Bernstein, Nell

PERSONAL:

Married; children: two.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Berkeley, CA.

CAREER:

Journalist and writer. Former Soros Justice Media Fellow at the Open Society Institute of New York.

WRITINGS:

All Alone in the World: Children of Incarcerated Parents, New Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including Newsday, Mother Jones, and the Washington Post.

SIDELIGHTS:

Nell Bernstein is a journalist whose book All Alone in the World: Children of Incarcerated Parents provides an in-depth look at what happens to children when their parents are sent to prison. The book also discusses the overall impact these largely forgotten children have on society. In addition to interviewing children, parents, and many people who work within the judicial system, Bernstein draws from studies and policy recommendations to present a vivid picture made up of personal stories and daunting statistics (for example, approximately half of all boys who have parents that have been in prison will also end up jailed at some time in their life). In an interview with Scott Vogel on the BuzzFlash Web site, the author explained that she became interested in the topic when she was doing a story on foster care and interviewed a child who told her how the police came, arrested his mother, and then left the young boy alone to care for his baby brother, whom the boy would walk around the neighborhood in a stroller. The boy cared for his brother for two weeks before anyone noticed and stepped in to remedy the situation. "At the time, I thought it was this incredibly bizarre thing," Bernstein told Vogel. "But when I really began to talk to kids who'd experienced a parent's arrest, I heard similar stories. Those stories of kids left alone in empty apartments affected me."

"Well researched and smoothly written, Bernstein's book pumps up awareness of the problems, [and] provides a checklist for what needs to be done," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Jean Trounstine, writing in the Women's Review of Books, noted: "While Bernstein's text occasionally gets bogged down in facts, hers is an important book that shows how poorly our nation deals with its troubled children." Trounstine added: "What impressed me most in Bernstein's book … were her hard-won insights." Other critics were equally impressed, and in a review in the Library Journal, Antoinette Brinkman wrote: "Serious, moving, and well organized, All Alone in the World integrates research and broad policy questions … skillfully." Another reviewer writing on the Connect for Kids Web site, noted: "Bernstein's reporting experience shows in her ability to weave together the three threads of research, personal stories, and policy, and to make it all readable and compelling."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, October 1, 2005, Antoinette Brinkman, review of All Alone in the World: Children of Incarcerated Parents, p. 97.

Publishers Weekly, August 15, 2005, review of All Alone in the World, p. 48.

Women's Review of Books, May-June, 2006, Jean Trounstine, review of All Alone in the World, p. 8.

ONLINE

Alternet.org,http://www.alternet.org/ (March 19, 2007), Kelly Hearn, "Arrested Development," interview with author.

BuzzFlash,http://www.buzzflash.com/ (January 11, 2006), Scott Vogel, "Nell Bernstein Asks Us to ‘See’ the Children of Incarcerated Americans," interview with author.

Connect for Kids,http://www.connectforkids.org/ (March 19, 2007), review of All Alone in the World.