Sesame Street Puppet who has a Dad in Jail

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**Easy E**

You can find the link here: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/sesame-street-creates-first-muppet-have-parent-jail-6C10345061

Those friendly, fuzzy Muppets from “Sesame Street” have helped kids open up about all sorts of serious subjects, from hunger and divorce to military deployment.

But they’re now tackling a much more unexpected issue: incarceration.

Meet Alex, the first Muppet to have a dad in jail. According to a Pew Charitable Trusts report, one in 28 children in the United States now has a parent behind bars -- more than the number of kids with a parent who is deployed -- so it’s a real issue, but it’s talked about far less because of the stigma.

That’s why the Sesame Workshop says it created the “Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration” initiative, an online tool kit intended to help kids with a parent in prison find support and comfort, and provide families with strategies and tips to talk to their children about incarceration.

Alex is blue-haired and green-nosed and he wears a hoodie – you might think he’s just another carefree inhabitant of Sesame Street. But there’s sorrow in Alex’s voice when he talks about his father.

“I just miss him so much,” he tells a friend. “I usually don’t want people to know about my Dad.”

It’s easier for kids to hear such things from a Muppet than an adult, creators of the initiative noted.

“Coming from a Muppet, it’s almost another child telling their story to the children,” said Jeanette Betancourt, vice president of outreach and educational practices at the Sesame Workshop.

Alex will not be part of the regular cast on “Sesame Street,” but he’s playing a central role in the online tool kit.

Children of parents behind bars often feel sadness, shame and guilt about the situation, so they need to know they are loved and that the incarceration is not their fault, said Carol Burton, executive director of Centerforce, a non-profit dedicated to supporting families impacted by incarceration.

“There are several million children impacted by incarceration in this country,” Burton said. “No one is paying attention to them.”

The project and its unusual subject matter have garnered a lot of attention, with some observers calling it a sign of the times.

"Congratulations, America, on making it almost normal to have a parent in prison or jail," wrote a columnist on Reason.com.

I find this interesting for a number of reasons.

**Shadowseer_Kim**

Sesame Street has before tackled issues like this, I recall the episode where Mr. Cooper died, I want to say in the late 70's.

They did not actually show his death, but they showed the aftermath of it all, and Big Bird trying to understand and cope with the loss.

Ground breaking children's television at the time. It would not shock me if Alex made it to a few episodes of the show. I assume they are still making Sesame Street...

**daedalus**

Step 1: Develop the privatized industrial prison complex for which the government is contractually obligated to keep at certain capacities full (something that still astounds and terrifies me)

Step 2: Society, over a generation or so, has to normalize to this.

Step 3: Loss

Mine was a generation raised by their mothers. I wonder what the next generation will be.

**Frazzled**

Pod people baby pod people.

**daedalus**

Frazzled wrote:
Pod people baby pod people.

Pod people are people too!

**Frazzled**

At first I thought this was stupid, but the Big Bird in mourning thing changed my 'tude. There are many children with kids in jail. This could be helpful.

Now if those kids could just get pulled out of there and adopted ito decent families they might have a chance.

**curran12**

I doff my hat to Sesame Street here, good on em.

They have always been good about being kid-friendly, but also progressive enough to tackle stuff that most other kids' shows won't touch no matter how helpful they could be.

**gorgon**

They still produce new Sesame Street episodes, but only a fraction of what they once did. Kids just don't watch it much anymore.

Which is a shame because Sesame Street has from the beginning actually tried to teach children. They actually do research on their effect on kids!

I don't see the same effort from a lot of today's "educational" children's shows. Sure, Yo Gabba Gabba is cool and fun and gets some great bands and celebs to guest star. But there isn't much there after you get past the singing and dancing.

Great article on SS here:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/05/22/sesame-street.html

**Easy E**

That article ignores the role/support of Public Television.

Of course, that is because we all know public television is the devil. I'm sure there is a Chic Tract that will explain that to us.

**feeder**

This is really cool. Kids need to know that having a parent in jail isn't their fault, and that having been to jail doesn't automatically make someone a bad parent.

**Frazzled**

feeder wrote:
and that having been to jail doesn't automatically make someone a bad parent.

Well in reality it kind of does.

**Krellnus**

Frazzled wrote:
feeder wrote:
and that having been to jail doesn't automatically make someone a bad parent.

Well in reality it kind of does.

Gotta say I agree with Frazz on this one.

**Easy E**

Can we define or elaborat eon what a "bad" parent is?

**Krellnus**

Easy E wrote:
Can we define or elaborat eon what a "bad" parent is?

No, because it is one of the most arbitrary things on the planet.

**Frazzled**

Krellnus wrote:
Easy E wrote:
Can we define or elaborat eon what a "bad" parent is?

No, because it is one of the most arbitrary things on the planet.

Any parent who doesn't miss the old days when you could just send them off to the coal mine at 8? Get out there kid, you gotta earn!
Nowdays you threaten the kids with the coal mine and they just scoff at you. Even worse, they'll have the temerity to poke you in the stomach as they pass by going "sure dad, never heard you say that one before..."

**DAaddict**

Obviously any parent who espouses conservative values of course!

**Easy E**

Krellnus wrote:
Easy E wrote:
Can we define or elaborat eon what a "bad" parent is?

No, because it is one of the most arbitrary things on the planet.

Okay, so then your previous comment agreeing with Fraz makes no sense. Check.

**Frazzled**

Incorrect. The fact you went to jail is a good indicator you're not a good parent. If nothing else, you weren't there to actually parent due to your bad behavior.

**feeder**

There are plenty of people in jail who are not "bad" people. This is a fact.

Are you honestly advocating that going to jail = removal of parental rights?

**kronk**

If having a character on SS allows a young kid to identify with something and help them deal with the anger, depression, and abandonment that comes from having a parent in jail, then ok.

That's a good thing, right? It's not like they're glamorizing it.

**Frazzled**

kronk wrote:
If having a character on SS allows a young kid to identify with something and help them deal with the anger, depression, and abandonment that comes from having a parent in jail, then ok.

That's a good thing, right? It's not like they're glamorizing it.

That is indeed a good thing. Its not the kid's fault their parent is a loser and waste of skin.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

feeder wrote:
There are plenty of people in jail who are not "bad" people. This is a fact.

Are you honestly advocating that going to jail = removal of parental rights?

Name one.

**sourclams**

kronk wrote:
If having a character on SS allows a young kid to identify with something and help them deal with the anger, depression, and abandonment that comes from having a parent in jail, then ok.

That's a good thing, right? It's not like they're glamorizing it.

I think that's the point, yeah. I think the 'not glamorizing it' part is the really big sticking point, though. Personally, from my history watching Sesame Street, I trust them to 'do it right'.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

feeder wrote:
There are plenty of people in jail who are not "bad" people. This is a fact.

Look, it's actually pretty difficult to go to jail. You have to either do some pretty dramatic stuff, like knocking over a gas station, or repeatedly perpetrate stupid actions, like multiple DUIs. Even the 'victimless crime' crimes, like pot use, pretty much require you to be incredibly blatant in your use (again, read deliberately stupid), or acting in some sort of systemic manner like actively dealing.

Are you honestly advocating that going to jail = removal of parental rights?

Not generally, although at the extremes this could probably be warranted. I don't think any single person attempted to make this connection aside from you, though.

**DAaddict**

feeder wrote:
There are plenty of people in jail who are not "bad" people. This is a fact.

Are you honestly advocating that going to jail = removal of parental rights?

Well they can just have made a stupid choice or been at the wrong place however this is the minority.
The majority intentionally did something illegal and put their thrill or gain ahead of the risk that they would be absent from their kids for a portion or all of their formative years.

No. But their lack of good decision making skills just raised the possibility of their kids graduating to prison just went up exponentially.
Lack of presence. Poor example. Kids filling the void with less than stellar role models

http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clips/b4ylib/chappelle-s-show-kneehigh-park--pt-2

**Ahtman**

Frazzled wrote:
Name one.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Muhammad Ali

There, I just named two.

**Frazzled**

Ahtman wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Name one.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Muhammad Ali

There, I just named two.

They are not in jail.

**Ahtman**

Frazzled wrote:
Ahtman wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Name one.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Muhammad Ali

There, I just named two.

They are not in jail.

Look look! The goal posts, they keep moving!

**mega_bassist**

Umm...wasn't Martin Luther King Jr. only ever arrested for non-violent protests against segregation? I'd have to say that's a tad different.

**Ahtman**

mega_bassist wrote:
Umm...wasn't Martin Luther King Jr. only ever arrested for non-violent protests against segregation? I'd have to say that's a tad different.

Wait, are you implying that the reason someone is in jail could be important, and that just saying they are a bad person just based on having been in jail may be a flawed idea?

**sourclams**

Ahtman wrote:
Look look! The goal posts, they keep moving!

Actually the statement was always in present tense, even as it was made before Frazzled replied to it.

**Ahtman**

sourclams wrote:
Ahtman wrote:
Look look! The goal posts, they keep moving!

Actually the statement was always in present tense, even as it was made before Frazzled replied to it.

Looking over it, actually feeder's statement was the one in present tense, but it seems an odd metric to stick by: "Sure you can show that some people in the past that were jailed weren't bad people, but since you can't name someone currently incarcerated then suddenly it invalidates the argument." Seems a bit silly.

I would list people who were wrongfully imprisoned, but since they would be free now and not in jail anymore, they apparently don't count either.