DIGEST - Volume 10, Issue 3-FULL DIGEST

5 TPC Digest 5 | T he national epidemic of increasing imprisonment rates, commonly referred to as mass incarceration , has been a topic of alarm for nearly five decades. Although the United States accounts for 4.4% of the world’s population, nearly one quarter (22%) of the world’s prisoners are in the United States. According to The Sentencing Project, the United States continues to have the highest incarceration rate in the world, consistently increasing since the mid-1970s. The most recent statistics indicate that the United States has an incarcerated population of 2.2 million individuals, representing a 500% increase over the last 40 years. More than 20% of those released return to incarceration within one year, and researchers have found a correlation between imprisonment and individuals belonging to underserved and minority populations. D espite the race gap narrowing since 2007, Blacks are imprisoned at a rate 6 times that of Whites and at double the rate for Hispanics. Because incarceration disproportionately affects minority group members, families of the incarcerated are more likely to be concentrated in minority communities. Consequently, even those children in the community whose parents are not facing incarceration are likely to be impacted by mass incarceration, as their communities may experience lower incomes, lopsided gender ratios, disrupted social integration and roles, high levels of joblessness, and increased crime. Both the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) have identified advocacy, multicultural competence, and social justice as priorities in training and practice. The ACA Code of Ethics directs counselor educators to infuse material related to multiculturalism/diversity into all courses and workshops, and when describing professional and ethical practice, the CACREP standards require programs to instruct students on the advocacy processes needed to address institutional and societal barriers that impede access, equity, and success for clients. Further, the curriculum guidelines for social and cultural diversity emphasize counselor advocacy when instructing counselor educators to cover strategies for identifying and eliminating barriers, prejudices, and processes of intentional and unintentional oppression and discrimination. These broad directives provide support for the specific argument that the scope of this crisis and its impact on families requires attention in counselor training. The curricular experience of professional counselors working with populations affected by incarceration is predominantly absent from the literature. The incongruence between the urgency of mass incarceration affecting communities and the lack of literature exploring how to support families of the incarcerated demands further research. To gain a glimpse into the pedagogical experiences of counselors-in-training, the authors conducted a national survey of 95 counselor educators. This study found that the majority of participants were not covering mass incarceration or families of the incarcerated in their coursework, nor had they received training to do so and therefore did not include any training for their students. Based on the results, recommendations include exposing students to data on mass incarceration and discussions of implicit bias, as well as the development of specific treatment modalities and protocols that fulfill the educational and ethical expectations to address systemic barriers, advocacy, and cultural competence. Jessica Burkholder, PhD, NCC, ACS, LPC, is an associate professor at Monmouth University. David Burkholder, PhD, ACS, LPC, is an associate professor and department chair at Monmouth University. Stephanie Hall, PhD, NCC, ACS, LPC, is an associate professor and founding department chair at Emory & Henry College. Victoria Porter is a master’s student at Monmouth University. Correspondence may be addressed to Jessica Burkholder, 400 Cedar Ave, West Long Branch, NJ 07764, jburkhol@monmouth.edu. Training Counselors to Work With the Families of Incarcerated Persons Jessica Burkholder, David Burkholder, Stephanie Hall, Victoria Porter A National Survey