All Alone in the World Audiobook

One in 10 American children has a parent under criminal justice supervision – incarcerated, on probation, or on parole. One in 33 American children – and one in eight African American children – goes to sleep without access to a parent because that parent is in jail. Despite these staggering numbers, the children of prisoners remain largely invisible to society.

Following in the tradition of the best seller Random Family, journalist Nell Bernstein shows, through the deeply moving stories of real families, how the children of the incarcerated are routinely punished for their parents’ status: ignored, neglected, stigmatized, and endangered, with minimal effort made to help them cope.

Topics range from children’s experiences at the time of their parent’s arrest, to laws and policies that force even low-level offenders to forfeit their parental rights, to alternative sanctions that take into account prisoners’ status as mothers and fathers.

All Alone in the World defines a crucial aspect of criminal justice and, in doing so, illuminates a critical new realm of human rights.