Some children make up lies about their parents. That's because their parent is in prison. One girl tells the other kids that her mother works for the government and is away.
Whatever crime their parent commits, the children pay their own price: a parent absent for years, the stigma of a loved one behind bars, having to move in with grandma.
These children are the invisible victims, the collateral damage, the unintended orphans.
State officials say these children will benefit from recent reforms of the criminal justice system, but community advocates say the jury is still out.
