One hard-learned lesson from America’s era of mass incarceration is that there are innocent children in harm’s way when policymakers overly rely on the criminal justice system to address complex social problems. More than half of all adults in penal institutions in the United States are parents.1 Consequently, about one in every 33 children in this country has a parent in jail or prison on any given day. The public safety benefits of incarcerating a record number of parents are debatable,2 but the possibility of collateral harm to children is clear.