New Year’s Eve, Kids and Prisons
By Dianne Frazee-Walker
Every year New York City attracts thousands of people bringing in the New Year.
Gathered in Times Square are crowds waiting to watch the famous ball drop at the crack of midnight.
What is hidden behind the gala of toasting champagne glasses, kisses, confetti, and streamers are about 105,000 remote New York City children who have parents spending New Year’s Eve behind bars.
Thanks to progress the New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents made during 2013, this year these kids may have reason to celebrate.
The year 2014 holds a hopeful future for these inner city youngsters because the needs of children with incarcerated parents has finally been addressed and changes are underway.
Tanya Krupat, program director of the New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents at the Osborne Association, confirms two crucial advancements were made this year to benefit children of incarcerated parents. Acknowledgment of a population that has been in the dark for decades finally came to the attention of The White House and Congress.
Since one of every 28 children in the U.S. has a parent in prison, which is now higher than the number of kids that have a deployed parent, children’s entertainment media has capitalized on this stigmatized issue.
