When the judge sentenced my father to prison in 2013, I remember him being led away by a sheriff’s officer, his back to me, going through a door – then gone.

Teresa Giudice of Bravo’s Real Housewives of New Jersey started her 15-month sentence at Danbury, a Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut, on Monday — leaving behind four young daughters, the oldest, Gia, publicly taking it the hardest.  According to People.com the 13-year-old, who credits her mom as her best friend on social media, tweeted, “can’t sleep, to (sic) much on my mind,” followed by a nervous face and gun emojis. The tweet has apparently since been taken down.

Like Gia, my dad — an ex-attorney who was once a municipal court prosecutor — went to prison for a non-violent, white-collar crime after taking a plea deal, admitting he was guilty to two counts of second-degree “failure to make proper disposition” to his clients from his trust account. He was disbarred and can no longer practice law.

Unlike Teresa’s family, my two siblings and I were all adults when our dad entered jail. I had a kid, age 5, of my own. But, being 32 years old didn’t make it any easier. The days leading up to his sentencing can only be described as a balloon stretching bigger, bigger, bigger — all that pressure just expanding inside. Pop.

After he was taken away behind that courthouse door, I learned an officer said to another, “Is this one for the bird cage?” Translation: Is he going to have a nervous breakdown? I wondered the same thing.  The days came and went, my father spending his time in county jail, then transferring on a bus to a processing/classifying state facility, and finally ending up at a New Jersey State Prison.  

https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/my-dad-went-to-prison-like-teresa-giudice-107325471302.html

Anybody have parents in jail? What would be helpful for the children?