Children of War

Article/Book: All Alone In The World: Children Of The Incarcerated; from Raw Story (US), 11/8/05

The children of drug war prisoners are the innocent, silent, tormented victims. They suffer emotionally, financially and socially.

With one or both parents in prison, these children are five times more likely to end up in prison themselves. Their parents are sent to institutions hundreds, even thousands of miles from home, resulting in strained and broken family ties.

We teach our children that drugs kill, but drug prohibition produces its own casualties when it separates parent and child with little regard for the social consequences of such separation.

These young casualties of the drug war know they are victims of injustice; this knowledge breeding contempt and disrespect for law, not compliance as intended by law makers. And yet, after years of depression, anger, low self-esteem, feelings of abandonment society will unreasonably expect these young adults to assume their roles as capable and responsible citizens.

On the streets of our cities and towns, a perpetual state of war between the police and an ever-present enemy, a war in which anyone -- and thus everyone -- can be a suspect, leaves many children caught, literally, in the crossfire.

Children are killed by police in no-knock raids and by gangsters in drive by shootings. Babies in coca producing countries are poisoned by herbicides furnished by U.S. tax dollars. This is the violence spawned by prohibition, not by drugs. Although unleashed on the innocent, the most vulnerable, prohibition's proponents will tell you, "the drug war is for the children." What do you think?

Column: Tough On Crime Can Be Pretty Tough On Children; from Ottawa Citizen (CN ON), 8/30/08

Raymond's Letter to President Bush A Letter to Mom; by Brooke Roth "Our 51st State" by Michael Charros Misty Robison, daughter of a Drug War Prisoner A Letter from Yanely, Child of a Drug War Prisoner Haley Anne Henry's Prayer Esequiel Hernandez Shot Dead by U.S. Marines Phillip Gaines, a Mother's Hero Guadalupe Vasquez Writes the President Thank You, November Coalition; by Greg Peck What Children are Doing to End the Drug War "Hello My Daughter . . ." Letter From a Son; by Kurt Cargle, Jr. A Letter to Dad, from Haley A Letter and Poem for Dad, from Amber Family Values: A Speech by Tyree Callahan Tell Me Why by Heather Mendes The Walk; by Jamie Latimer A Letter to My Daughter by Scott Walt

Do you want to submit your child's material to our website?

Agencies Keep Kids in Touch with Relatives in Prison; from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)

Children of Substance Foundation - An online support and publication organization for parents of children who have died from a drug related death.