"Denise Johnston is the director of Families & Criminal Justice, the successor agency to the Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents. A child development specialist, she has developed and directed educational, therapeutic, family support, and advocacy services for more than 25,000 families of justice-involved parents since 1988. Dr. Johnston has authored numerous publications for families and for professionals, and edited Children of Incarcerated Parents, the first comprehensive North American text on this subject. Megan Sullivan is the author of Women in Northern Ireland: Cultural Studies and Material Conditions (University Press of Florida, 1999), Irish Women and Cinema: 1980-1990 (NOVA Southeastern University, 2001), and many essays and articles. Her essay ""My Father’s Prison"" was awarded the Anthony Prize in Prose from Between the Lines Literary Journal. She co-edited ""Children of Incarcerated Parents"" for S&F Online. She is Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development and Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Boston University, and serves as the Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning."
Parental Incarceration: Personal Accounts and Developmental Impact fills a major gap in the research in that it is the first text of its kind to explore the impact of parental incarceration on children within a developmental framework. It enhances the literature and provides an opportunity for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to better understand and garner unique insights into the lived experiences of adult women and men whose stories of parental involvement in the criminal justice system have often been ignored in studies of crime, punishment, and mass incarceration. This is a must-read for all those looking to improve outcomes for the children of incarcerated parents. - Barbara E. Bloom, Sonoma State University