The Community Health Profiles For The Mott Haven And...

In vulnerable communities like the South Bronx, where economic opportunities are limited, populations are at high risk for various adverse outcomes that are impediments to community growth and well-being. Two statistics from the 2015 Community Health Profiles for the Mott Haven Melrose neighborhoods in the South Bronx are particularly revealing when compared to the fifty-eight other New York City (NYC) communities that were assessed: 1) Mott Haven Melrose ranks fourth for incarcerations. Its 305 incarcerations per 100,000 adults is nearly twice the Bronx rate and three times the NYC rate, and 2) Mott Haven Melrose ranks seventh for elementary school absenteeism. Its 31 percent absenteeism rate is over 1.5 times that of the NYC rate (NYC DOHMH, 2015). Given that 59 percent of incarcerated individuals in New York State are parents of children under the age of 18, it is clear that the imprisonment of these criminal offenders does not happen in a vacuum (NYS DOCCS, 2013). Many of these incarcerated men and women play various roles in their communities. They are parents, siblings, sons, and daughters and have family members who depend upon them for social and economic support. The incarceration of a parent has a particularly destabilizing role in a child’s life, oftentimes leaving the child in the care of a single parent, relative, or foster home (Levy-Pounds, 2006). Parental incarceration is considered an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE), a designation for certain