10 Most Haunted Places in KansasPosted:11/24/2014 9:07:21 PMWith its sweeping plains and fields of wheat and sunflowers, Kansas has long been known for its rich agricultural tradition. As Mysterious Heartland has found, Kansas has a rich tradition of folklore and ghost stories as well. From haunted dunes and hollows to the infamous Sallie House and Potwin Place, the Sunflower State has more than its fair share of supernatural destinations. Which will prove to be the most haunted of them all?Top 10 Most Haunted Hotels in the MidwestPosted:11/4/2014 9:04:28 PMWith their storied history, famous guests, and romantic atmosphere, Mysterious Heartland has found that hotels can attract quite a number of ghostly tales. From the smallest bed & breakfast to a luxurious five-star resort, the Midwest has more than its fair share of famous hotels, and nearly all of them are believed to have an uninvited guest or two. Which one will prove to be the most haunted of them all? Ohio's Top 10 Most Haunted PlacesPosted:10/20/2014 9:54:53 AMFrom the infamous set location of The Shawshank Redemption, to the majestic halls of the Lafayette Hotel, Ohio is also known for a number of very famous haunted places. Which will prove to be the most haunted of them all?Top 10 Most Haunted Places in the MidwestPosted:9/29/2014 10:29:30 AMThe American Heartland brings to mind rolling fields of corn and grain, apple pie, and …ghosts? For the past several years, Mysterious Heartland has scoured hundreds of books, articles, and websites to find the most interesting haunted and legendary places in the Midwest. With infamous locations like Griggs Mansion, Bachelor's Grove, Bullock Hotel, and dozens of other nationally-known paranormal hotspots, it was hard to choose the top 10. Never-the-less, we have come up with this list of what we think are the best. Which one will prove to be the most haunted of them all?Wisconsin's Top 10 Most Haunted PlacesPosted:9/22/2014 10:06:01 AMWisconsin is a very haunted state, with foreboding roads, abandoned mansions, and bloody brides, but which location will prove to be the most haunted of them all?Top 10 Tales of Witchcraft in the MidwestPosted:9/15/2014 8:13:41 AMAlthough belief in witchcraft has persisted in the American Midwest for nearly two centuries, Mysterious Heartland has found it surprisingly difficult to locate stories of witchcraft in the region. Never-the-less, we have scoured newspaper archives and dusty volumes to bring you some of the most exciting and obscure accounts of conjuring, hexes, and mistaken identity. Which story will prove to be the most compelling of them all? Seven Plead Guilty in LeBeau Plantation FirePosted:9/14/2014 12:14:10 PMSeven men have plead guilty to setting fire to the infamous LeBeau Manor in Arabi, Louisiana. Built by Francois Barthelemy LeBeau outside Arabi, Louisiana in 1854, the LeBeau Plantation manor was the largest remaining antebellum mansion in the New Orleans area. It was also widely believed to be haunted...Top 10 Most Terrifying Places in the MidwestPosted:8/25/2014 8:14:25 AMhere are a few places where men fear to tread, places so scary locals have labeled them with names like "Hotel Hell," "Hell Bridge," and "Satan's Tunnel." Witches, demons, and shadowy entities are said to lurk there. Some are even believed to contain portals to Hell itself. We at Mysterious Heartland have braved damnation to bring you this list. Which will prove to be the most terrifying place of them all?Echoes from the Past Haunt Tombstone's Bird Cage TheaterPosted:8/21/2014 1:16:14 PMThe Bird Cage Theater at 535 E. Allen Street in Tombstone, Arizona, is one of the only surviving buildings from Tombstone's Wild West days. The Bird Cage Theater opened in 1881 and closed in 1889. In those short years, it gained a notorious reputation as a house of gambling, entertainment, and prostitution. The Bird Cage Theater is also rumored to be haunted with the ghosts of Tombstone's tumultuous past.Top 10 Most Haunted Roads in the MidwestPosted:5/28/2014 8:33:32 AMIsolated. Foreboding. Dangerous. Lonely roads make a good setting for a ghost story, and there are plenty snaking their way across the American Heartland. But which is the scariest of them all? Mysterious Heartland is proud to bring you our list of the top 10 creepiest roads in the Midwest! Any of these roads makes an excellent spooky night-time trip, but remember, always be conscious of other motorists – especially if they might be of the undead variety!Top 10 Creepiest Cemeteries in the MidwestPosted:4/8/2014 8:59:45 AMAt Mysterious Heartland, we spend a lot of time crawling around the ruins of some of the most notorious and spooky places in the Heartland. Cemeteries in particular seem to attract a bevy of ghostly tales, but what are the most frightening? After much debate, we are happy to bring you the Top 10 Creepiest Cemeteries in the Midwest!Top 10 Creepiest Bridges in the MidwestPosted:3/24/2014 1:19:37 PMSometimes perilous and almost always remote, rural bridges have long been a staple of local ghostlore. They are places where ghosts of long-forgotten accidents still roam and phantom voices cry out from the water below. At Mysterious Heartland, we have researched allegedly haunted bridges all over the Midwest, but which one will prove to be the most terrifying of all?Top 10 Creepiest Haunted Houses in the MidwestPosted:3/17/2014 9:11:34 AMLooming out of the prairie, or standing like a sentinel on a quiet street, the old Victorian mansion or derelict farmhouse dominates our nightmares. We at Mysterious Heartland know that every town and city has at least one, but what are the most infamous and haunted houses and mansions in the heartland? After much debate, we are happy to bring you the Top 10 Most Haunted Houses in the Midwest! Note: Many homes in this list are privately owned. Never visit any of these homes uninvited.Chicago's Top 10 Most Haunted PlacesPosted:3/10/2014 1:12:48 PMChicago is the third largest city in the United States and an "alpha city" in the global economy. With a population of over 2.8 million, it is the political and economic powerhouse of Illinois. With so many people living and dying here, it comes as no surprise that Chicago would be home to so many ghosts. Entire books (and their sequels!) have been devoted to the ghostlore of the Windy City. At Mysterious Heartland, we have poured over dozens of these stories to bring you the top 10 most haunted places in Chicago!Top 10 Most Haunted Colleges in the MidwestPosted:1/20/2014 1:42:16 PMLeaving home and going to college for the first time can be a very exciting and scary experience, especially if your college shares its campus with the otherworldly and unseen. Almost every college and university has at least one legend or ghost story, but which can lay claim to the title of most haunted? After much debate, Mysterious Heartland brings you the Top 10 Most Haunted Colleges and Universities in the Midwest!Does it Matter if Black Moon Manor was a Fake?Posted:1/16/2014 5:41:48 PMIf the whole thing was a fraud, and the house was not haunted, what does that say about all the "evidence" collected there by paranormal investigators? In other words, if Black Moon Manor was a fraud, why didn't every paranormal investigation team leave the place empty handed?Cougar Killed in Whiteside County, IllinoisPosted:11/21/2013 3:27:00 PMA North American cougar (aka Mountain Lion) has been shot and killed in Whiteside County, Illinois. Cougars all but vanished from Illinois after the 1870s, but have made several appearances in recent years.St. Clair County UFOPosted:11/13/2013 6:53:32 PMOn the night of January 5, 2000, Police in the St Clair County received numerous reports of a triangular shaped unidentified object in the sky. The UFO was reported to be two stories high and about the length of a football field. It was estimated that the UFO was flying at an altitude of about 1000 feet. The UFO sighting drew national attention and a week later a special team of investigators headed by a former FBI agent was brought in...Interview with Cassidy Rae, Spiritual MediumPosted:11/12/2013 5:02:32 PMCassidy Rae is 15 years old and has been using her gift as a spiritual medium to enlighten and help people across the country. She assists in paranormal investigations, provides readings, and speaks at various events about her experiences, para unity, and her double life as a teenage medium. Recently, she has starred in the web series "Dead People See Me."Southern Illinois' infamous Sunset Haven has been demolished!Posted:11/9/2013 6:47:58 PMBetween October 25-25th, a crew from Southern Illinois University dismantled one of the few remaining almshouses in Illinois. Known as Sunset Haven, "Building 207," Vivarium Annex, or just the "old asylum," this rectangular red-brick building has attracted numerous tales, trespassers, and vandals since its abandonment in the late 1980s.Stickney Mansion Mystery SolvedPosted:10/14/2013 1:13:18 PMThe Stickney Mansion has long been known as the "house with no corners," but was it built this way for supernatural reasons? According to legend, the Stickneys were spiritualists who believed that ghosts would become trapped in the corners of their home during seances. What Tim Prasil uncovered about this story may surprise you.Larry Wilson's Sallie House Solo InvestigationPosted:9/24/2013 7:16:28 PMLarry Wilson shares the details of what happened during his solo investigation of the infamous Sallie House (with pictures).Ashmore Estates Featured in Haunted Asylums, Prisons, and SanatoriumsPosted:9/10/2013 12:24:36 PMAn exclusive interview with the authors of the new book Haunted Asylums, Prisons, and Sanatoriums.'Ghost Hunting' Thieves or Publicity Grab?Posted:6/17/2013 9:27:19 AMOver the weekend, Cincinnati.com broke this story about a par of thieves who broke into Bobby Mackey's in Wilder, Kentucky and stole dozens of bottles of alcohol. According to Cincinnati.com, R. J. Seifert, who does marketing for Bobby Mackey's, claimed the thieves were possibly ghost hunters. Really?A Trans-Atlantic Haunting, October 1966Posted:6/12/2013 11:11:23 AM"Here's the true eerie experience, which frightened me to the extreme in October 1966, shortly after I turned 12 years old." A grandmother's ghost reaches across the Atlantic to tell her family of her passing.Echoes from the Past at Chanute Air Force BasePosted:6/1/2013 8:38:21 PMThe presence of abandoned buildings anywhere is always an incubator for ghost stories. Chanute is no exception. Some visitors have, through the broken windows, reported seeing an officer working at his desk. Others say they have seen airmen strolling the weed-choked sidewalks.Top 10 Most Haunted Hospitals in IllinoisPosted:1/14/2013 12:35:38 PMHospitals, perhaps more than any other building, witness the pains of human existence on a consistent basis. Birth, death, illness, despair, and even insanity are experienced by thousands of patients over many decades within their walls. Maybe this is why hospitals are some of the most haunted places in Illinois. But which is the most haunted of them all? At the Legends and Lore of Illinois, we have combed dozens of stories to bring you the top ten most haunted hospitals (past and present) in the state. NIPT Encounters the Ghost of AmyPosted:10/30/2012 2:19:22 PMIn July of 2011, Northern Illinois Paranormal Team lead investigators, Tony and Dave, were requested to an "Undisclosed" location in Aurora Illinois. This is what they found.Top 10 Most Haunted Restaurants in IllinoisPosted:9/19/2012 2:33:05 PMWith hundreds of customers coming in and out every day, it would not surprise the Legends and Lore of Illinois if a restaurant turned out to have a ghost or two. Some of these specters are content to simply observe the hustle and bustle, while others are much more "hands on." Illinoisans have certainly had their share of strange encounters while dining out. Which of these restaurants will prove to be the most haunted of them all?Top 10 Most Haunted Bridges in IllinoisPosted:8/6/2012 9:29:03 AMSometimes perilous and almost always remote, rural bridges have long been a staple of local ghostlore. They are places where ghosts of long-forgotten accidents still roam and phantom voices cry out from the water below. At the Legends and Lore of Illinois, we have visited allegedly haunted bridges all over the State of Illinois, but which one will prove to be the most haunted?The Cantina Ghosts, Part 1Posted:7/16/2012 9:04:49 AMCentral Illinois author Sylvia Shults shares stories about paranormal investigations at her husband's haunted bar in Pekin, Illinois.The Top 10 Creepiest Woods and Parks in IllinoisPosted:7/2/2012 9:28:58 AMTourist season is in full swing in Illinois, and so we at the Legends and Lore of Illinois have prepared a list of some of the most unusual places you can visit in the great outdoors. While these are all nice places to experience nature, you may also encounter something of the supernatural variety. Be warned, however, some of these places hide very real dangers, not the least of which include hazardous terrain. So never visit them alone!Top 10 Most Haunted Churches in IllinoisPosted:6/4/2012 10:03:13 AMAs the focus of such devotion and reverence, the Legends and Lore of Illinois has found that churches are some of the most haunted places in Illinois. Whether it is a devoted pastor who refuses to leave his flock, a religiously-inspired vision, or spirits of the departed drawn to the energy of an active congregation, it is rare to find a church devoid of at least one ghostly tale. Which church will prove to be the most haunted of them all?Top 10 Tales of Witchcraft in IllinoisPosted:5/7/2012 8:40:32 AMWhile many historians have attempted to dismiss tales of witchcraft as "superstitions of the past," these stories have been told in the Prairie State throughout its history, from the very first French settlers until the present day. This month, we at the Legends and Lore of Illinois have scoured newspaper archives and dusty volumes to bring you some of the most exciting and obscure accounts of witchcraft in Illinois. Which story will prove to be the most compelling?The Ghost of RuthAnne, Part 2Posted:5/2/2012 1:21:00 PMA mysterious black dog visits a family in part 2 of this ghost story from rural Illinois.The Ghost of RuthAnne, Part 1Posted:4/30/2012 4:41:24 PMA harrowing true ghost story from Pinckneyville, Illinois.Interview with Melissa Tanner, Founder of TnT ParanormalPosted:4/23/2012 12:11:11 PMMelissa Tanner is the founder and lead investigator for TnT Paranormal Investigators, LLC (TnT Paranormal) out of the Chicagoland area. Before starting TnT Paranormal in 2009, she had investigated with several other paranormal teams and at several of the most haunted places in America. She has used those experiences to hone her skills as an investigator. TnT Paranormal is one of the most professional paranormal investigation teams in Illinois.Top 10 Old-Timey Ghost Stories in IllinoisPosted:4/16/2012 2:23:31 PMWith all the recent popularity of haunted houses, paranormal investigation, and legend tripping, it is easy to forget that ghost stories have been told for as long as human beings have walked the earth. Here in Illinois, the love of a good ghost story was alive and well in the 1800s and early 1900s, and some of our best tales come from that bygone era. Which one will prove to be the most timeless?The Farmhouse Specters, Part 1Posted:12/8/2011 10:29:03 PMChristina Sanantonio shares her story of living in a haunted farmhouse outside of Monticello, Illinois.Top 10 Issues of the Legends and Lore of IllinoisPosted:11/21/2011 4:47:11 PMBetween 2007 and 2010, 47 issues of the Legends and Lore of Illinois were released. Each issue discussed an allegedly haunted location in Illinois and featured the continuing adventures of a mysterious team of paranormal investigators called The Fallen. Reviews, interviews, letters from the readers, trivia, and "ghostly games" were also irregular features. Places as diverse as Cahokia Mounds, Western Illinois University, and Aux Sable Cemetery were all explored, but which issue has proven to be the most popular of them all?Ashmore Estates: The Myth and the LegendPosted:9/23/2011 12:00:00 AMTonight on the Travel Channel at 8pm central/9pm eastern time, the season premier of Ghost Adventures will feature Ashmore Estates, a former almshouse and psychiatric facility in Coles County, Illinois. Before you see the show, get the facts about this mysterious location!Top 10 Hottest Ghosts in IllinoisPosted:9/12/2011 12:00:00 AMFor reasons only Sigmund Freud could understand, we at the Legends and Lore of Illinois have noticed that a great number of ghosts happen to be young, attractive women who are desperate and alone. This combination has proven to be very alluring, but which one of these ghosts deserve the title of most captivating in the entire state of Illinois?A Spiritual Ride to the Other SidePosted:9/2/2011 12:00:00 AMIn July, Russ Wells was returning home from the store when he fell asleep behind the wheel and wrapped his car around a pole. What followed was a life-changing experience that Wells can only explain as a glimpse of the "Other Side."Interview with Edward ShanahanPosted:8/8/2011 12:00:00 AMEdward Shanahan is a Chicago Psychic Reader, Medium, Spirit Feeler, does Channeling and is the Chicago area Paranormal Host of Chicago Paranormal Nights. He has appeared in four different paranormal books (a fifth and sixth are now being worked on), and is authoring his own e-book 'Taking The Paranormal and Spiritual World Seriously', to be released within the next month.


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Finland extended their Eurobasket stay at least for a few more hours with a hard-fought success against Montenegro.
As Group C enters its last day, only two things are sure: F.Y.R. of Macedonia are assured of going to Vlinius while Montenegro are not. Croatia, Greece and Finland are all in with a chance of advancing.
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Affordable Care Act mandate delayed: Who wins, who loses?
Oct 9, 2013
Pick your headline: Bigger companies get another year to arrange health insurance, or Many employees have to wait another year to get health insurance.
Federal cuts threaten healthcare fraud investigations
Jul 3, 2013
Staffing cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services mean fewer cases of Medicare, Medicaid fraud are investigated.
Taking fitness monitors for a test run
Interview with
Jul 1, 2013
An array of gadgets will track your fitness program, tell you in great detail how many calories you're burning, and what your heart rate is. They can even give you a kick when you are falling short of your goals.
Yuck: A fourth-grader's undercover look at school lunch
Interview by
Jun 28, 2013
In the fall of 2011, fourth-grader Zachary Maxwell set out to show his parents and the world his less-than-appetizing lunch tray reality.
Jun 24, 2013
The Obama administration launches its new HealthCare.gov website to get people signed up.
When insurance is too expensive no matter what
Oct 9, 2013
Federal subsidies will make it easier for millions of Americans to buy health coverage, but millions still won't be able to afford it.
How much should you save for long-term care?
Interview with
Jun 20, 2013
Nursing homes can run around $100,000 a year, and many aging boomers will not have the money.
Avatar therapy aims to aid patients with schizophrenia
Interview by
Jun 20, 2013
A psychiatrist in England is using digital avatars -- almost like characters in a video game -- to help people with schizophrenia put a face to the voices in their heads.
Forget the patient, what happens when the medical hardware gets a virus?
Interview with
Jun 17, 2013
As hospitals become more automated, the dangers of computer viruses become more serious.
Latinos more in favor of health care reform: Poll
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Jun 14, 2013
Nationwide, skepticism over the Affordable Care Act is persistent. But according to a poll conducted by the Spanish language broadcaster Univision, Latinos in California have a much more positive take new health care law.


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Tom Watson hits his tee shot on the par 5 2nd hole during the Senior... Fotografia de notíciasAtirar à Baliza,Bater,Campeonato Senior PGA,Desporto,EUA,Golfe,Kentucky,Louisville - Kentucky,Segunda Tacada,Tee,Tom Watson - Golfista,Torneio Majors de golfe,US PGA Tour,Valhalla Golf Club,VerticalPhotographer Andy LyonsCollection: Getty Images Sport 2011 Getty ImagesLOUISVILLE, KY - MAY 29: Tom Watson hits his tee shot on the par 5 2nd hole during the Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid at Valhalla Golf Club on May 29, 2011 in Louisville, Kentucky. He won in a one hole playoff over David Eger . (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)